Costa Blanca News: Anti-bullying talk in Alfaz from former victim

THREE HUNDRED pupils packed the gym at Alfaz’s L’Arabi high school for a lecture on bullying.
The talk, organised by the Lions Club, the L’Arabi school and the town hall, was given by social educator Marina Marroqui, a specialist in gender violence who has survived abuse herself. She has given talks and organised workshops for 65,000 adolescents and young people throughout Spain, with the purpose of providing them with the means of detecting the earliest signs of bullying and gender violence.
Marina Marroqui’s inner strength is immediately visible, declared Alfaz’s Social Welfare councillor Marisa Cortes.
“Nobody knows more about gender violence than she does, as from the time she was 15 until she reached 19, she suffered abuse, beatings and ill-treatment,” Cortes revealed.
“But the most important aspect of her experiences was her capacity to move on and set to work to help the most vulnerable and the maltreated.”
Marroqui regards herself as a survivor and her knowledge and advice on how to act when gender violence occurs made for an “amazing” lecture, Cortes said. She studied Social Education at Granada University and currently presides the Elche Association against Gender Violence (AIVIG).
“I need to try to ensure that society changes, that education changes and to bring to light the hell that is hidden inside so many homes,” Marroqui declared.