Children are the other victims of femicide – Alice Facchini

January 2021, Concordia Sagittaria, in the province of Venice: Victoria Osagie, 35, is stabbed by her husband in front of her three children aged nine, six and two. August 2021, Monterotondo Marittimo, 60 kilometers north of Grosseto: Silvia Manetti, 45, widow and mother of two boys aged 10 and 14, is killed by her new partner. December 2021, outskirts of Catania: Giovanna Cantarero, 27, is gunned down by the man she was having an affair with, leaving behind a four-year-old daughter.

According to Eures data, today in Italy there are about two thousand children and young people left without a mother due to the femicides that took place between 2009 and 2021. In 80 percent of cases it was the father who killed and, almost once in two , the children witnessed the fact. The minors were entrusted to the closest relatives (usually their maternal grandparents), or to social services. However, there are no homogeneous intervention procedures on the national territory and a common protocol to support orphans and foster families, who are often left alone to face very complex and delicate situations.

It is for this reason that the Con i Bambini foundation launched “With open arms”, the first initiative in Italy that carries out a comprehensive care of femicide orphans and their foster families, providing for a timely intervention in the moments immediately following the violent episode.

Thanks to a loan of 10 million euros, four projects have started, which will be active in four geographical areas for four years: “Orphan of femicide invisible victim” in the northeast, “Sos – special orphan support” in the northwest, “Airone” in the center and “Respiro” in the south and in the islands. In each area, a territorial network has been set up which brings together public bodies, anti-violence centers, associations, cooperatives, universities, specialist, research and professional training centers, for a total of 90 subjects throughout Italy.

First of all, we start with a mapping of the orphans already present in the area, which is then updated with new cases. “In Italy there is no national observatory on femicide that produces complete and public data”, explains Anna Pramstrahler of the Casa delle Donne per not subject to violence in Bologna, who is working on the first Italian Atlas of Femicides. “Our research method is based on the news that comes out in newspapers and on websites: certainly the numbers are partial, because some cases escape the news. Having reliable data is a necessary condition to be able to understand the phenomenon and develop adequate responses “.

The orphans followed by the project can take advantage of psychological support, medical and legal assistance, scholarships and help with entering the world of work. “We will also help foster families, supporting them in their material needs and in the complex relationship with the child”, explains Simona Rotondi, head of the initiative for the Con i Bambini foundation. “Furthermore, we will organize training courses for doctors, lawyers, teachers, social workers, to prepare them to face these cases, which are still too little known. Finally, we will set up regional observatories and publish national guidelines for the protection of femicide orphans and families, hoping that this will help to standardize protocols that are still uneven “.

It is Law 4 of 2018 which establishes which protections are due to orphans due to domestic crimes: among other things there is the right to liquidation of the damage, the survivor’s pension and the assignment of public housing accommodation, the right to change the surname and the possibility of accessing a solidarity fund which finances study, training and job placement courses. For foster families, there is an economic support of 300 euros per month for each dependent minor. But in practice this rule is still little known and implemented.

“I did not feel well with him even as a child, but I cherished the hope that things could change. When I was ten, maybe twelve, I began to realize what was going on at home: every night a fight, my mother had to go to work, clean up, put the plate in front of her. Going to my friends’ house, I realized that things weren’t like us “. Carola (her name is fictional) lost her mother when she was in high school. Together with her were her two older brothers, who took her into foster care: they were the ones who organized her funeral.

Their testimonies were collected by the European project “Switch off”, which from 2014 to 2016 analyzed some cases of femicide orphans in three countries (Italy, Lithuania and Cyprus) to develop adequate responses. However, these answers are still struggling to arrive: at the beginning the three received an economic contribution from the state, which was then interrupted. Meanwhile, the father was sentenced, but they were unable to sue for economic problems. Today they live abroad: “The way things work in Italy, in a few years he will be out. And in this short time, what will we be able to do with our lives? “.

To obtain the benefits provided by the law, the procedures are complex and the documentation to be presented is a lot. “This is why families need to be guided”, says Sara Pretalli, who had participated in the “Switch off” project and who is now responsible for the “Orphan of femicide invisible victim” program. “The legislation is important, but there is still a lot to do: in the past years we have seen extreme situations in which the perpetrator of the femicide still received the victim’s inheritance or survivor’s pension. We met orphaned children who did not know how her mother died, who had been prevented from attending the funeral or from keeping a memory. Others, on the other hand, despite having witnessed the crime, had not received a clear explanation of what had happened “. There were also minors forced to visit their father in prison. Many are afraid of when the detention period will end because they fear repercussions and violence.

“Let’s not forget that sometimes even boys and girls are victims of femicides together with their mothers”, concludes Pretalli. “What these young people need is a chance to re-elaborate the trauma without feeling judged for what they feel: for this we must create a reparative system, which does not leave them alone and builds a welcoming and responsible community around them”.