Italo has started up a new training programme focused on women’s self-defence and involving also Telefono Rosa. On 8 March, there will be the first of many training appointments that will carry on until 25 November, the international day for the elimination of violence against women.
Italo will make these courses available to all its women employees and to the women hosted in the association’s shelter homes. The shelter homes are dedicated structures with secret addresses for a safe stay of women victims of violence and their children. They are free structures where the women undergo their post-violence rehabilitation period and available to all women regardless their place of residence.
The project foresees weekly meetings and real self-defence training sessions, held by professionals who will teach women how to manage a possible aggression and recognise any verbal or non-verbal sign in order to prevent it.
Italo makes all these courses available to all its women employees (travelling staff, station staff and office staff) so that they can be able to face possible episodes of violence that unfortunately may occur in many different business and private life cases. Italy considers gender equality paramount and has many female workers: about half of the company’s over 1500 employees, are women, equally distributed within operational staff (on trains and at stations) and office staff.
Italo’s choice is crucial in this difficult moment for women’s safety, made worse by the pandemic: indeed, according to ISTAT data, 2020 saw over 15 thousand women victims of violence contacting the anti-violence centres that have adhered to the State-Region agreement on this matter. The issue unfortunately continues also in 2021, with over 12 thousand reports in the first 9 months.
The collaboration with Telefono Rosa will continue also in 2022 with other projects, because only if we are all together we can really get stronger!