A concrete help in Italian pharmacies for women victims of violence. Federfarma, Pharmacists together and the Vodafone Italia Foundation promote the Mimosa Project, an anti-violence campaign launched in 2014, which this year is enriched with the app Bright Sky, useful information tool to support women victims of domestic violence.
Bright Sky is the mobile app for Vodafone Foundation which provides concrete resources, support and tools to women experiencing domestic violence and mistreatment. The app is free to download and can also be used by relatives, friends, work colleagues, associations and by all those who are close to abused women. The QR Code to download the Bright Sky app is present on the posters and information brochures, distributed in about 19,000 Italian pharmacies
The decision to involve pharmacies stems from the awareness that, thanks to the widespread coverage throughout the territory, they are very often the first point of information to which women turn for support. A trend facilitated by two factors: the relationship of trust that leads people to turn to the pharmacist as a consultant, and the strong female presence, 80%, among the over 70,000 pharmacists who work in pharmacies.
As part of the Mimosa Project, the Vodafone Foundation has dealt not only with the distribution of information material to pharmacies, but also with specific training on the use of Bright Sky to 40 pharmacists, who will have the task of disseminating the information learned to other territorial realities. , so as to make the meshes of the anti-violence net more dense.
“Federfarma has strongly supported the Mimosa project for years. Only by working together will we be able to initiate a concrete cultural change that can affect gender-based violence ”, says the president of national Federfarma Marco Cossolo. “Welcoming and listening are part of the nature of our profession. Every day millions of citizens confidently enter our pharmacies, where they get answers to their needs, not just health. This project sees us united with the sole objective of breaking the wall of loneliness that imprisons women in the home. “
“The objective of the Mimosa project – born in 2014 by the will of the Pharmacist association together, with the patronage of Federfarma, Federation of Italian Pharmacist Orders, Fenagifar, Vision Network and Ministry of Health – is to inform women about what violence is and about what tools they have at their disposal to get rid of it, bringing materials to pharmacies containing advice, information, contacts and references from associations, anti-violence centers and accredited specialists in the area ready to help women victims of maltreatment “she explains Angela Margiotta, president of the Pharmacists Together Association.
“With Bright Sky, thanks to technology, women have at their disposal a tool that gives them concrete help. It is certainly not with an application that the problem of gender-based violence is solved, but we believe, thanks to the collaboration with Federfarma and Pharmacist Together, we can reach and inform more people “, he says Marinella Soldi, President of the Vodafone Italia Foundation. “Enhancing the spontaneous social network of Italian pharmacies will allow us to speak to women in large cities and small towns to let them know they are not alone”.