Wenn du an unserer Arbeit interessiert bist oder uns unterstützen willst, melde dich doch einfach!
Email: info(at)women-in-exile(dot)net
Geldspenden: Spenden-Konto: Women in Exile e.V. IBAN: DE21430609671152135400 BIC: GENODEM1GLS (GLS Bank) Spendenquittung für Einmalspenden bis 200 € zum selbst ausdrucken hier. Für das Ausstellen von Spendenquittungen benötigen wir Deine/Ihre Anschrift.
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.
As result of the workshop where we learned about the self-examination of the breast, we have done a flyer, with the aim that is helps to spread the information, about breast self-examination among refugee women.
One of the goal of our workshops is that they become peer- workshop by sharing with others what was learnt during the workshops given
Some
members of our group had the possibility to participate in a workshop on
“Reproductive Justice” with professor Anne Hendrixon from the US.
The concept
of “Reproductive Justice was developed in the Black feminist movement in the
US. While the discussions on the topic in German leftist circles mainly focus
on the right to abort, reproductive justice is about the right to have children
or not as well as asking for the conditions for raising children and how these
conditions influence people’s decisions.
For example, the rising right in Germany today explicitly advocates for population policy – either by proposing to fight migration through birth control in the Global South or by calling on women of German origin to have more children. In many ways, this agenda can connect to national and global policies that are already in place and against which hardly any counter-strategies exist.
In many cities and regions, the health insurance card for refugees has existed for a long time.
Ever since the card was introduced in Hamburg and Bremen, we have stated that it indeed is a great improvement as we don’t have to apply for a sick chit from the social office everytime before we go to the doctor. But we have also criticized that the card doesn’t fundamentally change the system of 3rd class health care for refugees which is determined by the racist “Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz” law.
For all health care that exceeds pure pain or emergency treatment, we still have to get the permission from the social office.
In Brandenburg, still six districts and the city of Frankfurt/Oder are refusing to give out the health insurance card. The spokesperson of the district of Märkisch-Oderland, Thomas Behrendt, said in December to the local newspaper: “The existing system is well-established.” Continue reading Same Right to Health Care for all?
As our regular meetings continue to give us a platform to share our problems, experiences on health issues have become the talk of the day. So many women share their experiences which they undergo in their day to day life in Germany. In Lagers women just live in pain and desperation since nobody seems to support them in solving their problems.
Have you ever thought of how they receive medical treatment? So many refugee women have no right to access an insurance coverage and they are offered with a temporary cover which only helps by granting minor treatment. Most women suffer from gynecological problems and get no medical attention since many gynecologists don’t know how to account for it financially and thus making the women go through a tough time with their bodies. Others go to an extent of forced Cesarean section when lucky to conceive while they could actually give birth naturally.
This May, we started our new
project, which is funded by the foundation “Aktion Mensch” on
“right to health for refugee women”. In our first
Brandenburg-wide network meeting on 2nd and 3rd
of June we gathered some topics that concerned all the women:
Why do we only get Pain Killers
instead of good Treatment?
The
„Asylbewerberleistungsgesetz“ was passed in 1993 to discourage
asylum seekers from coming to or staying in Germany. It is racist and
discriminating. According to this law only the treatment of acute
diseases or pain is covered. For any further medical treatment one
needs to individually apply at the Sozialamt. This means that
unqualified people decide on our health! Even if the new health
insurance card was introduced in some regions: For special treatment
we still need the permission of the Sozialamt and the doctors don’t
treat us as soon as they see that we are refugees.
In the frame of our project on health, we came up with a leaflet on health which we are handing out during our Heim visits. All are welcome to print it or order some copies from us and distribute them as well. So far the English and German version are available, other languages will follow soon.
Women in Exile e.V. is looking for sustainig members!
Through many small but regular donations we can ensure the continuity of our work! There is a lot to do!
A monthly money tranfser order is the best way to support us. Please inform us by seding a short email to info@women-in-exile.net, including your address for donation receips. We are also happy to send you the print version of our newsletter!
