Presentation of the "Prevention model: separation of young children and early intervention to protect them"

With the support of UNICEF Uruguay and UNICEF LACRO, on February 16 we carried out the seminar workshop entitled "Prevention model: separation of young children and early intervention to protect them" in Montevideo, with the coordination of Matilde Luna and Irene Salvo Agoglia.

The seminar consisted of two phases. The first was aimed at areas responsible for the technical coordination and programmatic decision of policies aimed at families, pregnant women and infants. The second one focused on operators and professionals from governmental and nongovernmental agencies whose task is to develop services and programmes in the area. Some of the authorities who were present: Alvaro Arroyo from UNICEF Uruguay, Beatriz Rocco from MIDES, Mirtha Guianze of the Institución Nacional de Derechos Humanos y Defensoría del Pueblo (INDDHH, National Institution of Human Rights and Ombudsman), Adriana Antúnez from Uruguay Crece Contigo, Luis Pedernera from the Comité de los Derechos del Niño Uruguay (Committee on the Rights of the Child of Uruguay), Luciano Gaiero from INAU, Andrea Fabbiani from the Ministerio de Salud Pública (Ministry of Public Health), and Azul Cordo from the Mujer Y Salud MYSU (Women and Health).

The model focuses its attention on strengthening the co-responsibility for the care of young children among those exercising early child care and within the extended family, the community, the services’ professionals and the managers of public policy. The aim is to form a community of care with varying degrees of participation and accountability, consistent with the action framework offered by the Convention on the Rights of the Child, concerning the right to live in family and community.

The workshop seminar had very good results. In the space intended for public policy makers, applying the model was very useful to show the need to build a coordinated prevention strategy, especially after the conduction of a comprehensive diagnosis that revealed the local indicators, compliance gaps, existing paradigms, policies, regulations, and available programmes and services. Regarding operators and professionals, the workshop focused on reviewing the existing paradigms of intervention and on the need to adapt and reform the practices. It also made it possible to identify the level of territorial coordination among the services and programmes, while displaying the need for greater intersectorial coordination in order to prevent separations and strengthen families.

The workshop seminar represented a very constructive sphere of discussion and exchange. The current challenges that appear with the application of the model include the projection of efforts and goals for the short, medium, and long terms in order to create a strategy and prevention mechanisms in the framework of deinstitutionalisation. Both RELAF and our partners in Uruguay are working hard to provide technical support for such purposes.