WOMEN’S MINISTRIES IN SPAIN TRAIN GUIDANCE COUNSELORS

Last June the Women’s Ministries department organized a seminar presented by Sara Hernández (Senior counselor for gender equality) : "Love doesn't hurt", identifying abuse in family and couple relationships. She touched on identifying abusive treatment as well as the background. She helped to see how people get into such a situation as well as what can be done in prevention. The seminar was very positive and was attended by 150 women.
At the end of 2019, the Women’s Ministries Department in Spain scheduled visits in 2020 in all areas of Spain, at which pastors, Women’s Ministries leaders and counselors together for a training course against gender violence. Due to COVID-19 these visits had to be canceled. Seeing that gender violence was accentuated by the confinement, a ZOOM seminar was organized together with the Ministerial Association. Two sessions of 4 hours each on Sabbath afternoons were held. The response of the pastors to this event was very encouraging. We continue to work with enthusiasm on our platform against abuse, wishing to be able to be a light for thousands of women who find themselves in a situation of domestic violence.
Continuing with our project, on Wednesday July 15th Women’s Ministries leaders and future Guidance Counselors met by ZOOM. These counselors are women with a special sensitivity who are appointed in each church to serve women who are experiencing gender-based violence. A group of more than 40 women who have the desire provide emotional support to abused women in a crisis situation enrolled to be trained so that they can inform victims about existing resources and guide and refer them to specialized help while being a support and guidance for the community. They were provided with all the information necessary to be able to create a RESOURCE GUIDE.
Reported by Amalia Reta, WM Director, Spanish Union