Sisters Adorers: An individual educational plan to break the cycle of gender-based violence

The Sisters Adorers of the Province of Europe-Africa are working with an Individual Educational Plan in their shelters to break the cycle of gender-based violence.

On the occasion of this 25th November 2023, International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the Congregation of the Adorers, Handmaids of the Blessed Sacrament and of Charity, we share the press release issued by the Province of Europe-Africa on this Educational Plan. This is the focus of the Adorers’ intervention, through which it is intended that women acquire the appropriate skills to reduce the danger of falling victim again to the situations that have brought them to our projects, in this case, gender-based violence.

25N: International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women

A comprehensive and interdisciplinary approach, promoting the integral recovery, autonomy and social inclusion of women, the main axes of Adorers’ intervention.
The Talita Cumi project in Ciudad Real is one of the projects of the Adorers’ Social Work focused on the care of victims of gender violence, being a resource of the Network of Shelters for Gender Violence in the Community of Castilla La Mancha, Spain.

Gender violence is a serious violation of human rights, which interrupts the integral development of women, because it violates the physical and psychological integrity of women, girls and boys, and sometimes threatens their lives. This is why the intervention and methodology of the Adorers’ projects is characterized by an integral and multidisciplinary approach, in which the integral recovery, autonomy and social inclusion of the women who are accompanied are promoted.

The “Individual Educational Plan” is the core of the Adorers intervention, through which the women are expected to acquire the appropriate skills, with the aim of reducing the danger of becoming victims again of the situations that have brought them to the assistance resource, in this case, gender violence. The process takes place throughout the woman’s stay at the Adorers shelter, where she lives in a family environment.

“The design of our work has been based on taking into account all the key areas to achieve the recovery process of women victims of violence and their transition to an independent life. Thus, from a bio-psycho-social approach, we act on this recovery, offering support in matters related to their legal and economic situation, training, access to employment, housing, as well as promoting social participation”, as Rosa Montes, from the Adorers’ team in Ciudad Real (Spain), explains.

In this province, the Congregation has the Talita Cumi project, which focuses on this type of violence. In fact, in Castilla La Mancha, the Adorers’ project is a resource of the Network of Shelters for Gender Violence of the Women’s Institute since its inception, serving women from 18 to 30 years old with or without children.

Adorer Pedagogy

“Day by day, we are witnesses to a history of violence that has caused physical and emotional pain and fear. However, we have seen that with the necessary accompaniment, they and their families can get out of this situation of violence”, adds Rosa Montes, who recalls that “we take into account the diversity of the women residents, such as language or religion, as well as professional networking with other entities and all of this channeled through realistic objectives adapted to our own methodology, the Adorer Pedagogy”.

The key to the procedure is “accompaniment”, that is to say, accompanying these women on the hard road they are on, whether or not they leave their homes, denouncing situations of violence or entering the centers. Throughout this process, they are accompanied in various aspects such as the education of their children, everything related to health, access to and use of social resources, legal advice, as well as in the daily organization of their lives, helping them to resolve conflicts, to project themselves into the future and to rebuild their social networks and relationships.

In short, the women are accompanied so that they are able to empower themselves and follow their own path, a path in which they always have the support of the Adorers, even when they are out of the center and recovered. “One of the things we do in Ciudad Real and of which we are very proud is to encourage the women who have participated in our programmes to come and see us, to feel that we are a family and that they encourage those who are in the house and begin to generate bonds of support between them”, explains Rosa Montes.

However, coinciding with the commemoration this coming 25th November of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Adorers stresses that “as a society we have a long way to go so that women are not victims or survivors, but only women with rights and duties and with the responsibility to offer society the great wealth that each one of us possesses”.