“Between freshwater and tides: 10 years of building and learning about care and healing among women human rights defenders and their collectivities”.”

The book “Entre aguas dulces y mareas” is a compilation of IM-Defensoras' more than 10 years of experience in enabling self-care, collective care and healing for women human rights defenders at risk in Mexico and Central America.

Presentation of the book “Entre aguas dulces y mareas: 10 años de construcción y aprendizajes sobre el cuidado y la sanación entre defensoras y sus colectividades” (Between fresh water and tides: 10 years of construction and learning about care and healing among women defenders and their collectivities).”

On 6 April, the publication “Entre aguas dulces y mareas: 10 años de construcción y aprendizajes sobre el cuidado y la sanación entre defensoras y sus colectividades” (Between freshwater and tides: 10 years of construction and learning about care and healing among women defenders and their collectivities) was launched in Spain.

This book brings together, in its 160 pages, the experience of more than 10 years of the Mesoamerican Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders (IM-Defensoras) in enabling self-care, collective care and healing for women human rights defenders at risk in Mexico and Central America.

The event, which was promoted by Calala Women’s Fund in conjunction with IM-Defensoras and the Support network for human rights defenders (Defenred).

This publication is part of the Integral Feminist Protection work that IM-Defensoras is carrying out with more than two thousand women human rights defenders in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua.

A book that condenses the road travelled

“In the Mesoamerican region there is a very rich and intense experience of protecting and dealing with violence against women. But there was no joint approach to understand what happened when violence against women and violence against women human rights defenders intersected, how they were linked and how they hurt us,” shared María Martín of IM-Defensoras, who was accompanied at the book launch by Ana María Hernández, co-director of Consorcio Oaxaca, coordinator of the La Serena respite home and responsible for the regional strategy of self-care, care and healing of IM-Defensoras.

Ana María Hernández shared that “The book Entre aguas dulces y mareas condenses a road travelled”.”

“We have to build scenarios of strength. Because women defenders need to understand the context, have strategies and so on. But this is only one part, there is another part that we have distanced ourselves from in order to survive, without touching the emotions. Now we want to work on self-care, but without blaming ourselves for not doing it. There is no place here for guilt, only for accompanying ourselves as a collective reflection. This is what this book is about,” she said.

The director of the Catalan Agency for Development Cooperation, Carme Gual Vía, who opened the event, highlighted the value of the work carried out by IM-Defensoras in the systematisation of knowledge and stressed that this feminist approach to self-care, collective care and healing is very powerful and very important, and is even an important tool for the development of the organisation. reference for the cooperation agency.

This presentation also featured comments from Víctor Arias, member of Defenred, Olatz Talavera, member of Casa de las Defensoras Basoa and Red Artea, Julieta Kühl, Nicaraguan therapist and Paula Riedemann, from Calala Fondo de Mujeres, who shared their experience supporting human rights defenders in Spain, and how the IM-Defensoras has inspired their work.

“Human rights defenders experience violence, harassment and repression for the work they do. Through the work of IM-Defensoras, we have learned that self-care, collective care and healing processes are central to the sustainability of social movements. In Calala, we support different migrant women's groups to strengthen their collective care,” she said. Paula Riedemann, Calala Women's Fund's programme officer.

Several publications will be programmed in order to give voice to the 10+ anniversary of IM-Defensoras. ”Entre aguas dulces y mareas” is only the first one and it draws on the process of systematising its experience in Integral Feminist Protection (PIF). At the end of May, IM-Defensoras will hold the international launch through an online event. After the event, the publication will be made available to the general public in digital format.

Documentary teaser presentation “You will flourish, Nicaragua”

The event closed with the presentation of the teaser of the documentary film “You will flourish, Nicaragua” of the documentary filmmaker Helena Closa, whose production has been supported by Calala Fondo de Mujeres in the framework of its project to support women human rights defenders. The documentary will be released this May.