The familiar air of a large farmhouse, with the porch, the gentle lines of its arches, the animal stables, and lots of greenery around it, and tall, reassuring trees. Today there is silence in this 19th century rural complex in the south of Milan, on the outer edge of the Corvetto district. But the dream of Alessandra Kustermann, and of those like her who have dedicated commitment and years of work to the defense of women victims of violence, is that soon we will be able to hear laughter and the voices of children, the smell of cooking, the noise of cooking tools people at work in tailors and laboratories. For this reason Cascina Carpana was renamed Cascina Ri-Nascita. Because it will be here, in over 2,600 built square meters and 30 thousand square meters of greenery, that the project of a safe place will come to life where it will be possible to “restore economic and also housing autonomy to women emerging from violence, and to their children”, explains the gynecologist to Adnkronos Salute.
A project born from the collaboration between two historic anti-violence centers in the Lombardy metropolis, Svs Donna helps Donna and Cadmi (Shelter for abused women in Milan), and the Campacavallo sports association, specialized in “soft circus and affectionate horse riding” with strong openness to the social. The team was awarded the 90-year concession of Cascina Carpana, participating in a tender from the Municipality of Milan in January 2022, and today celebrated an important milestone: the inauguration of the construction site for the renovation of the spaces in via San Dionigi. A special godmother cut the ribbon: the singer Ornella Vanoni, in the presence of the municipal councilor for the House Pierfrancesco Maran, welcomed by Kustermann and Manuela Ulivi, president of Cadmi, with Gabriella Baldoni (Campacavallo), Marta Olivieri (DVision Architecture), Chiara Morandini (Carlo Ratti Associati).
The dream is “closer”, comments Kustermann, thinking back to the months dedicated and the much work done so far. We will proceed in stages, as the spaces are ready. A first part of the activities envisaged by the ambitious project could start “as early as February 2025”. The cost of the project, including the start of the works, reaches 6 million euros. The bulk of the necessary funds “has been found. And all this was possible thanks to those who believed in our project and supported it. But donors are still needed” for what remains to be covered, is the appeal. The peculiarity of the project? “We want to accompany women on their journey out of violence”, underlines Kustermann. 10 of them with their children will be able to stay in independent apartments inside the Cascina, to start rebuilding a life free from violence. And 90 women will be able to follow training courses and professional internships and will work within the production activities present in Cascina.
“The consolidation of their economic condition will be a priority objective of the path that will lead them to complete autonomy”, explain the promoters of the project. “64% of women who suffer intra-family violence are unemployed or have precarious jobs lasting a few hours a day which certainly do not help them to support themselves once they decide to leave the violence”, highlights Kustermann. This is why the choice was to focus on this aspect. Cascina Ri-Nascita will support itself and provide work to women with various activities carried out in its indoor and outdoor spaces, such as: restaurant, organic bistro open to the public, production and sale of organic food, pet therapy, dog training, day care for dogs, riding stables, sale of agricultural and artisanal products in markets, restoration workshops, designer cabinet-making, embroidery and high fashion tailoring. “The chef who will manage the two 'food' activities has already prepared a business plan, thinking of a project in which she hires 18 women in a year and gives professional training to another 18”, she explains.
As regards the apartments, there will be 10 for women with children and two small apartments for 4 teenage boys, “for that age group up to 23 years old, in which one still feels the need to be close to one's mother but perhaps It's difficult to stay all in a two-room apartment, with even younger siblings.” And again: the girls and boys, teenage girls and boys who are victims of witnessed violence will have the opportunity to live in a beautiful, serene and stimulating environment – say the promoters of Cascina Ri-Nascita – supported by all the necessary support and will be involved in activities and workshops together with the little inhabitants of the neighborhood. “We want a place open to the city and we aim to help these women achieve economic independence through the reconstruction of an educational and professional curriculum suited to the needs of the modern world. Because otherwise – reflects Kustermann – they will never find a quality job that allows to them to support themselves and their children”.
“We therefore train these women for 6 months, have them do a professional internship within the Cascina, we also find additional funding to help them maintain themselves in this phase and then for a year we hire them in the Cascina for the work activities that we will do at the internal”. This “is not the solution to all the problems we see but it is a help – adds the expert – We have 1,200 new cases of women emerging from violence every year” in the two centers involved in the project. “It's a very high number and obviously not all of them need a job because some do have a job.”
But “in several cases it is the abusive partner who forces them to abandon their activity – explains Kustermann – And if a woman does not have economic autonomy it is very difficult for her to leave. We always imagine that the violence is fundamentally physical while the the worst violence is psychological violence. A violence that we also saw in the case of Giulia Cecchettin. Psychological violence is that which isolates you, which destroys your self-esteem, it is blackmail (saying 'if you leave I will kill myself', which then in reality means 'if you leave I'll kill you and then me'). And without economic autonomy”, caught in the grip of psychological violence, “it becomes even more difficult to leave and start again, you lose hope of being able to do so”.
This is why “in all these years in which I have dealt not only with the beautiful part of giving birth to children, but also with women emerging from violence, I have realized that what we did was not enough – concludes Kustermann – This farmhouse is therefore a dream , not only mine”, but also of those who carry out Cadmi. “We said to ourselves: let's try to make a revolution, let's start from the fact that we have to accompany these women on the path to recovering this autonomy. I retired two years earlier to cultivate this dream, to dedicate myself to the maximum and give it the chance to become a reality”.
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