Uruguay: on the road to deinstitutionalisation

RELAF carried out a work day within the framework of the joint project with UNICEF LACRO "Development of a baseline and monitoring for deinstitutionalisation (DI) in Latin America and the Caribbean" at the Institute of the Child and Adolescent of Uruguay (INAU), organised jointly with Alejandro Retamoso and Ignacio Martínez. Moreover, we conducted two of the three workshops of the project "Towards a model of alternative care in Uruguay. A developmental perspective from civil society", which is being developed jointly with UNICEF Uruguay and with the support of ANONG, AUDEC and the Committee on the Rights of the Child of Uruguay.

During October and November, we worked on two lines of action to support deinstitutionalisation in Uruguay: on one side, with state entities, and, on the other, with the civil society.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

RELAF carried out a work day under the project "Development of a baseline and monitoring (BLM) for deinstitutionalisation (DI) in Latin America and the Caribbean" on October 22 at the Institute of the Child and Adolescent of Uruguay (INAU). At this meeting, our consultants, Ignacio Martínez and Alejandro Retamoso, along with RELAF’s director, Matilde Luna, exchanged technical aspects of a BLM to validate this tool with the substantial experience and opinion of  INAU’s qualified personnel. That is why we want to thank the Institute and its personnel and managers: they have shown great interest and openness in carrying out this technical cooperation.

We also conducted two of the three workshops planned in conjunction with UNICEF Uruguay, entitled "Towards a model of alternative care in Uruguay. A developmental perspective from civil society", which are carried out with the participation of the civil society and with support from ANONG, AUDEC and the Committee on the Rights of the Child of Uruguay.

The first workshop was held on November 9 at the Maldonado Campus, with the participation of members of the civil society from Maldonado, Rocha and Lavalleja. Matilde Luna and Jorge Volnovich, a psychoanalyst specialising in violence prevention and child abuse, took part in this workshop.

The second workshop was held on November 20 in Paysandú,with the participation of the local civil society and dissertations by Irene Salvo Agoglia, PhD in Psychology (UBA), Technical Assistant for RELAF, and Jorge Volnovich.

Both workshops were very fruitful and are among the first critical steps in strengthening the role of NGOs to build a system that guarantees the right to family and community life, in a country where institutionalisation culture is deeply rooted (not only with regard to alternative care). We would like to once again thank UNICEF Uruguay and the NGO coalitions that have supported us.