Based on an idea of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), with the support of other organizations, a series of dialogues with women in workplaces and communities began in the province, aimed at speaking out in favor of non-violence.
Las Tunas, Cuba.- They began with pilot meetings in all municipalities on May 15, the date on which the International Day of the Family is celebrated. In this regard, Marly Fernandez Gonzalez, a member of the Provincial Secretariat of the FMC that attends the ideological issue, explained that "It is a political process that seeks to prevent violence in all its manifestations, with emphasis on the family sphere, and not only gender violence.
"We organize it to comply with the prevention strategy, which is binding and in which instances such as the Ministry of Labor and Social Security, the Health sector, the National Revolutionary Police (PNR), and psychologists from the Women's and Family Counseling Centers intervene, who collaborate with the counseling work in this regard."
The actions are mainly aimed at the communities; in the case of the province, 82 dialogues were organized in neighborhoods and 36 in institutions, where the essence is, according to Fernandez Gonzalez: "To sensitize people to participate so that they know how violence manifests itself, how we can prevent it. To what spaces we can go to treat the cases identified, placing greater emphasis on situations involving minors."
STEP BY STEP
Among the guiding entities that are part of this effort is the Prosecutor's Office, which has a protocol that explains the steps to be followed in a situation of this type. The first step is the legal orientation of all the rights to which they are entitled.
Idelmis Mesa Ojeda, who works as a prosecutor in our territory and who, in addition, has a direct link with this type of case, clarifies the importance of making a timely complaint and maintaining it over time because there are cases in which women lose their fear of the aggressor and that is when femicides occur.
It is the primary role of the Prosecutor's Office, as the guardian of control and legality, to protect the interests of the victims, in this case of women and children; for this reason, mechanisms must be sought to reach them and provide them with due attention.
"A woman victim of violence is first asked if she has gone to the PNR to file the corresponding complaint, Mesa Ojeda continues, and sometimes they are not received. From our functions we urge the filing of the complaint and orient the victims, who, protected by the Penal Code and the Criminal Procedure Law, can learn about their rights to hire a lawyer in the offices of the Collective Law Firm."
All the help mechanisms are in place, but it is still necessary to know... where does the violence start?
"Violence is not inherited, it is a learned behavior and goes beyond the social position of each individual," emphasizes psychologist Raidel Bejerano Balmaseda, head of the Department of the Municipal Public Health Community Center.
It is in these street outings that one can find, face to face with the public, the different manifestations of violence, including psychological violence, which transverses all types, "that is the one that remains for life and becomes cumulative."
"Most complaints in our province have as a starting point a minor who is being a victim of violence, and it is because the mother feels at a certain point that 'this is getting out of control'," says the psychologist.
Identifying the women who are in this type of situation and providing them with the appropriate support is one of the aids to be promoted, always trying to put yourself in their shoes. That way, the best solutions can be found.
