A pioneering project wants to turn Ripollès (Girona) into a welcoming region for refugees due to sexual orientation or gender identity, members of the LGTBIQ community.
They are people who have had to flee their countries because "their lives were at risk to be who they are and love how they love," explains Ordi Coch, project technician.
At a time when there is talk of the need to repopulate rural areas, the program wants to contribute to the development of these territories from a gender perspective and weave a network between the host community and the newcomers to "break" stigmas and generate complicity. .
One of the participants highlights being able to feel "safe" because he can now express what he feels and who he is.
Repopulate, network and accompany so that they can rebuild their lives and be self-sufficient. These are the objectives of Comunitats Rurals Queer which, as explained by one of its promoters, Jordi Coch, places emotional well-being "at the center of everything." For this reason, the project, which has funding from the Department of Equality and Feminism, consists of offering accommodation for the four participants to live under the same roof for a year and with accompanying work that helps them adapt to the new reality. with the support of the Ripollès Social Welfare Consortium.
Participants will also have a contract through the MAP del Ripollès Foundation to rejoin the world of work and, after going through the program, live with full autonomy.
"The project wants to energize and give visibility" to the situation of these people, who have had to flee their country due to their sexual condition or gender identity. "We have cases of extreme violence and persecution in public spaces, of being at risk to be as they are and love as they love," details the technician in reference to the first four participants from Colombia. Some "very harsh" situations that have had "a certain connivance of the state", where this type of violence is not pursued.
In parallel, the project also seeks to contribute to forestation from another approach. "Depopulation is a reality that is always faced in a traditional way, much in economic and diversification terms," according to the technician. However, for Coch, other factors are not taken into account, such as gender issues that "push LGTBIQ people to leave these communities, seeking an anonymity that they believe the towns cannot give them."
