Costa Almeria says no to gender violence

ALMERIA has loudly condemned gender-based violence.
People across the province came out on Monday to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and to add their voices to calls to take action.
Local authorities organised marches, workshops and events aimed at raising awareness about the issue and sending out the message to gender violence victims they are not alone and there are ways out of abusive relationships.
Cuevas and Adra councils were just two of the many which commemorated the day with the reading out of a manifesto against violence against women.
To further get the message across in Cuevas municipal benches featured awareness-raising messages like ‘Live in equality, live without violence’.
In Adra the cry was ‘Not a minute more silence!’
Mayor Manuel Cortes said it was the responsibility of the whole of society “to fight against and condemn macho violence.
“The systematic violation of human rights has no place in a democratic society.”
A large banner bearing the message ‘Huercal-Overa says NO to Gender Violence’ and featuring stars with messages of hope and decorated by local schoolchildren was the centerpiece of the acts in Huercal-Overa.  
Mayor Francisca Lourdes Fernandez summed up the reasons for putting the gender-based violence at the top of the agenda, commenting, “knowing we are facing a real problem that we have to try and eradicate, we have to work together to put a stop to this violence which ends the lives of women and children and breaks up families.”
In the provincial capital representatives of the Government Sub-delegation in Almeria, the Junta de Andalucia, the Diputacion de Almeria and the city council took part in official acts. They included a minute’s silence in memory of all the women who have died at the hands of their partners or ex-partners, numbering nearly 40 in the province since 2003.