Fiori di Strada...
English version

Fiori di Strada Association (literally meaning “Street flowers”) was founded in 2006 in Bologna, Italy, by a large group of volunteers, including lawyers, doctors, psychologists and social workers who have been working for years in social activities. The association aims at combating against the phenomenon of trafficking and exploitation in prostitution, also by creating a network among all the associations that work in the same field and promoting common actions abroad, especially in those countries from where most of the victims come.

In Bologna, like in many other Italian cities, the increasing phenomenon of street prostitution hides a true deportation of women, and mostly girls, from Africa and Eastern Europe to countries with more prosperous economies. These women are sold by their families under mental violence and on promise of a well-paying legal job.

It is well known that these promises are false and the redemption country is just a vain hope, lost in bureaucracy. As a result, criminal organizations take advantage of the system gap and replace the legal institutions.

The victims are robbed of their identification papers and forced to sign a blood contract or incur huge debts that are almost impossible to pay off. They don’t know their rights or they are too scared for exercising them. They fall prey of their exploiters and become a big source of income for criminal groups, which also traffic in drugs and arms.

These problems can’t be solved only by repression because repressing involves hiding the phenomenon and make it live underground.

We should instead consider prostitution as a problem for the whole society and not just regarding public order, otherwise no preventive intervention is possible and the phenomenon is bound to expand due to social ignorance.

So, the problems that Fiori di Strada deals with need to be known not only by the institutions but also by the people. We all have the right and duty to help women leave prostitution because no one will ever be free until there is even one woman subjected to such violence. Fiori di Strada Association has seriously committed itself to this.

Every night its flying unit operators give out condoms, lubricating gels, medicines and refreshments to street prostitutes and provide them with medical and legal information.

For safety reasons, the operators do not try to convince women of leaving prostitution and starting a protection program but they give them a card with a phone number on, which is very easy to remember and that they can call 24 hours a day to be listened and counselled.

The association also gives them medical and paramedical assistance by taking them to the doctors who volunteer for Fiori di Strada or to the local health units.
There are also many lawyers volunteering for the association who can give free legal counselling to those who are excluded from society and are not familiar with Italian language and law.

One of the goals of the association is also to increase public awareness of the dangers of trafficking.

If you are either a creative person or a graphic designer or a social worker and you want to help us with awareness campaigns; if you are a doctor or a member of health staff and you want to volunteer for the association; if you are a common citizen, shocked by this cruel trade: please write to info@fioridistrada.it.

You can support our projects either by volunteering for us or by making a donation on our bank account. All donations will be used for our activities.

Bank details:
Banca Popolare Commercio e Industria
IBAN:  IT 26 J 05048 02402 000000010432
Swift:  POCIITMMA Name : Fiori di Strada Onlus
Any donation to Fiori di Strada is tax deductible according to Decreto legislativo 460/97