DOVE CRESCE LA CALLA - PROGETTO IN CORSO - PRESENTAZIONE
Melissa is a transgender girl from El Salvador, one of the countries of the "Central American triangle" sadly known for the numerous acts of violence against the LGBT community. She has been in Italy for four years and has seen cooked and raw fish far and wide for the peninsula.
In many countries of the world, transgender people have no access to the most basic opportunities for work, education, and even health services, while death threats, exploitation by criminal gangs, and police persecutions are on the agenda. In El Salvador, life expectancy for a transgender woman is 33 years, compared to 73 for the rest of the population.
Unlike many transgender girls from Central and South America, Melissa is educated and comes from a wealthy family. In her country, she used to be an activist for trans rights but decided to run away after some of her friends have been brutally assassinated and after they tried to murder her. A kid on the street with a gun.
When she left his country, she had the dream of a great Europe, open and rich, where is possible to find a modest job and survive.
What she found in Italy was a piece of sidewalk, for which he had to fight, horrible hours, cold and hunger, a bed for 300 euros a week and expensive illegal hormones. Not knowing the Italian language and her rights, several years passed before she met someone capable of help her to apply for humanitarian asylum. And before setting foot in a health facility to have a visit.
Like her, thousands of other transsexual girls live in the complete absence of rights and fear of the authorities. They work at night, sleep during the day, vulnerable people fleeing from realities of death and exploitation, and not protected by adequate humanitarian systems.
Since 2019 Melissa is living in a small town and is looking for any occupation other than sex work and that allows her to survive, but access to the work is simply unattainable for a transgender refugee person. Her dream is to start an association that deals with the rights of migrant transgender girls in Italy.
