HEROINES: Empowerment of women with mental illness living in rural areas through writing therapy Erasmus Project

Project Title

HEROINES: Empowerment of women with mental illness living in rural areas through writing therapy

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for adult education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2019

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Disabilities – special needs; New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Gender equality / equal opportunities

Project Summary

Unfortunately, gender violence is still a worrying reality in all the European countries. Governments are making laws to defend women’s rights and enable different resources to help women to report abuse, discrimination and gender-based violence. But a great effort must be done to empower women to recognize these risky situations and to be brave enough to file a complaint against their attacker. If we are talking about women with mental health challenges and living in rural or isolated areas, the situation becomes even worrier. This collective is more exposed to harassment and even sexual violence: 75% of women with mental health issues have experienced family or partner violence during their live. The risk of suffering violence for this group is from two to four times higher than in the rest of women and 40% of the women with mental health issues suffering violence do not even identify these episodes.

Here is where the HEROINES project arises. Thanks to this project, we have developed a training course for women with mental health challenges to enable them to recognize gender-based violence and abuse. The project was specifically thought for women living in remote areas where training opportunities are scarce and most of the times are not adapted to the needs of this specific target group. Being able to identify unfair and abusive situations is a first step to fight against them and to make these women recover their freedom and wellbeing.

HEROINES is a training course to empower women with mental health challenges, making them aware about their rights, different kinds of violence and about unfair situations that they usually accept as normal. During the training process these women were inspired by some representative female ROLE MODELS: real, brave, pioneer, different and determined women in history, special those having any kind of mental health challenge. They were a mirror in which to look at to write their own stories using an innovative methodology based on WRITING THERAPY. We had the chance to prove that this technique helps to organize the thoughts, put emotional distance between the fact inside us and the fact reflected in the paper, slows down the thinking process, makes you aware of your mood, promotes emotional openness, facilitates inner dialogue, strengthens interpersonal relationships, etc. Now, the participants into the HEROINES training course are more prepared to recognize different gender-based violence situations, feeling more encouraged and supported. The HEROINES methodology is an accessible, low-cost and versatile form of therapy that promotes personal growth as well as creative expression. Training and education has made in this case a big difference, being the tool for these women to take their life in their own hands. The HEROINES workshops were opened to women without mental health challenges, thus being an integrative space where the only important thing was to be a woman as a full citizen.

The training course is available in the HEROINES e-learning platform www.heroines-project.eu, containing all the teaching materials and results, so anybody could benefit from this innovative training course. A collection of poems and writings elaborated by the HEROINES participants is as well available in the HEROINES platform in the native languages of the participants. Part of this anthology has been translated into English to reach more people and give some examples of the work done by the participants. This narrative collection helped, not only to the women sharing their stories, but also the general society as we have a unique opportunity to know first-hand the unfair situations that some people live just because they are women and they have a disability.

HEROINES training course has been piloted in Spain, Greece and Slovenia during eight months and, as a result of those experiences, we have identified some success stories that included in the NEW HEROINES COLLECTIVE document. Women appearing in this publication are now new role models for other women, new inspiring heroines. This publication has increased the visibility of the rural women with mental health challenges, being a showcase for stories of overcoming, thus inspiring other women to break the chains of injustice. Finally, we collaborated with some artists (most of them women) at local level to interpret through art some of the writings from our Heroines, thus increasing their visibility. This combination of different arts (writing, painting, photography, etc.) culminated with five literary-art exhibitions and seven multiplier events in Spain, Slovenia, Greece, Finland and United Kingdom open to the whole community.

Empowerment is natural for anyone, but in the case of those with mental health challenges is simply vital. We need to make them aware about their value as human beings and facilitate these women the way to see that they can do whatever they want to, regardless their gender, health or social condition. Education is our weapon against gender violence!

Project Website

http://www.heroines-project.eu/

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 179198 Eur

Project Coordinator

FUNDACION INTRAS & Country: ES

Project Partners

• SOCIETY OF SOCIAL PSYCHIATRY P. SAKELLAROPOULOS
• OZARA STORITVENO IN INVALIDSKO PODJETJE DOO
• Metanoia Institute
• Suomen Kirjallisuusterapiayhdistys ry