MINNA Minister meets with early childhood experts from Brazil

The Minister for Childhood and Adolescence, Ms. Teresa Martínez, received members of the technical team for early childhood care from Brazil and Paraguay, who are exchanging experiences as part of the Paraguay-Brazil-Germany Triangular Cooperation project entitled "Exchange of experiences to strengthen the work of caregivers for the development of children from 0 to 3 years of age", which brings together the Ministry of Childhood and Adolescence of Paraguay, the Ministry of Development and Social Assistance, Family and Fight against Hunger of Brazil and the German Technical Cooperation, GIZ.

The first experiment was carried out in Brazil and began last year; this time, experts from Brazil are visiting our country, in a visit that began yesterday and will continue throughout this week.

During the meeting with the Minister of MINNA, the progress of early childhood programs in our country was discussed. In this context, the minister said that "we have made considerable progress in relation to early childhood, and it is an achievement to be able to share positive experiences with neighboring countries, which face similar problems, except for the number of inhabitants, which Brazil has in this case."

"This kind of cooperation helps us evaluate our practices and continue to provide better services to vulnerable populations," he added.

The meeting was attended by the coordinator of MINNA's Project Implementation Unit, Eduardo Sosa, and the project coordinator, Roberto Stark. Eduardo Sosa mentioned that, in recent years, Paraguay has set up 19 Child Development Spaces (EDI, from the acronym in Portuguese) in strategic locations throughout the country, working in coordination with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, municipalities and key players in the districts concerned.

Also working in this area are itinerant educators; this refers to a group of teachers who visit homes to work with children and their families.

The previous day, the technicians from the neighboring country, accompanied by their colleagues from the Ministry of Children and Adolescents, took a guided tour of the different Kunu' u Child Development Spaces.

It is worth noting that the installation of the Kunu'u EDIs as a socio-educational proposal is one of the most successful experiences, aimed at protecting children from 4 months to 3 years of age, offering comprehensive care services in different parts of the country.

The exchange visits serve to obtain information, identify needs, generate ideas, and assess the relevance of the systems used.