With the aim of joining efforts that benefit children and adolescents in the Municipality, the members of the National Council of the Civil Association “Save the Children” and Mayor Renán Barrera Concha agreed to work in a coordinated manner to implement actions in favor of health, education and community development of this sector and ensure their harmonious development.
The Mayor reported that they held a meeting in the Presidency Board Room to establish joint work mechanisms and identify strategic actions to ensure healthy growth and a promising future for the girls and boys of Mérida.
“As an administration, we appreciate the interest that civil associations have in joining the efforts we make to ensure that children and adolescents have the best conditions for their development and to guarantee a better future for them, we must all participate to achieve this goal. ”, the mayor expressed.
He indicated that among the first activities that would be developed, is that Save The Children would train City Hall staff in topics such as social assistance centers and community development, as well as in actions related to health and community health, and in the improvement of educational attention, in the areas of logic, mathematics, and reading-writing
For her part, the CEO of Save The Children in Mexico, María Josefina Menéndez Carvajal, stated that thanks to the Mayor’s willingness and interest in working on behalf of Merida’s children and teenagers, “The White City” will be the first and only city in Mexico with which the association will work together.
“This is the first alliance we have at this level. Although we have other authorities with whom we are working, you hardly find a disposition like the one you find in Mayor Renan Barrera. I really think he is a great promoter of an agenda that matters a lot to us, which is the agenda for children and adolescents in the country”, she highlighted.
She added that, as a result of the meeting with the Municipal President, a second visit to Mérida was agreed to be held next July to analyze the progress in planning the strategies and actions to be developed.
In addition to the concrete actions carried out by the City Council on this issue, she specified that Save The Children has replicable models that can be implemented since they do not imply a large investment, but rather the technical capacity to develop activities together.
“This first rapprochement with the municipal authorities will allow us to draw up a plan with the first actions in favor of the children and adolescents of Merida to begin to be carried out in the last quarter of the year,” she said.
She also noted that in the next three years Save The Children will invest 65 million pesos in Yucatan.
“Today, we are basically propping up two stocks. The first has to do with community health, focused primarily on boys, girls and their families; and the second, with education,” she indicated.
She explained that in terms of health, they seek to change hygiene habits to stop the problems of infant death and gastrointestinal and respiratory diseases that may be preventable; as well as on issues of obesity, malnutrition, bad eating habits, etc.
Regarding the line of education, she stated that at the educational level the association has a curriculum that complements the education actions of the federal and state governments, strengthening aspects such as reading and writing, logic and mathematics, as well as other education alternatives.
Finally, she said that, although most of the children with whom Save The Children works are in the neighboring rural area of Mérida, the civil association has 20 years of continuous work in this municipality.
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