Last 16th and 17th of April 2015, the Spanish foundation Fundación Márgenes y Vínculos (FMYV) and the Foundation for the Social Promotion of Culture (FPSC) organized a meeting with experts on family and children’s vulnerability in El Puerto de Santa María, Cádiz. The event was promoted by the Citizen’s Participation Agency of the City Council. This Meeting takes place in the context of the Childhood and Family Biannual Program on Family and Children Protection 2015-2016.
The meeting was aimed to involve through dialogue the citizen’s vision, the knowledge of the experts on the topic of children’s vulnerability and family, experts on primary attention and on the third sector’s concerns and experiences and politicians.
After starting with a presentation to the media, four working sessions were hold. The presentation was hosted in the Monasterio de San Miguel Hotel. There was a press conference with the speeches of Alfonso Candón, Mayor of Puerto de Santa María, Antonio García Ortega, Cadiz Council’s deputy on Development and Social Welfare, Francisco Mena de Mira, president of the Fundación Márgenes y Vínculos; José Luis Zatarain, Communication and Volunteering director in the Foundation for the Social Promotion of Culture; and Celia Nevado Fernández, a psychologist specialized in childhood and family.
Also, in the morning, a workshop called Promotion of the Childhood Rights was held and students from the first phase of the professional course in Childhood Education in the School for Professionals SAFA San Luis took part of it. The team for the prevention of violence in children and teenagers of the FMYV, Jesús Cardoso Oneto, Luis Ayala Clares and Rubén Aguilar, were in charge of the workshop.
The other meetings took place in the Centro Cívico Augusto Tolón Ferrón, in El Puerto de Santa María.
In the afternoon, there was an open debate both with experts and citizens. The debate was conducted by the journalist and director of the digital newspaper El Puerto Actualidad, Pedro Payán. Ainoha Rodríguez García de Cortázar, sociologist, Research Technician in the Centre for Childhood in Andalucia (OIA in Spanish); Celia Nevado Fernández, a psychologist specialized in childhood and family; Antonio Troncoso Reigada, Certified Professor of Constitutional Law, Professor in the University of Cadiz and ex director of the Regional Agency for Data Protection of the CAM and José Luis Zatarain, ex member of the INSAFE Steering Commitee (CE), Childhood and TIC.
This debate, which counted on a high participation, was broadcasted life through the web page of the project http://infanciasinviolenciaeps.com, the web page of the City Council of El Puerto de Santa María, and the web page of the FPSC. Among the different participants were the students of the SAFA and social workers. The ideas that merged from the discussion were: family is a space for care, affection and protection, for living and bonding, a space where communication must be promoted within its members.
The picture of a caring, prone to dialogue and at the same time strict parenting must be supported.
It seems appropriate to promote schools for parents, to which citizens can have access. They are necessary nowadays, as family networks do not exist as they did in the past, when the more with the family they were, the more chances they had to both ask for advice and receive it, also in terms of parenting and educating the children.
Day 17th started with a technique sitting conducted by José Luis Zatarain. This time, Ainoha Rodríguez García de Cortázar showed a study of the OIA about the Impact of the crisis in childhood, poverty and economic inequalities, Celia Nevado Fernández talked about the affective and sexual education, violence inside the family and about combining profesional and family life. René Solís de Ovando Segovia, psychologist, responsible for the Program on Children Protection of the Ministry of Health, Social Services and Equality’s General Direction for the Family and Childhood Services, refered to the matters related to this program, and more tan fifty experts on the third sector and direct assesment intervened as well. The sitting was disposed in a rectangular way, so to facilitate an open dialogue for all the participants. The participation was very high and the dialogue, fluent.
Following this, a work sitting took place with political representatives and social agents, conducted by José Chamizo de la Rubia, ex Children’s Ombudsman in Andalucía. Ainoha Rodríguez and Celia Nevado gave a presentation about the topics of the event whilst José Luis Zatarain talked about the empowerment of families and children in the use of TIC. After that, there was an interesting debate, where the representatives of different political wings and of the unions converged in the need for bringing in special measures for prevention and awareness towards the development of children and the attention of the family, and showed their commitment with the topic.
The Mayor of El Puerto de Santa María, Alfonso Candón, the President of the Fundación Márgenes y Vínculos Francisco Mena de Mira, the Director of Communication and Volunteering of the FPSC and José Luis Zatarain closed the meeting.
