Being an immigrant woman and mother in Turin during the COVID-19 period. Hafsah’s Story.

Hafsah* is less than 30 years old, comes from Nigeria and has lived in Italy for about five years.  We know each other from before COVID when I got to know both Hafsah and her husband. Together they have two young children but are ‘separated by necessity’. Hafsah lives with the children in a municipality about 10 kilometres north of Turin.  She stays at the house of an older Italian man who offers her hospitality in exchange for care. Hafsah’s cohabitation situation is not uncommon among migrant women in Italy. The biggest problem for Hafsah and her husband is that they cannot live together and this affected them significantly during the first confinement for COVID-19.

A couple of months into the confinement Hafsah telephoned me: “Niky, my youngest child has a fever. I’m here in this small village and I don’t know how to do it” … she cried “What do I do?” Hafsah was concerned that getting emergency help meant she could not stay with her child in hospital:

If the ambulance comes, they will take the baby away from me! I’d rather die here with my baby than go to the hospital.

Hafsah was also anxious about her living situation because the older man where Hafsah lives was saying:

Not only is the child sick, but now you also want to kill me! …Now I’m going to throw you out!

Together we talked through the situation by phone, discussing what to do and how to take care of the baby. The lockdown meant I couldn’t go and visit her. I told Hafsah to call the paediatrician and because it was a public holiday I told her “Bombard the paediatrician with messages, call … five, six, seven times and leave the message on the answering machine”. That first day we talked to each other almost every half hour on the phone “How is the baby? Has the fever gone down a bit? Is X eating?” During this time the baby was eating and resting well.  Neither Hafsah nor her other child had any symptoms.

The next day the paediatrician who volunteers in the association for mothers and children told me it was better to admit the baby to hospital, and Hasfah called her paediatrician who said: “If you have a fever, go to the hospital.” However, Hafsah said, “I’m not going with the ambulance.” In the end, I said to Hafsah: “Give me this man where you are, on the phone” and introduced myself to the older man and said:

“Give Hafsah some money, so she can go to the hospital with the child, because she doesn’t want to go in an ambulance. Have her take a taxi, then we will give you back the money you spend”.

“No, but I don’t trust her, I’m not giving her money…”

“Look if you don’t trust me I’ll leave you my address, my document”.

In the end he gave Hafsah 50 euros. She left the house with the children. When she arrived at the local bus stop, she took the bus to the centre of Turin because “… it was empty, so I saved the money”.

At the hospital, Hafsah and the children were tested for COVID-19, kept under observation and then discharged at midnight because Hasfah and the children’s general condition seemed to have improved. Having saved 50 euros, Hafsah and the children took a taxi back to the house where she was staying.

While none of them tested positive for COVID, Hafsah had a very worrying experience, which continued after she returned to the house. The man who is hosting her continues to say that if Hafsah ever got COVID, he would hold them responsible and that “he should have sent them straight out of the house”.

At the end of the first lockdown, Hafsah started to participate in the ‘Mamma – Bambino’ group meetings with her children:

It is not easy to come all the way to Turin with my [children]. We have to take the bus from our village and then the bus to the city centre. But when I can I come, so I meet other mothers, like me…

Even the oldest [child] is happy when I tell [them] that we are going to Turin. [They] can play with other [children].

Unfortunately, with the new rules that came into force at the end of October for the management of contagion, the meetings of the ‘Mamma – Bambino’ group have been suspended, but we keep in touch by telephone and via whatsapp. Hafsah writes to me every day, if only to tell me that they are all fine.

Niky

Turin, 2020

*Hafsah is a fictional name.

Top photo credited to Kevin Clyde