Fighting for the Orphans of Femicide: The OLGA Association's Effort to Build the Future

Amidst the deep trauma created by femicides in Italy, a civil society initiative is drawing attention for trying to be a ray of hope for the "special orphans" left behind by these crimes. The association named OLGA takes its name from Olga Granà, who was brutally murdered in the middle of the street by her husband in 1997. Olga's son, Giuseppe Delmonte, suppressed this horrific truth for exactly 25 years following his mother's murder, telling those around him that both of them had died in a car accident. After years of intense silence and psychological devastation, Delmonte managed to face the truth through a psychotherapy process, transforming his personal pain into a social struggle and founding the association on 15 April 2024. The fundamental purpose of OLGA is to help children who are direct or indirect victims of femicide cope with their trauma and to enable them to dream again.

Giuseppe Delmonte's own life story reveals how urgent and vital the founding mission of the association is. Following his mother's murder, he was forced to abandon his dream of studying medicine at just 19 years of age due to both financial deprivation and severe psychological devastation. Delmonte emphasizes that during that time, they received no psychological or economic support from the state or institutions, and were left entirely to their own devices. Noting that his father, the killer, received immediate psychological support upon entering prison and was able to benefit from the right to education, Giuseppe describes this contradiction as a dramatic injustice. By founding the association, he aims to prevent other children from experiencing the helplessness he lived through and to offer them the opportunity to achieve goals, just like the shared dreams he had built with his mother.

Children who lose their mother or father as a result of femicides are referred to as "special orphans" (orfani speciali) in the association's terminology. These children not only suffer the pain of losing a parent, but also often bear the terrible psychological burden of having witnessed the murder firsthand or of having a blood tie with the perpetrator. This situation can lead to severe mental, behavioral, and relational issues in orphaned children, making them the most fragile individuals in society. The OLGA association argues that these children must be addressed with a correct and multidisciplinary approach, emphasizing that psychological, legal, and economic support must be provided together. The principle is driven by the belief that it is unacceptable for these children, who are not brought under a systematic protection umbrella, to try to cope with their traumas alone.

It is noted that significant progress has been made in the legal and statutory fields, but the road is not yet over. In Italy, femicide was first addressed with Law No. 4 introduced in 2018, and subsequently, with a new legal regulation entering into force in December 2025, femicide was added to the penal code as a separate crime definition. The new bill proposal (no. 2715), which came to the agenda in November 2025 and to which the OLGA association again provided significant contributions, aims to protect the rights of victims more comprehensively. Furthermore, with this proposal, the establishment of a National Registry System is planned in order to identify and count special orphan children whose mothers were murdered by their fathers. Delmonte criticizes the fact that while the number of wolves in the Apennine Mountains in Italy is known, the number of children orphaned due to femicides remains unknown, stating that this deficiency must be urgently addressed.

The vision of the OLGA association is not limited to alleviating the pains of the past but also aims to create concrete social awareness for the future. Wishing to provide education and raise awareness against all forms of violence, the organization proclaims that people must not remain indifferent to such events. Acting on the belief that "indifference kills," association president Giuseppe Delmonte invites society not to become complicit in the crime, but to look out for those around them with a sense of compassion and responsibility. Economic efforts are also being carried out to ensure that orphaned children who have suffered severe traumas can fully exercise their right to education under the state's guarantee. In this context, while OLGA guides the structural transformation in the Italian justice system, it also continues its function of acting as a bridge mediating dozens of children to cling to life again with confidence.