“They Trust Me”.
For many women here, Florence is like a mother, a sister, an aunt.
She is the Cultural Mediator at EMERGENCY’s Outpatient Clinic in Castel Volturno in southern Italy, which provides care for marginalised people in the community, many of them migrants. “For many of our patients, our Outpatient Clinic is a beacon,” she says. “Often, they themselves say to other women ‘go and ask for Florence’. They trust me.”
Florence helps foster the empowerment of people that visit the Clinic and ensure they are aware of their rights, first and foremost their right to healthcare. She listens daily to the stories told by vulnerable women, many of them far from home, who often do not have reference points or information to rely on.
Stories like J.’s, a victim of domestic violence, “a young lioness who challenged all the barriers in front of her, in order to make her family safe and continue her life with dignity and freedom.”