Project acronym: INTEGRA
Web page: http://new.ita-slo.eu/sl/integra
Project Coordinator: University of Trieste, Italy
Partner institutions:
- Burlo Garofolo Pediatric Hospital, Italy
- University of Primorska, Slovenia
- Bolnišnica Postojna, Slovenia
Participating member of the UP: University of Primorska, Faculty of Health Sciences, Slovenia
Project manager at the UP: PhD Prosen Mirko
Funding: Programme INTERREG Italy - Slovenia 2014 - 2020
Duration: 1.10. 2017-30. 4. 2019
Overall budget: 611.072,85 €
Description:
The program area has experienced an increase in the number of migrants from Middle Eastern and African countries due to its proximity to the “Balkan route.” The presence of people from profoundly different cultures poses new integration challenges at every institutional level.The project aimed to address a topic that has yet been little explored: the protection of the sexual and reproductive health of migrant women from highly patriarchal cultures.
The project has provided for an interdisciplinary approach, with an initial phase dedicated to the assessment of the phenomenon, followed by the establishment of intervention guidelines for social services and healthcare operators. The project also entailed specific training for social services and healthcare operators, with a focus upon overcoming the difficulties of intercultural communication, and specific medical training for the care of migrant women, even in the most serious cases, such as genital mutilation.
The project has been carried out with a cross-border approach for two reasons: the first is that the migration phenomenon affects the cross-border area covered by the Program; as the permeability of the border favours the transit of the migrant population between the neighbouring countries, hence the need for common guidelines. The second reason is the exchange of good practices, as the Italian healthcare facilities have more experience in caring for migrant women from Asia and Africa, while in Slovenia these patients are a new phenomenon. Thus far the Slovenian facilities have mainly encountered difficulties relating to sexual and reproductive health of women from the former Yugoslavia (Bosnia and Kosovo), hence the need for the exchange of good practices and common guidelines.
