From community work with women in Mexico to visits to Sahrawi refugee camps and pre-independence Pristina, first-hand experiences reveal how injustice, conflict and solidarity shape a lifelong commitment to human rights. (The Prisma memoirs)
Juan Galbete
She studied Law with a major in Economics in her native city and later completed a European Master’s degree in Human Rights and Democratisation in Venice and Budapest. In 2008 she took the opportunity to move to Mexico, where she embarked on a worthy project, working with women of poor communities.
Specifically, she worked in Celaya, a city in the state of Guanajuato, advising women’s groups on social, economic and health issues. “These women have problems with their self-esteem, they suffer from domestic abuse and they need special support,” she says.
Another important goal of the project was to offer the women economic support through microloans they could use to start small businesses, or to inject capital into already-existing business.
She noted that many husbands took issue with the help the women were being offered. She holds dear those memories of Mexico, passionately recalling the good with the bad, highlighting the treatment she received. “The people are incredible. They open their homes to you, they are very generous and always treat you like family,” she says. She looks back on the bitter moments as well, especially how distant she felt from her family.
In 2004, she was able to visit the refugee camps of the Sahrawi community in the Sahara desert thanks to a working group organised jointly by the Basque, Spanish and Catalan Youth Councils. Together with other activists, she lived and collaborated with the refugees in the Dakhla camp and later travelled to Smara to hold a peaceful demonstration in front of the ‘wall of shame’. As in her Mexican experience, she emphasises the generosity of these humble people above all else.
In 2008, she travelled to Pristina, the capital of Kosovo, with her fellow graduate students, two weeks before the country declared its independence from Serbia. They stayed among the Kosovar Albanian community, where a bridge separates them from Serbian territory.
She confirms that she sensed “the hatred” that exists between the two communities, but claims to be “very lucky” to have been able to experience their reality. Armed with such experiences, she is convinced that “we should not live in a bubble of our own world, of ourselves, worrying about only those in our circle”. “Despite the injustices and the hard times, what stays with me is the continuous learning and the generosity of the people”. (The Prisma memoirs)
(Translated by Natasha Greenidge – E-mail: natashagreenidge1@gmail.com) – Photos: Pixabay
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