ABSTRACT:
This study presents the experience of using Popular Health Education (PHE), based on Paulo Freire’s itinerary, as a care strategy for women exposed to violence in Campinas, Brazil. Violence is a structural and complex phenomenon that manifests in different ways across societies worldwide, affecting multiple dimensions of daily life. In Brazil, PHE has emerged as a powerful approach to fostering creative and critical care practices, enabling the recognition of individuals’ protagonism, autonomy, and processes of emancipation.

OBJECTIVE:
To report experiences of PHE as a care strategy for women exposed to violence, within an implementation research project focused on care for people affected by violence, developed by the Interfaces research group from the Faculty of Medical Sciences at the University of Campinas (UNICAMP), Brazil.

METHODS:
Two cycles of groups composed of 8 meetings were carried out from June to December 2021, inspired by the Freirean perspective, with women over 18 years old exposed to violence, living in the city of Campinas, Brazil. A qualitative description of the results is presented.

RESULTS:
PHE enabled meaningful encounters among women, fostering the exchange of knowledge and lived experiences, processes of emancipation and empowerment, critical reflection on personal and social realities, and the development of critical thinking in response to the challenges encountered. The groups also demonstrated, in practice, that care can and should be shared, grounded in co-responsibility, solidarity, and mutual respect.

CONCLUSIONS:
Violence itself was not resolved, nor were its impacts fully overcome, given that it represents an extremely complex and structural phenomenon. PHE proved to be a powerful tool for empowering participants through the democratic sharing of knowledge and experiences related to violence. The process contributed to planting the seeds for breaking with the patriarchal and oppressive system in which all individuals are embedded.