Valentina he has four children, two boys and two girls. She lived with her ex-husband for 11 years and now for two years she has managed to move on and leave behind this history of violence. What also helped him take this step was the support he received from CAV, the Teresa Bonocore Center for Anti-Violenceto Octaviaa neighborhood north of the capital, financed by the city of Rome and managed by the social cooperative Be Free. “I decided to say thank you enough to my 6-year-old daughter – says Valentina – one day she hugged me, told me to take her little sister to school and stop in the parking lot, because her father, my ex-husband, had bought 2 knives. It crossed my mind, although perhaps already there, the thought that I could lose my life in the hands of my ex-husband.”
Valentina tells a story similar to the story of many people: at first you fall in love, everything is fine, then after a while the first signs appear, some violent behavior is interspersed with apologies and moments of “calm”. “I immediately gave blame it on alcohol – added Valentina – because he used it, thinking that it would pass and it didn’t.”
As time went by, the situation got worse, her ex-husband began to isolate her from her friends and became increasingly jealous, to the point that Valentina started walking with her head bowed, to avoid other people’s eyes. “The hardest thing for any woman I’ve ever talked to – she explained Ludovica Mutarellioperator Cav Bonocore – is recognize there violence. We have to understand that if it is the husband who commits violence, then for women who are in love, it is very difficult to combine the beautiful image of their ex-partner with the negative image of someone who often deliberately wants to harm them.”
According to the experience of operators working at Ottaviano CAV, the non-gender violence And changed many over the years. “Unfortunately, the phenomenon is always the same – he explained Lucia Berettawho has worked in the sector for 10 years and is responsible for CAV Teresa Bonocore – what may change slightly is the arrival always younger peopleeven minors, who have experienced acts of violence from peers, teachers or family members, have experienced it want to talk and report.”
This is why at the Center they underline its importance course sex–affective at school, to talk even to the youngest children about what respect, consent, sexuality is, what other people are and knowing how to recognize oneself from others. “Today I feel like a free woman – concluded Valentina – now my children and I can say, without worrying, whether something is right or wrong. My revenge is to hear my eldest son say that it is wonderful to feel free.”
