• 'La Gavilla' is an online fiction miniseries produced by the Murcia Local Action Group (GAL) LEADER Nordeste that talks about female entrepreneurship.
• The web series is part of 'Women as Protagonists of Rural Development', a strategy to give visibility to rural women.

Rural women are not just farmers and ranchers who help their partners and take care of all the household chores. In many cases, they are also businesswomen or independent professionals eager to stay in their villages and achieve personal and professional fulfillment.

This is the reality that the Local Action Group (LAG) ADC Nordeste/LEADER Nordeste aims to highlight with one of its latest initiatives: the production of the online miniseries "La Gavilla ." It's a web series available on YouTube that tells the story of four local women who start a business together.

The audiovisual work consists of eight chapters of between 3 and 5 minutes and is fictional, but, as GAL technician Teresa García tells the National Rural Network (RRN) , its narratives are "based on real stories" of other women in the region.

An emancipatory and rural project

'La Gavilla' is part of the initiative 'Women as Protagonists of Rural Development' , a strategy of actions within Territorio Igualdad , a LEADER project.   which brings together many more activities.

In the story, four unknown women of different ages and origins from the region meet in a LEADER Nordeste workshop and decide to undertake an entrepreneurial project together.

Throughout the episodes, the women's numerous talents are highlighted, along with the intergenerational nature of their project (due to the actresses' varied ages), and the variety of locations where the GAL operates: Abanilla, Fortuna, Jumilla , and Yecla.

The video was made "completely altruistically, with many hours of filming and preparation. The actresses have no acting experience." The protagonists of the story were Margarita Abellán, Inma Illán, María Abellán, and Julia Carrión.

The chapters in order are as follows:

• Chapter 1. “Until today”
• Chapter 2. “Lateral Thinking”
• Chapter 3. “A great team”
• Chapter 4. “Equality Territory”
• Chapter 5. “An Unexpected Journey”
• Chapter 6. “Field Study”
• Chapter 7. “The Red Slope”
• Chapter 8. “Hello world”

From practical workshop to series

Originally, the project was a practical workshop with women from women's associations in scattered communities as protagonists. The goal was to highlight the landscape, the environment, and the daily lives of these women in order to create a network of equality.

The arrival of the pandemic complicated those plans, forcing us to create the series as it is. "We want to show that rural women aren't just those who work in agriculture, livestock, or forestry."

The GAL already has other projects within Territorio Igualdad to further its objectives, and has other videos available on real female entrepreneurship .

LEADER Financing

The Territorio Igualdad project has a budget of 180,000 euros and is financed 63% by EAFRD funds and 37% by the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia.