Mari Carmen Reyes sets in motion two initiatives to empower women and encourage the feminine leadership

he Equality and Diversity Council of Las Palmas of Gran Canaria has carried out different initiatives during the month of September to encourage the personal and collective empowerment of women who have experienced domestic violence, as well as the feminine leadership. 

This way, the Council, in collaboration with the Canarian Equality School (ICI), has set in motion for the second consecutive year the ‘La Maleta Lila de Lulú’ project, with the goal of improving the life conditions of those women victims of diverse discriminations. 

The Equality and Diversity Councillor, Mari Carmen Reyes, explained that “this proposal comes from the application of the gender perspective through corporal and artistic techniques and collective resilience tools”. Reyes pointed out that “this initiative encourages the active participation of women as subjects of law, generating appropriation and autonomy processes that result in their own empowerment and well-being”. 

This way, this initiative, defrayed by the ICI, encourages the empowerment and the selfcare, as well as the incorporation of the creativity in the processes of adaptation and normalisation after traumatic experiences connected to domestic violence.

Throughout the three months that last this project, the women will create their own space where they will learn various means to use in the resolution of daily conflicts, as well as their daily life to discover and make new strategies to face vital situations.

In the same way, the participants will work to increase their personal confidence and strengthen their self-esteem, and to redefine personal projects.

Furthermore, the council will set in motion, starting the next month of October, the Atlántida Project. Cooperative movement and feminine leadership’ to develop the women empowerment through the teaching of undertaking.

The councillor explained that “the project has as a goal improving the employability, the social and working status and the quality of life of the women participating, developing self-competences to apply them in productive environments, of cooperative character”.

Reyes has assured that “this way, we develop the creation of new ways of economic and social leadership, led by women”.

The Atlantida project will start the first week of October and will end on the 31 of March of 2021 and is planned for 30 women with ages between 25 and 49 years old in a situation of unemployment and with a minimum educational level of high school. 

In this context, certain collectives will be prioritised, specially disadvantaged ones, such as women victims of domestic violence, migrants, or with a level of disability higher than a 30%.

This way, through this project it is intended to have an impact on the creation of cooperative companies led by women and linked to the new employment fields, like the cultural management, the social and alternative tourism, the communication, the new technologies, or the public administrations and the private sector services, all of that without frustrating the initiatives of the participants. 

The initiative has obtained a grant of 14.950 euros from the Insular Council thanks to the announcement aimed at non-profit organizations and local entities of Gran Canaria for projects that encourage the gender equality, sexual orientation or gender identity.

Additionally, it has a joint financing by the city Council of 40.000 euros.