Training activity in Guatemala: "Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children. Strategies for their application”

In the framework of the Second Sub-Regional Consultation of the Study on the Situation of Institutionalised Childhood carried out in Guatemala, RELAF and UNICEF-TACRO were in charge of a day of trainings about the Guidelines, in which the friendly versions for operators, children and adolescents prepared by RELAF and UNICEF were presented.

40 key actors of the child protection systems of Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Mexico, Panama, Cuba and Costa Rica participated.

The workshop was opened by Nadine Perrault (UNICEF) and Matilde Luna who presented the document of the Guidelines and its practice and policy principles.

Sara González, Communications Director of the RELAF Project, presented the friendly version for operators, a guide of standards to help them orient their practices with children and their families in the different moments and situations in which they should intervene. She explained the process of preparation, validation and the contents of the guide of standards and also presented three experiences of the training of operators carried out until that moment (two in Argentina and one in Brazil).

Similarly, Mara Tissera Luna, Assistant of the RELAF Project, presented the process of preparation, validation and contents of the friendly version for children and the two experiences of application.

The two presentations were complemented with debates and group activities, in which decision-makers, experts and authorities of the civil society and the government analysed the material.

In their conclusions regarding the presentation of the friendly versions by the RELAF team, the participants evaluated the standards and the versions, as they considered these tools as an advance to be applied in all countries. Some of the comments included: “This tool saves us time and effort...”; “This has made us change the agenda...” (Dr. Lolis María Salas Montes, authority of the Secretariat of Justice and Human Rights of Honduras).

In regard to the presentation of the friendly versions for children, it was of great impact to hear the voices of the children who participated in the validation of the friendly version and in the workshop of application through the audiovisual testimonies. Extremely positive comments were received about the activities with children, among them “it is clear to the children what they need”; “we would save them a lot of pain if we just listened more closely” (Wilmer Vásquez from COIPRODEN, Network of Childhood Human Rights of Honduras).

Both the friendly versions and the guides of standards for their application are available at www.relaf.org/aplicacion.html.