SIEMPREVIVAS RUM:
15 Years of Community Feminism Dedicated to Healing, Solidarity, and Transformation

Left to Right: Sara Benítez Delgado, Marta Elsa Fernández Pabellón, Marta Angélica Mercado Sierra, Luisa Seijo Maldonado (SIEMPREVIVAS RUM), and Lcda. Josefina (Josie) Pantoja

For more than three decades, through the SIEMPREVIVAS program at the University of Puerto Rico, Mayagüez Campus, we’ve built a feminist network of support, care, and transformation for women and gender-expansive people who have survived gender-based violence. Recently, thanks to research led by Dr. Virgen Ramos Rodríguez, social worker and community psychologist, this experience has been documented and analyzed to share our insights, confirm the effectiveness of our practices, and strengthen our impact. 

The research, titled “Lessons from Feminist Practice to Support, Educate, and Transform,” documents fifteen years of continuous work, carried out between 2005 and 2020, to build a survivor-centered support model grounded in gender-responsive and community-based approaches. Through structured interviews, observations, and focus groups, the study analyzes the program’s development and identifies the core principles that guide our practice. 

Our model at SIEMPREVIVAS RUM is defined by its integrated services, which combine psychosocial care, legal accompaniment, support groups, and educational spaces for survivors and their children. These documented practices reveal four key pillars:

1. Survivor-centered services
2. Non-pathologizing approach to trauma 
3. Horizontal relationships among participants
4. Support groups

SIEMPREVIVAS RUM was founded in the late 1990s by Professor Luisa Seijo Maldonado, in collaboration with student volunteers and faculty from the University. Since then, we have developed our work through a service-learning methodology that integrates community intervention, research, and academic training. 

The program’s scope extends beyond the university campus, reaching various communities in five municipalities in the western region with support groups. Since 2019, we have expanded our services to include men and older adults. 

Among the main contributions identified by the participants are: raising awareness of gender-based violence both within and beyond the university; promoting a comprehensive care approach that includes families, communities, and institutions; training feminist leaders and professionals committed to human rights; and connecting our work with other academic initiatives. 

For us, the documentation of experiences not only allowed us to critically reflect on SIEMPREVIVAS RUM’s journey, but confirm the effectiveness of our practices, document their impact, and share our insights with other feminist organizations and projects. In this way, our research also strengthens the possibility of influencing public and institutional policies. 

As stated by Dr. Ramos Rodríguez during the 2025 Annual Meeting: Feminist Research for Systemic Change: “We understand that this reflective research has helped establish how the SIEMPREVIVAS RUM program, through service-learning, enables the University of Puerto Rico to fulfill its mission of producing knowledge in service of the community and providing comprehensive student training, which prepares them to contribute sensitive, socially responsive alternatives to survivor services and the eradication of gender-based violence.”

Presentation of the SIEMPREVIVAS Study at the UPR-Mayagüez

Please note this presentation is in Spanish.

The Fundación de Mujeres en Puerto Rico supported SIEMPREVIVAS RUM in carrying out this reflective research. Through our Gender and Racial Justice Fund, we support organizations that address the intersectional inequalities of gender, race, and class, promoting communities free from violence, with meaningful access to power, healing, and justice.

These efforts simply cannot happen without supporters like you. Each donation reinforces our partnerships with organizations advancing equity and helps sustain the vital work of the Fundación de Mujeres en Puerto Rico.