The government delegate in Galicia, Pedro Blanco, highlighted the growth of the government’s initiative ‘No Caminas Sola’, which provides for any type of male violence to the pilgrims who carry out the Camino de Santiago, adding more than 1,700 points of attention along the routes and growing, in this way, every year.
From Pontedeume, on the English Way, the delegate presented the campaign of 2025 of this plan, accompanied by the mayor of Pontedeume, Bernardo Fernández Piñeiro; the subdelegate of the Government in A Coruña, María Rivas; the general head of the 15 Zone of the Civil Guard, Miguel Ángel González Arias; the provincial head in A Coruña of the National Police, Carlos Gómez Rodríguez; the head of the Unit against Violence on the Woman of the Subdelegation in A Coruña, Official Painter, and Rosemary.
Pedro Blanco gave an account of this initiative, launched in 2021 and which is aimed at strengthening the protection of women who do the Camino de Santiago. “Women are being the protagonists of these pilgrimage paths and year after year their presence grows. They already represent 53% of the people who do the Camino (more than 246,000 women did it in the last year) and do not hesitate to do it without company,” said the delegate.
The ‘No Caminas Sola’ initiative offers pilgrim women all the information of emergencies and the resources of the Security Forces and Bodies to which they can go along the Camino, on the different routes that travel through Galicia until reaching Santiago. This information is accessible at points such as hostels, tourist offices, police stations, Civil Guard and Local Police, health centers, pharmacies and public hospitals.
“In addition, for ease of understanding, the material distributed at these points (34,700 posters and cards) is available in Spanish, English and Galician. And we also have the AlertCops application, which allows to communicate alerts in real time and with location sending,” said Pedro Blanco, who stressed that the ultimate objective of this campaign “is to turn the Camino into a path that women can travel, alone or accompanied, without any danger or limitation.”
The delegate also took advantage of the event to thank the mayor of Pontedeume for his welcome and collaboration in this campaign, recognition that extended to municipalities, health personnel, equality personnel in the subdelegations of the Government and the College of Pharmacists, whom he thanked for his involvement. He also valued the work, dedication and commitment of the Civil Guard and National Police “always and especially in this summer campaign, and in this concrete initiative to make the Camino de Santiago even safer.”
Finally, Pedro Blanco recalled that “this is an egalitarian and feminist government, committed to the promotion of women’s rights and the safeguarding of their security”, as demonstrated by the more than 94 million euros invested in Galicia since 2018 in actions to prevent and combat male violence, with more than 70 transferred to the regional administration.
“Therefore, we frame this campaign, ‘No Caminas Sola’, within the government’s purpose to make our society a better, safer and therefore freer place for all women. With that in mind, we will continue to work so that the existence of such initiatives is not necessary in the near future. We will achieve it all together,” he concluded.