Our Activities
Cittadinanza develops four main activities:
I) International Cooperation/Projects
Cittadinanza operates on two levels: i) political, carrying out projects in cooperation with the relevant Ministries of low income countries, providing them with a sound guarantee of continuity of initiatives; ii) practical, concerning specific and verifiable situations, with the involvement of local authorities, local professionals and several other social workers.
Projects are presently being implemented in Serbia, Albania and India.
Furthermore, Cittadinanza has supported and backed the ‘ATLAS Project’, an important scientific wideranging WHO research initiative. It is a world Atlas on mental health, composed of four volumes, which provides global and specific data concerning mental health resources available in 192 countries in a 16 different subjects-perspective.
Within our international support and cooperation projects, we attach fundamental value to professional training of local staff, thus guaranteeing long term sustainability to the projects and that local community members develop full awareness of mental illness-related issues.
In Italy, Cittadinanza’s professional training is provided to health workers and international volunteers on specific know-how and expertise, with the aim of making qualified human resources capable to develop sound mental health projects in low income countries and in situations of dire poverty.
Mental illness is a difficult subject to be faced, explained and experienced. People all over the world have often the wrong idea that mentally ill people are incurable and irrevocably and unalterably sick.
Actually, recover is possible for many of them, for others there exists treatments which would allow them to live dignified and integrated lives.
Cittadinanza organizes and promotes campaigns, initiatives and events in order to raise public awareness on mental illness-related issues, in particular when associated with situations of hardship and poverty.
IV) A New Challenge!
Cittadinanza, in collaboration with the WHO, promotes from 2008 to 2010, three International Meetings “Strenghtening the Mental Health Systems in Low and Middle Income Countries“. During these meetings, representatives of 40 low and middle income countries, that have accomplished the WHO-AIMS assessment, gather in Rimini to present and discuss their projects aimed at developing and improving their mental health systems and seeking collaborations and support from international cooperation organizations, agencies, NGOs, donors and mental health professionals.
On 15th - 18th april 2008, the first International Meeting “Strenghtening the Mental Health Systems in Low and Middle Income Countries”, organized by Cittadinanza, was held in Rimini (Italy).
• International Cooperation/Projects;
• Awareness;
