Uno space to talk, to discuss and to gain awareness, open to both girls and boys, and managed by a female team. It’s about A place for me, a gender listening and education desk opened in the Francesco La Cava Higher Institute in Bovalinopromoted by the association Crisis as Opportunityin collaboration with the Scosse association and the Women’s Studies Center of the University of Calabria.
«Before starting with the desk, we held two workshops on gender violence in four classes of the school, to raise awareness among students”, says Deborah Cartisano, representative of the office in Bovalino and anti-mafia activist. «The workshops were held by the educator and the psychologist who manage the desk, so the boys and girls were able to get to know them. The desk, unlike the laboratories, is aimed at the whole school. So, before starting, we distributed flyers and hung posters to publicize it among students.”
After the first few weeks, the results of Un posto per me are positive, even if it is too early to calculate numbers. The desk is open once a week for two hours, it is anonymous and safe, and everyone can go whenever and as much as they want, spontaneously, finding a serene and non-judgmental welcome. «During the workshops, a great desire to discuss gender issues emerged in the children», continues Cartisano. «We try to make them aware of the prejudices, of the rights denied to women, of all forms of violence.
Gender education: a step-by-step process
A moment from a school workshop on gender education.
It is not an easy path, especially in a more complex reality. «Bovalino is on the coast but many students come from inland countries where there is still strong control over women. Some girls are not allowed to study after high school, at most they are allowed to enroll in an online university. It still happens that families choose their daughter’s boyfriend. Yet, for male students, women in the South are not doing badly.”
To talk about gender education, then, we need to “go step by step. You can’t go straight in, it’s difficult for girls and boys to open up. Our goal is to provide girls with the tools to understand what they should expect, and boys with tools to help them get involved in change, so that everyone lives better.”
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