Syria - Counselling Centres for Women - Damascus
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Counselling Centres for Women
Project implemented by AIDOS (Associazione Italiana Donne per lo Sviluppo), Italy
Damascus, Syria
October 2010
Co-financed by the European Commission
ADIDOS:
Centro
per la salute delle donne, adolescenti e uomini
It is rare to find counselling centres for women in Syria. And even rarer to find centres where women can receive assistance that ranges from legal counselling to pre-natal and post-natal assistance. The counselling centre that we visited in Damascus was established in 2005 by AIDOS, an Italian non-government organisation, in cooperation with the Syrian Family Planning Association and funded by the European Commission. AIDOS works for the economic empowerment of women and promotion of women's rights across the world. In Syria, its program aims at improving the physical, psychological and social well being of the Syrian women.
Lola who is a Syrian lawyer working in women’s rights and Valentina, the project manager for AIDOS, accompanied us to the counselling centre, called the Halbuni clinic. Here, educated Syrian women - lawyers, doctors, students, health counsellors, assist other women to know more about their rights, in better child care, combating domestic violence, resolving conflicts in marriages, and accessing justice. The presence of women staff encourages women to avail the services of the centre since they find it easier to communicate their problems to other women. Through pregnancy and post-natal monitoring, counselling on family planning, sexual behaviours, and HIV/AIDS, the Halbuni Clinic provides gynaecological counselling to reduce maternal and neonatal mortality. Here, the AIDOS team conducts individual and group counselling, community-based workshops, home-visits and formal training courses for women. The centre serves the needs and rights of women - young and old, married and single, from urban and rural Damascus.
This counselling centre is based on a model that AIDOS has successfully tested over the past decade, in six other countries - Gaza Strip, Jordan, Venezuela, Argentina, Nepal, Burkina Faso. In all six countries, the centres established by AIDOS are successful and have become focal points for women’s assistance and counselling. The centre has now been handed over to the Syrian Family Planning Association and is being supported by the Syrian government.
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With the generous
support of the European Commission and in cooperation with the Syrian Family
Planning Association (SFPA), AIDOS, an Italian non-government organisation for
women, established Counselling Centres for Women in Damascus. Established in
1981, AIDOS works for the economic empowerment of women and promotion of
women's rights across the world. The aim of the AIDOS project in Syria is to
improve the physical, psychological and social well being of Syrian women,
adolescents and men by providing reproductive health services. Through
pregnancy and post-natal monitoring and promoting family planning practices,
the Halbuni Clinic provides gynaecological counselling to reduce maternal and
neonatal mortality.
The clinic also
provides Syrian medical workers, lawyers and health counsellors the
opportunity to support their peer groups in combating domestic violence,
resolving conflict in marriages, facilitating access to justice and increasing
awareness of rights. Through better knowledge of rights and skills to
participate in decision making processes, AIDOS supports the empowerment of
women among poor and marginalised sections of society. It is expected that the
government and the trained staff of the clinic will continue the services and
provide sustainability to the centre after the project is over. Frequent
workshops, community meetings, awareness campaigns and individual home visits
constitute the basis of spreading information to reach out and assist the
maximum possible number of women.
The staff comprises a team of professionals, essentially women, who share
knowledge and experience. The presence of women staff encourages women to
avail the services of the centre since they find it easier to communicate
their problems to other women. Each case is thoroughly considered with a view
to providing the most accurate support possible on the medical, psychological,
legal, and physical dimensions. Health care, prevention, education and follow
up are provided to ensure women’s well-being and health through their entire
life cycle from adolescence until after menopause.
The project applies a model, already tested over the past decade by AIDOS in six other countries including the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Venezuela, Argentina, Nepal, Burkina Faso. The methodology used has proved to be flexible and adaptable to different cultural, social, political, religious contexts.
'Additional Information
information is also available on the web site: ec.europa.eu/delegations/syria/projects/case_studies/index_en.htm
The action is also consistent to the Five-Year Plan of the Syrian Government (2006-2010) which is geared toward the attainment of the MDGs. Improving women's economic and social status hinges not only on their greater involvement in productive sphere but also on their reproductive health and general well-being. stakeholders: The Action target group are underprivileged women, adolescents and men living in Damascus, its suburbs and surrounding rural areas. More specifically the action targets: 1) low income women in reproductive age (aged between 15 and 49) living in both rural and urban areas, having scarce access to primary health facilities. 2) Female and male adolescents and youth coming from rural and urban areas. They are involved through outreach and promotion activities carried out in rural areas as well as through sensitization campaigns at the University level. 3) Elderly women with low knowledge about the health implications of their life phase and undergoing both physical and psychological diseases. 4) Women victims of violence. 5) Men, husbands either related to the Centre’s clients or simply seeking for advice and counselling on their sexual and family life.The Action also targets the Halbouni Clinic staff who received training and technical assistance.
The project, which is a 54 months endeavor, has already achieved its main outputs and expected results: HCC integrated the services currently provided by the SFPA (gynaecological care, counselling on family planning, pre and post natal care, dietary information, counselling on HIV/AIDS and for youth), with the following ones: Counselling for menopausal women; Testing and implementing the UNFPA guidelines to combat gender based violence; Socio-psychological counselling for men; Social-counselling services (including information on job opportunities); Legal counselling services; Psychological counselling; Bodily activities; Outreach activities
All the activities planned for the attainment of project objectives involve a combination of individual and group counselling, community-based workshops, home-visits and formal training courses. The project applies a model, already tested over the past decade by AIDOS in six other countries including the Gaza Strip, Jordan, Venezuela, Argentina, Nepal, Burkina Faso. The methodology used has proved to be flexible and adaptable to different cultural, social, political, religious contexts.None of the Women’s Health Centers established by AIDOS has closed, they are serving their respective community and have become a reference point for all the community’s members. The project adopts an integrated and holistic approach to reproductive health. This approach not only takes into account actual health care but also prevention and education. A person's well-being comes from the harmony of his/her being on a physical, psychological and spiritual level. In this case, a woman is not only considered in her "reproductive" role, as a wife and a mother, but rather as a human being whose state of health goes through her entire life cycle from adolescence until after menopause and whose well-being depends upon many factors. The project introduced in Syria the following concepts: Continuity of Care.
TThe entire staff of the SFPA clinic is sensitised to the characteristics of GBV, trained on the UNFPA innovative methodology of intervention, and provided with practical tools, skills and related practices to integrate the GBV services for victims within its organisational structure. Quality of care. The concept of family planning is re-explored starting not from the idea of "fertility regulation" but from the needs of women and men at different stages of their life and with special attention to adolescents' needs. Service integration. In order to obtain the desired integrated approach to reproductive health issues, the need to ensure the quality of communication among various operators at all levels of the structure and within the overall services is stressed during all theoretical and on-the-job training.
Trainer as facilitator.'The staff as a whole is exposed to the concept that the operator, in order to be effective, must primarily be a facilitator, capable of listening and stimulating the participation of the audience. The participation of the local community is essential in this type of approach in order to gather direct information on its priorities, needs and concerns and constitutes the first step forwards to the needs assessment of users. Therefore communication plays a vital role in such dynamics. Individual and group discussions, counselling sessions and community meetings are important tools to obtain this information.The capability of the structure to apply this cross-cutting approach through all activities will guarantee the application of a "gender perspective". In fact, it is absolutely necessary that the staff acquires the capability to better examine how the imbalance in social power between men and women affects sexual relationships, fertility regulation and reproductive outcomes.