More than 4,300 women received assistance from the Mararía association in the last year, of which 1,120 benefited from various services.
In addition, a total of 2,500 people completed various training courses offered to "improve employability", and even nearly 300 families received food, school supplies and Christmas toys. For this period, Mararía points out that the supply of food products from FESBAL was joined by the support of Caixabank.
The meeting opened with an emotional tribute to two of the founding members of the Mararía association, who have remained active throughout these 28 years in the social and advocacy contribution in favor of the women of Lanzarote.
Encarna Sánchez and Carmen Suárez, who become honorary members along with Rosa Mesa, were honored by their colleagues after the screening of a video recalling their work, in the different stages of the feminist organization's trajectory.
In her speech, the president Nieves Rosa Hernández, thanked the efforts of workers and volunteers. "The successes of Mararía are not only the result of work, they are a miracle of will, sacrifice and convictions of those of us who are part of this association," she added.
She also remembered the last four victims of gender violence of the weekend and assured that "the denunciation, the pressure in the street and the new adhesions to the cause of equality will remain alive until the end of the episodes of murderous machismo".
Annual balance
The balance of the work carried out by the Board of Directors of the feminist entity was unanimously approved during the ordinary general assembly held yesterday at the Torrelavega society of Arrecife, in which the result of new initiatives and the progress of novel resources aimed at victims of gender violence and social exclusion was reported.
The most outstanding, in the opinion of the organization, is the second supervised apartment, financed by the Cabildo of Lanzarote, which they assure "favors the recovery of women through temporary reception and specialized professional support to achieve the restitution of autonomous and productive life, avoiding the risk of social exclusion and the institutionalization of minors".
In the same way, in the balance of achievements reached thanks to the economic support of the Island Corporation, emphasis was placed "on the itinerant service for comprehensive care for residents in rural areas of the island", which offers advice to women in vulnerable situations in these populations, to avoid or reduce the risk of social exclusion.
Among the flagship services of Mararía, they maintain that it continues "the impulse and development of the services offered to the female population in all its breadth, in the psychological, legal, social and labor fields, which the Information Center has been dispensing for nearly three decades, which for this last period has been subsidized by the Canarian Institute of Equality (ICI) of the Government of the Canary Islands".
In addition, they point out that the municipalities of San Bartolomé and Tías, administrations that have maintained ties with the association for years, agreed with the entity on the comprehensive service to women in their municipalities.
Training and awareness days
During the last annual period, Mararía organized the Days of activism, volunteering and associative movement, which included in its program "the analysis of the violation of human rights of migrant women, the abolition of prostitution in the political agenda of the feminist movement and the challenges and challenges with a gender perspective of the 2030 Agenda".
More recently, the days on food sovereignty "From the land to the table" were held, with the presence also of specialists in ecological agriculture, agricultural policies, education and care.
The training of volunteers with a gender perspective is another of the priorities of the organization for years. In this last year and with the financing of the ICI, knowledge, skills and competences were imparted to provide volunteers with egalitarian tools.
The talks and workshops in schools, sports clubs and social groups on the need for real and effective equality as an instrument for the eradication of gender violence and the presence in all protest events in rejection of sexist aggressions were other activities carried out throughout the year by the entity, which were reported at the assembly.
In that same line of generating collective social awareness, Arrecife hosted the campaign "Safe Spaces Free of Gender Violence", which, in addition to fulfilling this objective, "favored awareness about gender violence and sexism in today's society among taxi licenses and affiliated establishments, which are identified thanks to a sticker on their access door", he added.