The EMINC (Engaging Men in Nurturing Care) initiative was illustrated at Palazzo San Giacomo by Giorgio Tamburlini and Annina Lubbock, of the non-profit center for child health, in the presence of the councilors for education and welfare, Maura Striano and Luca Trapanese , and the members of the Children’s Table Paolo Siani, Gemma Tuccillo and Paolo Lattanzio.
This is a project funded by the OAK Foundation International which involves the cities of Naples, Barcelona and Lisbon and intends to promote exchanges of good practices, as well as advocacy activities on policies (leaves for fathers) at European and national level. The aim is to ensure that children grow up in an environment of equal sharing of care between parents, in families, services and communities where equality in the roles, responsibilities and contributions of men and women to the care of their children is promoted. children from zero to six years.
The reason for choosing a city in Southern Italy, and in particular Naples, derives from the fact that on all the main indicators on gender equality and child well-being, the South lags behind the rest of Italy. In Naples, in particular, the level of female employment is very low (35% vs the national average of 53%), among other things there is a very poor coverage in terms of European services (less than 10% vs the national average of 25% ) and the highest incidence in Italy of early school leavers with strong gender stereotypes on parental roles. Southern hospitals are also less inclined to encourage the presence of fathers at childbirth and the caesarean rate is the highest in Italy.
The city of Naples, which has over 1 million inhabitants, can be considered the “capital” of the South and is paradigmatic of all these aspects that persist together.
The new Administration, committed to improving services for parents and children and addressing the gender issue, wanted to take an active part in the implementation of the actions envisaged by the programme. Health authorities have also expressed their interest in launching training activities on gender issues for health professionals in order to improve the engagement of fathers and, more generally, for a family-centred environment in maternity wards.
The project envisages information and awareness campaigns, data analysis on joint conciliation, training courses for operators and participatory elaboration meetings at various levels.
“We are focusing a lot on the awareness of parents, and of families in general, on the importance of the first thousand days of life for children because it is in these first thousand days, which are counted from conception, therefore starting right from the gestation period up to reaching the age of two, that children consolidate skills and abilities that will then remain for life. What happens in these early days is fundamental because it is truly a very important evolutionary window and therefore making parents aware of their educational role within this window is fundamental. Furthermore, generally when one thinks of children one thinks only of the mother figure, instead it is also the fathers who have an important role; in reality they are all the figures that have an important role. Just as it is also important that the children go to nursery schools. But this beautiful project is a project that aims to enhance the role of fathers in the first thousand days and it is an element on which we focus a lot”. Maura Striano Councilor for Education of the Municipality of Naples
“I don’t think this project is just to raise fathers’ awareness but the whole society that needs to be re-educated to the fact that parenthood is no longer linked only to motherhood but also to fatherhood and that fathers too today have a fundamental role in the life of growth of the family. I say this as a single father who adopted a 27 day old baby girl, I succeeded but the institutions don’t give due recognition to this change. It is very important to reconfirm that the family has changed, the family model is changing and that the father must have the same rights and treatments as the mother because he can be both collateral but he can also be a single man who needs to have the same treatment as a mother” Luca Trapanese, Councilor for Welfare
“We always think that the birth of a child is substantially a matter only for the mother, just think that leave is 10 working days for the father and 150 for the mother. But that’s not the case, the father has a role and I have to develop it well because in the first years of life the father’s role is decisive for the growth of the child. This project has many objectives, including that of convincing the Government to increase parental leave for the father, at least doubling it and with the prospect of adjusting it to that of mothers. Ensuring that fathers have more time to care for their newborn children is also a way of promoting the birth rate”. Paolo Siani table coordinator for children.
“By now we have a lot of scientific evidence that demonstrates how important the father’s emotional and practical involvement is for the child’s development, especially in the critical first thousand days. The presence of the father in this period has very positive effects both from an emotional and cognitive point of view of the child and they are effects that are prolonged over time. The presence of the father is also essential because it is a period in which the burden of caring for the child is very heavy and still today it falls above all on the mothers. It has also been demonstrated that there is a close relationship between a strong presence of the father in this phase and the decrease in domestic violence”. Annina Lubbock, head of the non-profit Child Health Center
“In these first thousand days many particular things happen, the child’s brain develops at a speed that will not be compared with other phases of life and therefore the development of emotional and cognitive skills that the brain expresses depend a lot on what happens around the children , from the words they hear, from the gestures they observe, from the movements they make, in short, from the type of family environment in which they grow up. Both parents must ensure that this is a period of quality, of rich interaction, with affection, with reading of books, listening to music, playing games together”. Giorgio Tamburlini, pediatrician.