Despite not being the main focus of the demands around Women’s Day, he esnogarism also suffers from a significant gender gap that makes women invisible. According to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE), 76.7% of homeless people are men compared to 23.3% women. In this context, homeless women are double vulnerable: one because of their status as homeless and another because of their gender, which exposes them to sexual assaults suffered by 24% of them.
Senovia knows that reality well. She has lived it firsthand. At the age of 23, she came to Spain from her native Colombia to work and earn the necessary money to pay off a family debt: “I decided to find my life”. And life has not made it easy.
Upon arriving in Spain, he was victim of a white slavery network, a world from which she was able to leave, but which, without resources or support, led her to prostitution and addictions in order to have a roof: her priority. “You get some money for the basics, like eating and paying for a few nights in a pension. I have come to sleep on sofas of acquaintances where you could spend one or two days ”. But in that descent into the abyss, she expected something worse: living on the street. “it’s hell. You think you’re going to go crazy. You only see the bad things in life. Living on the street or on loan degrades you physically and mentally, ”she recalls.
female resilience
Senovia is also an example that, with help and personal commitment, it is possible to get out of this spiral of social exclusion. After her pilgrimage through the hostels in Navarra, the Gipuzkoa Provincial Council put her in contact with Errondo Gure Etxea from the San Juan de Dios Hospital in San Sebastián, a Comprehensive care center for people in severe social exclusion which has a multidisciplinary team of social and health professionals. 25 years have passed since Senovia arrived in Spain in search of an opportunity. Today, at the age of 48, he confesses that has begun to dream and look to the future with hope: “I would like to have a clothing store. I want my own independence and be useful to society.”
And she also sends a message to women who may be in her situation: “There are many women who keep quiet out of shame for their family or what will they say. And you have to talk: If I’m alive it’s because I’ve let myself be helped and I’m in therapy. Now I feel protected.”