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Email: info(at)women-in-exile(dot)net
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Am 2.12.2019 haben vor dem Sozialamt Märkisch-Oderland in Vierlinden mehr als 50 Menschen demonstriert. Sie forderten die Gesundheitskarte für Geflüchtete von Anfang an und die Überweisung ihrer Sozialleistungen auf ein Konto. Märkisch-Oderland ist der einzige Landkreis in Brandenburg, der diese inhumane Praxis bis jetzt aufrecht erhält.
Der Protest wurde getragen von Betroffenen und Personen aus Selbstorganisationen, Willkommensinitativen sowie weiteren Gruppen aus Brandenburg und Berlin. Geschmückt mit einem großen Banner „Equal rights for all people – also in MOL!“ und „Stop police brutality!!!“ war ein Protest-Bus aus Brandenburg vor Ort. Geflüchteten berichteten über ihre Lebenssituation, es wurde gemeinsam getanzt und gegessen.
Since our health project started we have been sharing in our Newsletter different stories from different women which they have been experiencing in the health sector.
Recently we have produced a short film “TESTIMONIES FROM THE UTERUS” , where different refugee women are testifying on their living conditions and health situation. We continue to receive horrible stories and below is a testimony of a woman who is yet to recover from the shock of giving birth.
Our last health seminar was facilitated by experts for migrants and refugees from KommMit who offer psychological counseling for refugees in Berlin/Brandenburg.
Many women came with
a lot of questions such as: can dizziness and sleeping problems be a
psychological problem? I have a lot of stress and problems -What can
I do ? How can I help somebody else? What can one do if
psycho-therapy doesn’t help?
We (Women in Exile and Friends) are among a few groups of organisations and individuals who have come together to plan a public hearing in the framework of the Permanent Peoples´ Tribunal established in Bologna in 1980. *1 Our focus is on health and a framing of the topic of human rights violations from a perspective of health and the health effects. Health is something everybody can relate to.
This alliance is to create a common struggle between refugee organisation and solidarity organisations. The groups and individuals are working with refugee and migrants on professional and/or activism level such as IPNNW, Boderline Europe, Medibüro, Respect, International Women Space and medical doctors. This public hearing will probably take place in early 2020 and will be charged to denounce the discrimination on medical sphere in Germany. In the tribunal we would like to show through testimonies and indictments how health issues in Germany are linked into social and political sphere.
My name is Margrit and I came to Germany some years ago as an asylum seeker. I applied for my asylum in Eissenhüttenstadt. During my stay in Eissenhüttensadt I shared a room with other asylum seekers from different countries. Before I was transferred to the next lager I started having complications in my body.
This did not bother me a lot because I thought the reasons could be change of weather, food and the stressful situation of asylum seeking. I thought these body changes and complications were because I have just arrived in the country and will go away as soon as I get used to them.
The pain grew more and I had to seek doctor’s help. I was met with shock as he detected cervical cancer and I couldn’t swallow the bitter truth that faced me; I got traumatised and depressed. My strength and hopes were dimmed since this was not my expectations and being in a new country and as a refugee was hard to figure out how my life will be.
2019 World health day focuses on Universal health coverage: everyone, everywhere but we are seeing how laws are racist and discriminating also on health issues, like „Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz“ passed in 1993, which was established to discourage asylum seekers from coming to or staying in Germany.
For over two years “Women in Exile” has been working on a health
project regarding refugee women. The project was started because we
realised many women suffer from gynecological problems. Most of them
have no right to access an insurance coverage and they are offered
with a temporary cover which only helps by granting minor treatment.
Even when going to gynecologists they don’t know how to account for
it financially, making the women go through a tough time with their
bodies.
Exactly one year ago in our Newsletter no. 12 we were already reporting about the gynecological problems of refugee women, with which the women approached us in our meetings.
We got to know a lot of cases especially from women who had
cystes and were operated, but also women with heavy bleedings, myomas,…
Unfortunately during this year we have been witnessing that many of these problemes were not treated appropriately. In many cases they are directly treated with radical/dramatical measures like operations and the women are lacking time and (medical) knowledge in their mother language to decide on a treatment on their own.
In our health project we have reached women who started speaking out about their health problems openly and asking for psychological support.
We realized that people are re-traumatized so in our group we try to empower women through coming together, giving and providing space for talking, sharing and being.
From this experience we started to network with Komm mit e.V., an organization which is providing psycho-social counseling in Brandenburg.
Psychotherapy is often connected to a stigma of being “mentally ill” so many women didn’t want to be connected with that. But we think it should be seen as very normal as one passed the stress of the flight which for many women includes sexualized violence and rape, furthermore the living conditions here, the isolation from the society and violence which continues in the lagers.
Due to lack of information and many questions from the refugee women we are working about the topic reproductive health.
We decided to empower ourselves by learning more about our own bodies.
Therefore we invited experts of the „feminist women health center“ (Feministischen Frauen Gesundheitszentrum ) in Berlin to facilitate a workshop on the upper body.
In the workshop we learned about the self-examination of the breast.
First we got informations about the structure and anatomy of the breast and the changes it goes through in a lifetime. Then we learned practically how we can examine the breast ourselves and so learn more about our bodies and to sense hints for possible sicknesses.
Women in Exile e.V. is looking for sustaining members!
Through many small but regular donations we can ensure the continuity of our work! There is a lot to do!
A monthly money transfer order is the best way to support us. Please inform us by sending a short email to info@women-in-exile.net, including your address for donation receipts. We are also happy to send you the print version of our newsletter!
