Aura Roig
social anthropologist with a Master’s Degree on Criminology and Sociology of the Penal System
Metzineres Director , Metzineres , Metzineres. Environments of Shelter for womxn Who Use Drugs Surviving Violence
Barcelona, Spain
About
I am based in Barcelona, my background is a social anthropologist with a Master’s Degree on Criminology and Sociology of the Penal System of the University of Barcelona. Currently I am working in my PhD in Medical Anthropology. For the past 20 years I have been dedicated to drug policy, harm reduction, human rights and gender mainstream, combining research with the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of drug policies, programs and services in Spain, Canada, Colombia and Costa Rica. Also doing advisory work in USA and EECA Region. In 2016 I moved back to Barcelona to do the first study about women who inject drugs in Catalonia, that was the beginning of the XADUD, Network of Women who Use Drugs. In 2017 Metzineres. Environments of Shelter for Women Who Use Drugs Surviving Violences, was born as the first harm reduction program only for women and gender non conforming people in Spain. In 2020 Metzineres became a non-profit cooperative, where I am the founding director
Abstract
Metzineres is the first non-profit cooperative aimed at deploying Environments of Shelter that are exclusive to womxn and which cover the full spectrum of harm reduction. With a holistic and individualized approach connected to the particularities of each womxn, they offer flexible proposals, with direct and immediate entry. They take into consideration the expectations, concerns,
curiosities, interests, and needs of each person. An innovative and daring model of intervention based on human rights and gender mainstreaming, supported by community and social and solidarity economy strategies that aims to be reliable, pragmatic, cost-effective, and where every womxn is the protagonist.
Metzineres welcomes all those who feel identified by forming and adapting compassionate responses to complex and changing realities. Rather than creating an exhaustive and exclusive list, emphasis is placed on reaching those who experience multiple, simultaneous, and interconnected social variables that condition their existence. Among the almost 300 womxn who have already
joined us, they experience: drug-related problems (72%), homelessness (69%), migratory experiences (37%), LGTBIQ+ (20%), sex work (16%) and/or sex for survival (20%), imprisonment (29%), mental health disorders (46%), and functional diversity (6%).
