The partnership

Empowering Care project will be developed by partners in Catalonia (Spain), Italy, Bulgaria, Finland and Cyprus.

The partnership comprises the following organisations:

Coordinator:	Partners:

And the following public bodies as associate partners:

Partners

• SURT. Women’s Foundation. Private Foundation- Barcelona, Spain

SURT, Women’s Foundation. Private Foundation was born in 1993. The mission of SURT is to favour equity between women and men in all domains, ie. social, political, economic and, specially, in the labour sphere. And, on the other hand, to support processes of placing women into the labour market, specially those who, due to social, cultural or personal circumstances, find themselves in an exceedingly vulnerable situation.

The Foundation’s task has been recognised as an innovative and transforming project for today’s society, based on each woman’s personal project as well as on studies and research that allow for action measures to be developed. The Foundation also carries out awareness-raising campaigns which target companies, individuals, groups, as well as public and private institutions.

SURT is divided in five areas of work: Inclusion and occupation of women, Community action and interculturality, research and innovation, consultancy and insertion initiatives.

For more information: http://www.surt.org

• Tampep Association, Italy

Tampep Association is a non-profit organization that aims to promote actions and policies that respect the rights of immigrants and immigrant sex workers, who face social discrimination and marginalization, while at the same time, taking into consideration their choices and their dignity. TAMPEP is part of an international networking and intervention agency operating in offices across Europe, including countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

Through health promotional activities, based on the principle of self-determination and empowerment of the person, TAMPEP has demonstrated that HIV/STI prevention among migrant sex workers is feasible. Additionally, TAMPEP integrates programs of social protection into health and empowerment based strategies.

The main activities are:

1) Direct Activities:

- Safety and Health protection: inform and prevent against HIV, other STI, unwanted pregnancy and violence, also through the creation and distribution of specific material;
- Information and first-contact outreach at sex work locations: streets, apartments, commercial establishments;
- Increase awareness and accessibility to social and sanitary services as well as to possible legal counseling;
- Activate provisions under Article 18 of Immigration Law (social protection and reintegration);
- Shelter provisions, orientation to labor market, language and vocational training;
- Support to the community members, migrants, and also minors, with dispatch of appropriate legal and social services, in order to facilitate their protection and reintegration.

2) Indirect Activities:

- Create and conduct trainings for cultural mediators, peer educators and street workers, as well as for the staff members of private and publics service agencies;
- Establish and maintain bilateral partnership in countries of origin, transit and destination;
- Initiate and collaborate on prevention, protection, and reintegration projects in countries of origin;
- Collect data on target groups and constantly monitor their situations locally and abroad;
- Lobby and support efforts to implement protection and reintegration strategies in countries where provisions in Article 18 have not been enacted.

Tampep Onlus Association
C.so Brescia, 10
10152 – Torino
ITALY
Tel. +39 011 859 821
Fax +39 011 240 73 44

tampeponlus@tampepitalia.it
For more information: www.tampepitalia.it

• Women’s and Gender Studies, University of Oulu, Finland

Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Oulu serves all the faculties through its inter- and multidisciplinary nature and outreach in the Faculty of Education.
WGS is an active participant and coordinator in local, national, Nordic and international research, development, and education projects and networks.
The research-profile consists of three components:

1) gendering and gendered & sexualised violence in educational organisations
2) safety, trust, equality, intellectuality and care as pedagogical challenges, and
3) equality issues more generally.

Information and communication technology have been actively applied and used to serve various purposes in teaching, research and cooperation.

For more information: www.oulu.fi/edu/gender_studies

• Animus Association Foundation, Bulgaria

Animus Association Foundation works in support of families and children at risk and survivors of violence. It was founded in 1994 as non-governmental organization, in 2001, it acquired the status of a public benefit organization.

Animus mission is promoting healthy communication among people and gender equality in Bulgarian society and we achieve it by setting the following goals: to develop accessible psychotherapeutic services and programs offering professional and competent help; to establish social attitudes of tolerance towards difference, respect to suffering and non-acceptance of violence; to popularize the values of dynamic and psychoanalytic psychotherapy; to promote a democratic change in Bulgarian family and society; to develop and implement projects and programs in support of women and children; to stimulate understanding in society; to encourage raising the status of women; to act as an intermediary between state institutions and non-governmental organizations and to coordinate their efforts on the problems of violence against women and children.

