Valencia City Hall joins the campaign against sexual exploitation of women and childhood with its own initiative that starts today under the motto “SOS. Don’t be an accomplice. Victims of sexual exploitation and trafficking of women, girls and boys ask for your help. The Councilor for Equality, Rocío Gil, presented this Monday the campaign, which will run until the 23rd, within the framework of 23/9, International Day against Sexual Exploitation and Trafficking of Women, Girls and Boys.
The campaign includes the dissemination of awareness messages from social networks and the municipal website, the installation of information posters on street furniture, the use of an EMT bus with the campaign motif (line 71, which passes through the universities), and numerous information on the real situation of sexual exploitation, which will be offered from institutional networks and the Web. In addition, on September 17, the meeting room of the Municipal Youth Center of Campoamor will host a conference by activist Amelia Tiganus entitled “Youth, Internet and sexual violence: who wins?”
The reason for this year’s campaign focuses on the situation of victims of sexual exploitation, and send a direct SOS message to every citizen with four objectives: first, to reflect the enormous social injustice that this exploitation implies; also to give visibility to 23-S as an international awareness day; Likewise, it is sought that citizens do not normalize the payment of sex; and finally, to offer objective data to understand the seriousness of the situation.
This is how he explained it Ricardo Terradasrepresentative of the company responsible for the image of the campaign, which presents, in its own words, a “call for help from victims of trafficking”. The image plays with the word SOS and the date 23-S, both in color, on a background of black and white images of prostituted women, which reflect the situation of exploitation and lack of freedom.
The advisor Rocio Gil He recalled that the Valencia City Council is a member of the Municipal Network Free of Trafficking and Prostitution, and stated that “we want to send a message to our society and especially to younger men, so that they do not normalize the purchase of women and sexual exploitation”. As announced by the Ministry of Equality, the vast majority of prostitution occurs between men asking for women, with figures that usually exceed 95%. For this reason, he recalled that the demand for prostitution is a form of violence against women and against their sexual freedom. This demand is the direct trigger for trafficking for sexual exploitation, which constitutes a transnational and timeless crime.
“Youth, Internet and sexual violence: who wins?
The central event of the municipal campaign is the conference entitled “Youth, Internet and Sexual Violence: Who Wins?”, which will be offered Amélie Tiganuson September 17th at the auditorium of the Municipal Youth Center of Campoamor at 6:00 p.m., with free admission. Tiganus, originally from Galati (Romania), is a writer, feminist activist and trainer of courses and workshops to raise awareness and prevent prostitution and sexual violence. She was a victim of trafficking and sexual exploitation for five years in Spanish brothels and is currently studying a double degree in journalism, advertising and public relations at UDIMA (Distance University of Madrid).
The author, who has received several awards and distinctions for her work in defense of the human rights of women and girls, is also the founder and director of Emargi, a social project dedicated to the global struggle for a future free of sexual and reproductive exploitation. health of women and girls with a local, national and international dimension. She is also president of the National Federation of Abolitionist Women (FEMAB). She is the author of the comic book “Amelia: historia de una lucha” (Serendipia, 2021) and the book “La revolte de las putas: de victim a activist” (Ediciones B, 2021), and will soon publish her third work, the book “Never “I was just anyone”.
Rocío Gil invited citizens to participate in the campaign, which also aims to prevention in younger men so that they do not naturalize prostitution as a way of being in society and so that they do not become “prostitutes” or immodest, and so that they do not tolerate a situation of extreme inequality, becoming accomplices.
The mayor and the representative of the countryside’s creativity also highlighted the influence of pornography consumption in the adolescent and young population, and the relationship between the consumption of pornography and prostitution. Likewise, they highlighted that currently sexual exploitation has changed the meeting spaces and the type of contact: from the street and clubs to apartments, and from direct contact to the management of digital marketing and the weight of mafia networks and pimps to digital platforms and virtual reality, spaces that generate millions of euros a year by transforming women, children and girls into products and merchandise through the continuous consumption of pornographic content and prostitution, and that normalize the payment of money for the provision of any type of image or service of a sexual nature. In addition, these platforms recruit increasingly younger women into prostitution.
This year’s campaign will feature graphic signage in 3 different modelsand a brochure with interesting information and telephone numbers where you can ask for help (Espai Dones i Igualtat 962087475. Alba Program 960252857). There will also be street furniture supports in 80 MUPIS, 3 columns and 2 seniors, and in the Plaza de l’Ajuntament the video with the design and message of the campaign will be projected on the two digital mupis of the facade of the town hall.
The action of the municipal council
The Equality Service currently has two agreements for the care of women in prostitution: Médicos del Mundo (€35,000) and Cáritas Diocesana (Jere-Jere Project, which this year increased to €40,000). In addition, the Social Protection Service has the “Valencia Inserta” program for the training, orientation and socio-professional integration of women in situations of prostitution and/or trafficking. All this work is carried out in collaboration with the Coordinator for the Inclusion of People in Situations of Prostitution and Trafficking, made up of associations, NGOs, entities and municipal administrations that work with people in situations and contexts of prostitution and trafficking.
