This initiative will be developed in municipalities with less than 5,000 inhabitants where femicides represented 45% of the total in Spain in 2019. Their economic and socio-cultural resources are saturated and difficult to access. This project will work in women's support groups to create networks of trust, building on those that already exist and activating dialogue between the community and local institutions in order to stop gender violence and create alternatives for good treatment.

The project is being developed in the rural area in the south of the Community of Madrid, Spain.

The rural area in the south of the Community of Madrid has high rates of gender violence and the resources available are non-existent in many villages and insufficient in others. Reports of cases of gender violence are very low. Transport between villages in the area is very precarious, leading women without cars into a situation of isolation and inaccessibility to resources. In this rural area, there is still a high acceptance of gender violence and protection between men and authorities towards the aggressors, normalizing daily life of high vulnerability and lack of protection. The lack of access to own economic resources, the lack of autonomy and empowerment and the absence of support networks also make it difficult to escape from these situations of violence.

There will be a three-line work:
-Empowerment work in groups of women: Aimed at a total of 20 women per location (3 locations). Of which, it is estimated that each group will have approximately 20 participants:
Over 65 years old: 5 are women over 65 years old
Youth:5
Different nationalities:5
Victims of gender-based violence:5
The work is carried out from an integrating perspective in spaces of trust and security.
-At the same time, socio-educational work will be carried out with children from a gender perspective, which will also encourage the participation of the mothers who care for them.
-Work open to the community: The women's networks are community-based, so all of them and the general public will be involved in the events, collective reflections and processes that we work on

The work is organized in 5 blocks:
-Integral health groups for women: Weekly meetings, in which we work with a bio-psycho-social and gender perspective. These groups continue in an autonomous way after the end of the project.
-Individualized accompaniment (psychological, social) for women in a situation of violence and referral to other resources.
-Respectful accompaniment with a socio-educational, creative and feminist perspective towards children. In parallel with the workshops for women.
-#EnFemenino: Collects the women's stories and prototypes the experience of the collective walk. This memory will be poured into a narrative map and into a walk that will highlight the importance of (re)constructing history collectively.
-Public Film and forum theatre series on gender violence.

The expected results are:
- The creation of three new groups of women who will continue to work autonomously in the localities.
- The rejection of gender violence will be public and more visible and in a more continuous and coordinated way
- Cooperation between institutions and citizens against gender-based violence will have been strengthened.
- Women in the area will be less afraid and will know the networks and resources to which they can turn.
- The quality of life of women will be improved at a bio-psycho-social level.
- Sorority among women in the village will have been strengthened, thus favouring mutual support and action against gender violence.
- Intergenerational and intercultural relations will have been strengthened.

The participation in the public life of these municipalities is led by men, who hold most of the public offices and own the agricultural properties. Women inhabit the private sphere and it is they who make life possible from the perspective of family care. We will take their community contribution as a starting point and work creatively to scale up their value and put it at the centre of the local agenda. The groups, in addition to working on empowerment, will carry out collective actions for the municipality, such as visits to recover the memory of history lived from the point of view of women or the film and theatre forum cycle, which will provide safe spaces for debate on major social issues that appeal to the community.

Democracy requires the effective equal participation of women and this is far from being the case, especially in impoverished rural areas where gender-based violence remains socially unpunished and institutions do not have sufficient means or resources to combat it.
Gender work in women's groups allows the generation of support, confidence and sorority networks that empower village women, improve their living conditions in a meaningful way and allow them to feel safe, use public space and become an active part of their community, thus becoming key agents of change for the socio-cultural transformation of their localities.
In addition, it is necessary to make visible in the public sphere the rejection of gender violence in all its expressions.

- Staff costs, trainers and general coordination, accompanying children's space: 20,500
- Accompanying services in group processes and training in deep democracy (in collaboration with Altekio): 15,000€
- Recovery of history (activity in cooperation with Flaneadoras): 4,000 €
- Management costs: 2,500€
- Materials: 1,500€
- Dissemination costs: 1,000€
- Film and theatre sessions: 2.500 €
- Transport costs: 500 €

We would like to hear about similar initiatives that have been launched in rural areas. We would like to know about other opportunities for financing or supporting projects in the rural area and/or with a gender perspective, at a national and international level.