For more information: www.animusassociation.org/?lang=en

• Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies, Cyprus

The Mediterranean Institute of Gender Studies (MIGS) (Reg. no. 234) is a non-profit organisation which promotes and contributes to projects of social, political, and economic themes relating to gender with an emphasis on the Mediterranean region.

The Institute recognises the multilayered levels of discrimination against women and accepts that this discrimination takes different forms. It is committed to the elimination of this discrimination using a combination of research, advocacy and lobbying, as well as trainings, conferences, and other activities with the aim to:

• Stimulate interest in gender research in the Mediterranean region and identify key areas of concern and action in the area.
• Systematically address, analyse, and conduct research on, for, and by women; review and use existing information on women and the gender system such as research, statistical information and other available data and make relevant recommendations on policy and practices in related areas. Support gender research through library and documentation services, including the introduction and promotion of a system of data collection by gender.
• Identify the need to develop new legislation that corresponds to the new conditions and protects women’s rights effectively.
• Increase awareness of gender issues in civil society and facilitate the capacity for action by providing all interested parties with information and organising training, campaigns, seminars, workshops, and lectures.
• Support and promote educational programmes, including post-graduate work, in related areas in collaboration with research Institutes and universities.
• Develop methods and take initiatives on peace-building and conflict transformation as these relate to gender issues.
• Support regional, European, and global initiatives and programmes concerning issues affecting women’s lives, such as domestic violence, substance abuse, trafficking, war, and the labour market.
• Create and support networks with other non-governmental organisations in related areas.

Thus, MIGS aims to act as a main contributor to the intellectual, political, and socio-political life of the region as this relates to issues of gender and to do so using a multidisciplinary approach and in collaboration with other institutions.

MIGS is closely affiliated to the University of Nicosia, the largest academic institution in Cyprus. The institute has been actively involved, both as a coordinating institution and as a partner, in the administration and implementation of a number of projects related to issues of gender. More specifically, the institute has conducted work in the area of the media, interpersonal violence against women and girls, migration, leadership and decision making, ethno-political conflict, employment and economic life. The institute has received funding from the European Commission, the Global Fund for Women, the United Nations Office for Project Services, the British Council, the European Journalism Centre, the Embassy of the United States of America and the National Machinery of Women’s Rights in Cyprus as well as from various other national, regional, and international organisations.

For more information: www.medinstgenderstudies.org/

Associate partners

• DGAIA – General Direction for the Attention to Childhood and Adolescence, Government of Catalonia

The DGAIA (General Direction for the Attention to Childhood and Adolescence) is the agency depending on the Department of Social Welfare and Family from the Catalan government (Generalitat de Catalunya) that promotes the welfare of child and adolescents at risk of social exclusion, with the aim of contributing to their personal development. DGAIA also protects and exerts guardianship of those children and adolescents living in a state of neglect.

In general terms, DGAIA’s aims are:
- to plan policies on protection and guardianship of children and adolescents in Catalonia.
- to promote children’s and adolescents’ rights.
- to coordinate the detection, prevention, assistance, recuperation and reinsertion of children and adolescents in a state of abuse and neglect.
- to protect and exert guardianship of children and adolescents in a state of neglect.
- to promote orientation and social integration programmes of children and adolescents in a situation of guardianship under the Public Administration and those being in that situation in the past.
- to implement the recommendations of the Observatory of Children’s rights.

For more information: http://www10.gencat.cat/sac/AppJava/organisme_fitxa.jsp?codi=5157

• ICD – Catalan Institute for Women, Government of Catalonia

The Catalan Institute for Women is the public body of the Catalan Government (Generalitat de Catalunya) that leads, designs, fosters, coordinates and assesses gender policies of Catalan public administration.
The Catalan Institute for Women belongs to the Department Social Welfare and Family from the Catalan government, which is the ministry that develops social policies, women’s policies, family, children’s and adolescense policies and migration policies. One of the aims of ICD work is to mainstream gender perspective in all social policies to avoid any form of discrimination.

For more information: www.gencat.cat/icdones/