Supporting the Antiviolence Toll Free Number “Mai più Sola” for  Abused Women

Project location: Italy
Project start date: September 2007 - Project end date: This project covers various years
Project number: 2007-02
Beneficiary: ACMID DONNA ONLUS

2007-2008 Final Report

The help-line was inaugurated on the 7th of November, 2007. Since then, up to March 2008, a total number of 1.826 calls were received, 64 percent of which involving a request for help for an effective case of violence. In these cases, the help-line staff proceeded to compile a personal file for every woman. For the remaining 36 percent of calls, none episode of violence was actually registered. In those cases, people were calling to enquire about immigration laws, and the required procedures for obtaining the residence permit.

The 70% of total calls were from North Italy, and the 2% from the South. The most interested region was Lombardia, with the 61% of calls, mainly concentred in the cities of Milano and Brescia. The gap between North and South of Italy suggest a serious lack of information. A small percentage of calls were from abroad, particularly from France and Belgium.

Among the women calling the help-line, the majority were women between 20 and 30 years old. A significant 2.8 percent of women denouncing violence were minor.

The prevailing nationality was Moroccan, followed by the Tunisian and Italian ones. The number of Italian women calling the help line was bigger than the number of Egyptian and Algerian ones. This means that the "Mai più Sola" project had a large impact, not only among immigrant women.

Calls were usually received in the morning, between 7.00 and 12 a.m., as well as in the afternoon. Less than 10 percent were the night calls. These were urgent calls for help, mainly assisted through the police's intervention.

The 55,7 percent of the reports registered by the help-line concern cases of married women with children, seeking help after experiencing physical or psychological abuses. Almost all these calls were from the from the victims themselves; the remaining ones were from Hospitals (7.4 percent) or Security Forces (2.7) acting as intermediaries.

The 41.6 percent of calls for help concerned married women wishing to divorce from their partners. The majority of them (47.2 percent) could no longer bear the polygamy condition imposed by their husbands few years after the marriage.