Eradication of child labour Supportive actions El Salvador
Around 300 students from schools aided by Fundación Telefónica ran 2.5 kilometres to demand: "More children studying, less children working".
San Salvador, 30 June 2012.- Fundación Telefónica together with around 300 children and teenagers from schools in Jiquilisco, Usulután, ran on 30 June in the second and final edition of the Proniño Race against Child Labour which was held in this area.
As with the first edition of the Proniño Race, held last Sunday 17 June and the event held last Saturday in Izalco, Sonsonate, the main aim of the activity was to bring the town together to raise awareness of the problem represented by child labour and support the efforts to eradicate it for a world with "more children studying, less children working".
“With the three races, I think that we have managed to bring the message to a large part of the country, because our aim is to continue contributing to the eradication of child labour and to have more children in education and less in work", stated Yanira Espinola, head of Fundación Telefónica's programmes in El Salvador.
In Jiquilisco they ran 2.5 kilometres, from the diversion of the Litoral road up to the Roberto Edmundo Canesa park, and together with the guests invited they awarded medals for the top three places in the men's and women's category.
The race and the presentation of the medals were attended by the departmental manager of the Ministry of Education, Raquel Esperanza de Solorzano; the departmental delegate of the Salvadoran Institute for the Integral Development of Childhood (ISNA by its Spanish initials), Merary Eunice Carranza; the departmental head of the Ministry of Work, Américo Portillo Escalante, as well as representatives of the Navy, PNC, the health authorities and schools.
Furthermore, the company Verykool also attended once more to support the eradication of child labour.
Currently, in El Salvador there are more than 180,000 working children; more than half of them carrying out agricultural work with no access to an education. From 2005 until the end of 2011, Proniño has helped around 6,850 children in more than 100 schools located in 4 departments of the country, creating new opportunities for education and access to new technologies.
This race is also part of the activities carried out within the context of the National and World Day Against Child Labour, held on 12 June.
