Defense of the rights of children and adolescents

From 25 February to 3 March, almost sixty persons responded to the call of the XXI General Chapter and our Provincial Chapter : Marists in defense of the rights of children and adolescents ! The work was divided into two parts. For three days (25, 26 and 27 February), the directors of the Marist works of Venezuela met in the Formation House of Los Teques to learn more about the subject. The work, reflection, and especially the sharing, were extremely enriching. Under the leadership of Prof. Ernesto Durán and Mme Carolina Caicedo, from the National University of Bogotá, we came to a fuller understanding of the rights of children and adolescents as presented by the Convention adopted almost 25 years ago. We benefitted equally from the presence of a team from the Metropolitan University of Caracas which presented the situation of children in Venezuela and the legal aspects most directly related to it. This meeting resulted in the serious commitment to work for the rights of children and young people. In the concrete and short term, to support the persons who are going to commence studies for the desired diplomas.

The second part of the work (1, 2 and 3 March) was carried out with the people who work or  collaborate in the Marist works of Venezuela and whose interest in the subject has led them to undertake a process of serious formation. There were thirty of them, teachers, group animators,  collaborators in the Marist communities and Marist Brothers. The reflection was based on a similar schema, under the tutelage of the same professors and the Metropolitan University. A serious commitment was taken to work from our houses, with our computers and the human team of each institution present, to create projects of work capable of helping us in the task of the protection, the defense and the guarantee of the rights of children and adolescents.

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Br Miguel Ángel Puyales
Secretariat of Solidarity – Venezuela