El Campello Mobilizes Against Prostitution and Human Trafficking

Three important and highly involved women. Three perfect connoisseurs of an issue that concerns everyone, not just the victims. Three activists and, above all, three disseminators of a social problem as complex as prostitution and human trafficking.

From the Department of Women and Equality of the El Campello Town Hall, led by Maricarmen Alemañ, and the Violeta Platform, they have managed to bring together three highly professional and authoritative voices to provide information at what will be the 'First Day Against the Prostitution System and Trafficking' held by the municipality.

This event will take place on Saturday, September 7th, from 10 AM to 2 PM in the Enric Valor room of the Casa de Cultura. These three feminist activists are Rosa Cobo Bedía, feminist writer, researcher, and associate professor of Sociology at the University of La Coruña; Vanessa Silva, activist, abolitionist feminist, and 'survivor' of these events; and María Arenas Bardisa, health psychologist and president of the Las Independientes Association, according to the El Campello Town Hall.

The Town Hall has emphasized that "given the quality of these speakers, their communication skills, and their media projection," attendance will be limited to the venue's capacity for the safety of all those present.

Rosa Cobo has an extensive professional career linked to this issue. She received the "Carmen de Burgos" feminist dissemination award for the best article published in 1997. She was the founder and first director of the Interdisciplinary Seminar on Feminist Studies at the University of La Coruña and also directed the master's program on Gender and Equality Policies from 2005 to 2008. Her main research line is feminist theory and gender sociology. She has been a member of the advisory team for the Ministry of Education and Science and the Ministry of Equality, and she has given courses and lectures in Spain and various Latin American countries.

María Arenas Bardisa presides over Las Independientes Association, a collective that stems from the need to accompany women in prostitution from an abolitionist feminist perspective to ensure their rights. She is a health psychologist specializing in gender violence, support for prostituted women, and trafficking networks.

Vanessa Silva is an activist who is a feminist and abolitionist, considered a 'survivor' of sexual trafficking. She has offered workshops on prevention of recruitment and discouragement of demand to young people and adolescents in the province. She is also part of Las Independientes Association, mainly directed by women who have managed to leave the prostitution system and/or gender violence, although others can participate.