SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, Nov. 17 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The director of the Canary Islands Institute for Equality (ICI), Kika Fumero, presented this Thursday the new institutional campaign of the Government of the Canary Islands on the occasion of the ‘International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, 25N.
‘It’s time to live, let’s leave the shadows behind’ is the motto with which this year the Government, in alliance with the seven island councils, positions itself with the generation of older Canarian women who live, or have lived a large part of their lives , “cancelled, humiliated, and mistreated by a man,” denounced Kika Fumero.
The director assured that “it is a historical debt” to provide sufficient resources to older women so that in their later years they can “live with dignity, with well-being” and are helped to “come out of the shadows” with the necessary means and that his last years of life “may be a time to live, of joy that is a revolutionary act”.
According to Fumero, “only in the last two years three women over the age of 80 have been killed by gender violence in the Canary Islands”, while pointing out that “the majority of violence suffered by older women remains hidden for decades”.
According to the specific study on women over 65 who are victims of gender violence published by the Government Delegation for gender violence, 40% of the older women surveyed and users of the ATENPRO service had been suffering violence for 40 years or more. 27% had endured between 20 and 30 years.
Currently, only 34% of women over the age of 65 who are victims of gender violence resort to medical, psychological, social or legal help services, and just over half of them tell their entourage, collects a note of the regional government.
Representatives of the island councils also participated in the presentation of the campaign, and on their behalf, the Councilor for Equality of the Fuerteventura Council, Adargoma Hernández, spoke, thanking the coordination of all the administrations in the fight against violence.
“We must join forces to end this scourge and reach sectors as vulnerable as older women who suffer in silence and take years to request help.”
MORE THAN 12,000 CALLS TO 112
During the presentation, the director measured the seriousness of what she considered “a serious structural problem” through the latest data on calls to the 112 violence service, in which 12,501 calls were registered between January and October, of which 284 referred to violence suffered by women over 65 years of age.
Of the total calls, 60% were emergency, which means imminent danger to the victim, 21% information and 19% urgency.
In this period, the Emergency Devices of the councils (DEMA) were activated 1,583 times since 112 and had to shelter 263 women and 136 girls and boys who could not return home with the abuser.
In these devices they can be sheltered for up to 96 hours, if their situation is not resolved they go to a shelter where they can stay up to 15 days and then to other types of resources such as shelters first and lastly, supervised apartments.
Similarly, calls to 112 for gender violence in these first 10 months of the year forced the mobilization of 7,280 police resources and 659 health resources on the islands.
In the month-by-month analysis, the highest volume of calls occurred in the month of August (1,411) followed by last October (1,372).
The months with the highest volume of emergency calls were January and August, coinciding with the holiday periods.
42% of calls were made by the victim herself, 27% by accidental callers, 18% by institutions and 5% by relatives. The rest were carried out by other services.
As of September 30, and according to data from the Ministry of the Interior collected in the monthly statistical bulletin of the Government Delegation against Gender Violence, the security forces maintain 4,885 active cases of victims of gender violence in Canary Islands of which 91 are over 65 years of age.
Since 2003, when the Canarian Law 16/2003, of April 8, on the prevention and comprehensive protection of women against gender violence in the Canary Islands, came into force, 101 women and 8 children have been murdered for this reason. and girls and 22 minors have been orphaned since 2013.
