The Social Welfare Area of the City Council of La Laguna is organizing several urban camps for boys and girls this summer, an initiative that offers 150 free places for two months to guarantee coverage of educational and basic needs and facilitate the work-life balance of families with low economic resourses. The initiative, which will begin on July 4 and will take place in different parts of the town, has the collaboration of the Department of Education of La Laguna, four educational centers and a social entity from La Laguna.
The councilor for Social Welfare, Rubens Ascanio, the mayor for Education, José Juan Gavilán, and the representative of the Association for the Comprehensive Development of Mercedes Machado Women, Ángela Martín, yesterday explained all the details of this new edition, which increases to five its headquarters to reach the greatest number of families and areas possible and that, until August 26, will offer educational workshops, healthy eating, recreational-sports spaces and actions in matters such as health, responsible consumption or the reduction of inequalities.
This year the CEIP Punta del Hidalgo, in the Northeast; Aguere, in the hull; Ángeles Bermejo, in La Cuesta, and San Luis Gonzaga, in Taco. In addition, this year it will be complemented by a new initiative, a summer school that will be developed in collaboration with the Mercedes Machado Association, from San Miguel de Chimisay, and that will provide identical coverage for the Los Andenes, El Cardonal and Las Chumberas areas.
Rubens Ascanio highlighted “the collaboration, effort and commitment of the entire educational community and the technical teams of the Municipal Unit for Children and Families to care for those families who need it most at this time” and, especially, the involvement of the Association Mercedes Machado, who shares “our concern and effort to continue responding to a reality that all the healthcare statistics in the Area collect: gender inequality in the social sphere and that women are the main ones in charge of finding support for the needs of their families”.
Ascanio explained that this summer service “also reinforces, therefore, the activities and actions that we are developing with the third sector and with our own resources to support single-mother families without support networks, and complements the programs already presented by the Area of Sports, with sports and adapted campuses”.
José Juan Gavilán thanked the educational centers “for their involvement and support of this service, which not only offers educational, leisure, sports and healthy activities for children, but also allows us to offer a break to families after completion of the school year and continue training in values”.
For her part, Ángela Martín explained the details of her participation in this year’s summer camps with the initiative “Until participation becomes customary, a project to help meet the needs of conciliation and move towards an egalitarian society, being an engine that stimulates this citizen participation and offers a recreational and training center where boys and girls can develop their communication, socialization, creativity and conflict resolution skills” which, in addition to the resources of the Social Welfare program, will include workshops on emotional intelligence and equality, as well as school support.
Each center will receive daily, from 08:00 to 14:00 hours, 30 boys and girls who are in Primary or last year of Infant, with a wide proposal that includes a dining room and, in the case of the Northeast, also transportation, and that seeks to favor, in addition, conciliation measures that contribute to the socioeconomic development of families. In the case of the summer school in San Miguel de Chimisay, the initiative is extended up to 13 years of age and will be divided into two groups, from 7 to 9 and from 10 to 13 years, with adapted activities.
