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Fenarete Campaign: Transfer of innovation project
The objective of Fenarete Campaign is the transfer of training methodology based on peer education which was originally developed by the Leonardo da Vinci project FENARETE. The Fenarete methodology is intended for peer educators active in the field of social (re)insertion of prostitutes, trafficked women and disadvantaged/excluded groups in general.
The methodology was adapted and transferred by the organisations which originally conceived it (Comitato per i diritti civili delle prostitute and Tampep International Foundation). Partners from the target countries (Hungary and Romania) actively participated in the transfer.
The transfer activity implied a strong preparatory work of around five months during which a contextualisation of the methodology took place. This means that an assessment of the national context was carried out (socio-economic, legislative assessment as well as analysis of the capacity building of the services involved in the transfer action). Beside that, several visits to the target countries were planned in order to better understand the training needs of the partners and the prevention practices in place in the countries.
The major challenge during the preparatory phase was the development of a national but also local network of contacts potentially interested in taking up the methodology (NGOs, universities, health services, social services and local associations working in the fight against discrimination, AIDS prevention and support to sex workers, etc). The translation of the guidelines in Hungarian and Romanian was also assured during the preparatory phase.
The transfer took place through seminars which were given in Hungary and Romania to a total of 52 trainees (professional trainers but also ex sex-workers or ex drug-users willing to become peer educators). The training was provided by the trainers and the conceivers of the Fenarete methodology. Follow-up and monitoring visits took place after the seminars to evaluate the effectiveness of the transfer.
In some cases the organizations participating in the seminars were willing to adopt the Fenarete methodology; in some others a refocus of the methodology was necessary in order to better reach the target groups. The impact of the transfer can be considered at two levels: on the organisations in the receiving countries working with vulnerable groups and on policy level.
For example, the training policy of ARAS (Romanian partner) was changed by the innovation brought by the Fenarete methodology. The very first reaction of ARAS was of refusal of such a methodology applied to sex-workers, but after the training the degree of acceptance improved as it was proved that the methodology was applicable to various target groups and ready to use. The Fenarete methodology is now applied by ARAS to the training of Roma people in the framework of a national program for the training of the Roma community.
The Romanian partner is also involved in the design and implementation of a national program for HIV prevention: the Fenarete methodology is now used in this program and is acknowledged by the Romanian Ministry of Health.
In Hungary this peer education program has been embedded by the Hungarian partner into the national curriculum for social work education, thanks to the Fenarete campaign transfer project.
The strong involvement of local actors with solid connections to public institutions at country level was fundamental for the successful transfer of a quite innovative professional profile (peer educator among sex workers and drug addicted). These strong connections facilitated the awareness raising of decision makers and the policy support to the project.
The transfer process has also been positively influenced by the fact that the partner organisations in Romania and Hungary are members of nation-wide networks who work in the field of services for marginal groups. These organizations have a broad experience in providing social services based on the direct involvement of the target community. Therefore the technique of peer education fitted very well in their working methodology and was for them an innovative and concrete tool to transfer knowledge and provide answers to urgent emerging needs.
Another important factor of success was that both target countries had experienced a significant improvement in terms of national coverage of services and training programmes for vulnerable groups.
But the transfer process experiences also some difficulties. In both target countries the living conditions and the high level of violence in the environment of sex-workers and drugs-users made, for example, the necessarily involvement of the target groups into peer education programmes extremely difficult.
For additional information, visit www.fenarete.org, or write to
lucciole@iol.it. Organizers of this initiative would very much appreciate your feedback on this process. Please contact them and tell themwhat you think. Thanks for your involvement.
The Fenerete manuals are available at the following Link (as a PDF document).
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