The Delegation of the Government of Spain in La Rioja will recognize in the XIII edition of the Meninas Awards 2025 the Rioja students Raquel De Ángel, Erika Jiménez and Valeria Villamor for the HER project, the Doctors of the World entity and the National Police agents Carlos Ayarza and Daniel Flores, personal defense instructors of the Center for Updating and Specialization (CAE).

The award, promoted by the Government Delegation for Gender Violence under the Ministry of Equality, is aimed at organizations, institutions and individuals committed to the eradication of violence against women and is part of the commemorative events of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women on 25 November. In this way, the winners deserve a Menina for the value of their interventions to prevent gender violence and for the involvement they have manifested in the fight, visibility and denunciation of male violence.

The award ceremony for the Meninas 2025 awards will take place on Monday, November 24, at 6 p.m. at the Centro de la Cultura del Rioja (CCR) in Logroño.

Awards 2025

As far as the winners are concerned, the first Menina is awarded to three Rioja students, Raquel De Ángel, Erika Jiménez and Valeria Villamor, Authors of the winning project of the Audi Creativity Challenge school competition. Under the name of HER, the students, under the direction of their teacher at the Compañía de María school, Carlos Lorente Rubio, have designed an application for the fight against gender violence, which offers all users extra security in their daily lives.

Specifically, it is a telematic control that can be installed by court order in the smartwatches of victims who have protection by order of accommodation. This application is linked to the AlertCops app of the State Security Forces and Corps and has the possibility of a connection to an external mini-camera for the prevention of sexual assaults.

Their first place in this contest has taken them to Silicon Valley, where they have presented this resource to representatives of companies such as Google, Apple, HTM.

The second Menina has been awarded to Doctors of the World for her work with victims in contexts of prostitution, trafficking and sexual exploitation. The Government Delegation recognizes the establishment of the entity in La Rioja, with a new office that has deployed a team that provides comprehensive care and works to guarantee economic alternatives to women victims.

They have also designed a socio-labour integration programme for women and girls who are victims of trafficking, sexual exploitation and women in prostitution. A program that did not exist in La Rioja, so its creation was necessary and justified.

The third and last prize has been awarded to the agents Personal Defense Instructors of the National Police Updating and Specialization Center (CAE) attached to the Superior Police Headquarters of La Rioja, Carlos Ayarza and Daniel Flores, for being trainers in Techniques of Self-Protection and Police Intervention and Personal Defense of Women.

They have also been collaborating for years with the Coordination Unit against Violence against Women of the Government Delegation in La Rioja, providing these self-defence courses. For years, they have demonstrated their commitment to women, with different seminars and training for associations, young university students and victims of gender violence.