For over 20 years, the Oblates of the Most Holy Redeemer and the Adorers have been working in Almería, now united in a common initiative that is already a sign of the times: the Encounter Project.
In Almería, where the sea merges with the plastic of greenhouses and intensive agriculture has transformed the landscape and demographics, there are realities that are rarely discussed. People talk—and rightly so—about labor exploitation, about day laborers without contracts, about inhumane conditions. But they are almost never mentioned. The women who, in remote farmhouses, in sheds that were once used for tools, in scattered apartments, or on the roadside, practice prostitution in conditions of extreme vulnerability. There, in this complex and profoundly invisible territory, the Oblates of the Most Holy Redeemer and the Adorers, Slaves of the Blessed Sacrament and of Charity, have been working for more than two decades. Each congregation with its own project, its own charism and structure. But united in a common initiative that is already a sign of the times: the Encounter Project.
“We assume that the main focus is on connecting with the women who are there,” explains Asunción Bartolomé, an Oblate sister and the project’s institutional representative in Almería. “They usually go to farmhouses, greenhouses, and various apartments… everything we now call decentralized prostitution. These situations are much more hidden due to the nature of the greenhouses and the social context there,” she points out. There, “the conditions are even more inhumane at all levels of care, especially protection,” the nun asserts. “These are contexts where there are many more risks and where the women are more vulnerable,” she adds.
As Juani López, a nun and head of the shared project, recalls, everything began to change in the early 2000s. “In 2002, we analyzed the situation. That was when the whole immigration issue started here in Almería. With the expansion of the greenhouses, people began arriving from elsewhere, and with them came women,” she explains. The first victims of trafficking were referred by the police to the shelter run by the nuns in the city. “They were brought to us from different places, and one day, talking with the Oblate Sisters, we said: why don’t we do something together with these women in the contexts where they are working as prostitutes?” That’s how the first outreach efforts began: on the road, in clubs, in greenhouses.
Over time, that impulse materialized into the Encounter Project, supported by CONFER as an inter-congregational initiative. “Personally, seeing the reality of religious life today, inter-congregational collaboration is a sign,” Bartolomé affirms. “It’s a call for today, but it’s also a challenge,” he acknowledges. Because walking together isn’t just about pooling resources, but about allowing one’s own charism to expand. “When you position yourself in an ‘inter’ context, it involves letting go, letting some things go in order to introduce other approaches, which is also a source of enrichment,” he insists.
The Oblates and Adorers share a focus on women in their charisms. “What unites us most is our work with women,” summarizes López. “Accompanying them through their journeys, empowering them, and helping them break free from the situations that most enslave them,” she adds. Integration wasn’t difficult because they share a common vision: dignity, freedom, and progress. Each congregation maintains its own projects. The Adorers have residential facilities and shelters. The Oblates also work through other social and educational programs. But in Almería, they work together. “We go out on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays to the different areas where women are located, both in the Levante region and the Poniente region, as well as in the city of Almería,” explains López.
The women’s origins change according to migration flows and trafficking networks. “At first, they were mainly from Eastern Europe. Then there was the boom in women from Nigeria. Currently, they are mostly from Latin America and Africa,” López explains. Many are very young, and yet they are “the breadwinners of their families.”
Before any procedure, before any technical intervention, there is the encounter. “The first step is outreach, contacting them, creating a relationship and a bond of trust and freedom, and a commitment to non-judgment,” Bartolomé emphasizes. For this purpose, the congregations use a mobile unit. “We offer them health insurance cards, because we have an agreement with the health department and can process them. This is the most basic and fundamental step to ensure they receive care,” López explains. From there, little by little, the possibility of psychological and legal support, as well as training, opens up. “Many are in psychological treatment because these are very difficult situations,” López acknowledges.
To make them valid
Bartolomé insists that the entire intervention is based “on the principle of empowering them to assert their rights, to have them recognized, to validate them as protagonists of the response they wish to give at this stage of their lives, from a feminist perspective that puts women at the center.” “Our approach is for them to see within themselves all the possibilities they have to make their own decisions,” she explains, emphasizing that her role is to accompany them through processes so that, if they wish, they can break free from that cycle that sometimes enslaves them. But the project is not limited to direct intervention.
“Given this situation, we can’t just limit ourselves to providing technical solutions; we also have to address the root causes,” says Bartolomé. “We need to see how we can influence the structures that lead women to these realities, and not only lead them there, but also keep them there,” he explains. It’s not just a matter of the consumption of prostitution, but also of social indifference. “We also contribute to the continuation of this reality when we look the other way,” he adds. López agrees: “They suffer a lot. But they are very strong. Their resilience is incredibly powerful.” And for their children, they are capable of anything.
By Elena Magariños | In the Magazine of the CONFER (Spanish Conference of Religious) n. 55 – March 2026
