Association of Intercultural Mediators in the Health and Social Care Sector (Italy)

 A.M.I.S.S. (Association of Intercultural Mediators in the Health and Social Care Sector) was founded in 1999 after a training course, coordinated by the ISI, for intercultural mediators in the Social-Health area (h.700). The organization was created with the collaboration of the competent local authorities. A.M.I.S.S. consists of a qualified group of women with roots in different countries (Albania, Algeria, Bangladesh, China, Former Yugoslavia, Philippine, England, Afro-Caribbean islands, Morocco, Nigeria, Venezuela, Peru etc.), and trained specifically to work in the Social-Health area that provides adequate means for linguistic and cultural mediation interventions. The objectives of AMISS are to: provide foreigners access to local services, provide communication between service operators and foreigners, develop and create projects which facilitate the integration of foreigners into society, organize meetings to gather knowledge about the different aspects of each culture. The service it offers are the following: Social interpretation, Intercultural mediation, Practical Guidelines for specific cases/situations, Reading strategies to understand the local culture and language routines.

AMISS has participated in a great variety of local, national and international projects for the promotion of intercultural intermediation and the provision of services to foreigners and to those belonging to ethnic minorities.