«Ellas cuentan» is the name of the project that Cinfa and Malasmadres organized. The name of the project can be translated as “They tell their stories” but also as “They matter”. It aimed at recognizing and shedding light on the disease-related life struggles of women in Spain.
Four ambassadors supported the first edition of this project. They are women who act as spokespersons or are themselves examples of resilience and overcoming hardship. Lucía Mi Pediatra, Cristina Inés, “Mamá se va a la guerra”, Teresa Robles, “Pon un Down en tu vida” and Vanesa Pérez, founder of the blog “¿Y de verdad tienes tres?”. Thanks to their support and the Malasmadres’ community the event gathered 241 life stories and over 60,000 votes.
«Ellas cuentan»: the structure of the event
To launch the action, Malamadres Club activated a candidate registration system with the Easypromos Writing Contest app. This app allowed the participants to submit their stories and make them visible to the community using a “gallery” format.
Prior to their submission, participants had to choose one of three categories for their story:
- Women living with a disease.
- Being in charge of a dependent person.
- Having sons or daughters with special needs or suffering a disease.
The voting stage started immediately after the deadline for participants to submit their stories allowing only one vote per person. In just one week the initiative received over 63,000 votes. Finally, three finalists were selected from among the most voted stories.
The three selected women received an economic grant to help them improve their quality of life. As well as that of their son or daughter through a workshop, therapy, or any other kind of help.
El cliente
The Malasadres Club (Bad Mothers Club) is an emotional community 3.0. Its members are mothers with little sleep, lots of joy, and willing to change the world. Or die trying. Initially, the club was born in 2014 to demystify motherhood and crack down on the “perfect mother” myth. It strives for a new social model for mothers who don’t want to give up their careers but don’t want to miss out on their children growing up. The community has over one million followers.
Projects like this one, made possible by Cinfa and Malasmadres aim to promote core values, raise awareness, and promote empathy among community members who share life experiences and the struggle against social stigma.
Cinfa is the Spanish pharmaceutical company with the highest presence in Spanish households and more than 50 years of history. As a socially responsible company, and acting within the Sustainable Development Goals framework, Cinfa carries out different initiatives to promote people’s health. Other initiatives include: “La voz del paciente – The patient’s voice”, “La mirada del paciente – The patient’s look/perspective”, and “Teaming”. All of them aim to focus on patients’ and other vulnerable groups’ day-to-day life.
Testimonial
The “Ellas cuentan” project has given voice to to over 240 women, who were able to tell their stories to anyone willing to read and support them with their vote. Despite only having 3 finalists, the system allowed anyone to read any and all the submitted stories easily.
-Maite Egoscozabal- El Club de las Malasmadres
