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l abuse is a virus capable of killing a person from within and from which it is not easy to escape. Ana Bella recognizes that she didn't have the guts until, after 11 years of abuse, her ex-husband almost finished her off. It was September 13, 2001, and she had no choice but to pluck up courage, escape with her four children, and report him to the police. A decision with which she only intended to save her life and which, over time, led her to create the Ana Bella Foundation.
Now, this foundation has an international network of more than 15,000 women survivors of abuse, and its function is to help others break their silence, start a new life, and find jobs that empower them, keeping them away from social exclusion. And it is precisely socio-labor insertion that is the reason why this year the Ana Bella Foundation has received the "la Caixa" Award for Social Innovation.
"Faced with a business need, we have provided a social response that generates systemic change: we, the survivor women, are not a problem to be solved; we are effective workers and agents of change," says Ana Bella when talking about the project, which has already provided jobs for 2,130 women.
Immediately after, she details that the most important thing is that, after training them in sales techniques, they have secured jobs as sales representatives where they can prosper, unlike those usually offered to them from other fields (cleaners, kitchen assistants, or chambermaids). "These jobs are just as dignified as any other, but we also want jobs facing the public, not just those that make us invisible," indicates Ana Bella, making it clear that her initiative has given them economic independence and the opportunity to love themselves in a way that, probably, they hadn't felt for too long.
"Many of us have received messages from abusers like 'you are worth nothing' or 'you will sink without me.' And work shows these women that they don't need them, that they have value on their own," says Ana Bella about a confidence that has led some to advance in the same company and others to grow, unstoppably, until they reach the job of their dreams: opening restaurants, beauty centers, or travel agencies.
A walking proof of the power that the Ana Bella Foundation grants to these women is Gloria, who was able to trust in herself at 62 years old. Gloria used to sell yogurts in shopping centers, and Ana Bella made her see that if the clients and the company believed in her abilities, she had no reason not to. So, over time, Gloria decided to go to university and, later, found an NGO to help elderly people living in solitude, Asociación Voluntariado Mairena del Aljarafe. Voluntarios en Acción.
Showing the strength of abuse survivors is another objective of the Ana Bella Foundation. Schools, congresses, media, and any space that serves as a loudspeaker are the scenarios where they have told their stories of overcoming so that other women dare to start a life that does not understand blows and see that, no matter how complicated their situation, they can also be happy. Ana Bella's message for all of them is encouraging: "You have to have more fear and more courage to sleep every night with a man who is abusing you than to start a new life. They have already gained courage by enduring the abuse, they just have to redirect it." The strength, these women, carry within them and it is infinite.
Text: Alba Losada Illustrations: p.nitas*
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