Africa-Press – Cape verde. The president of the Alto Bomba Unido Association, Aldevino Fortes, stated on Friday, the 26th, that managing the Monte Sossego Day Center, which serves approximately 50 children daily, has been a major challenge for the association.
Inaugurated a year and a half ago, the Monte Sossego Day Center is managed by the association, with the support of the Cape Verdean Institute for Children and Adolescents (ICCA), and financed by the Ministry of Family, Inclusion and Social Development (MFIDS).
It is a space focused on welcoming and protecting children from vulnerable families outside of school hours.
“We are undertaking a project from which we will possibly reap good results later. It is a huge challenge because we receive children who arrive with addictions and other issues from the streets and their families, and we have been doing immense work to try to correct these problems. We work with them on the educational aspect and, fortunately, we have qualified people to try to improve their lives,” he explained.
According to Aldevino Fortes, the Day Center has five employees: a coordinator, two monitors, a general services and cleaning assistant, and a cook.
He explained that the center is considered a national reference point, a fact that the association is proud of, given that it is a project aimed at welcoming children who are often left alone when their parents go to work, providing them with activities outside of school hours to prevent them from being unsupervised on the streets and exposed to dangers.
“Currently, we house 50 children, but some leave because their families change location and residence. Others leave when they turn 18 or for other reasons, and we are always integrating new children. We know that in five or six years, we will have young people who will graduate from there with a different mindset and attitude, and our community and society will benefit,” he affirmed.
Moreover, according to the same source, the center’s work has already had a positive impact on the Monte Sossego community, as reported by the technicians who work there and by the parents and guardians themselves, who mention changes in their children’s behavior and willingness to study.
“It’s a very interesting project, but I appeal to the Government to try to create more day centers in São Vicente. We are in Monte Sossego, which is the most populous area of the island, but we cannot meet the high demand because our waiting list is probably double or more the number of children we accommodate,” added Aldevino Fortes.
However, the president of the Alto Bomba Unido Association appealed to parents to pay more attention to their children and take more responsibility in supporting them in their studies.
Because, he argued, “a child who always receives attention from their parents will be more motivated to learn.”
According to Aldevino Fortes, the biggest difficulty at the moment is the lack of a psychologist at the Monte Sossego Day Center to listen to and guide the children. “A child should always be playing, smiling, and doing many things. But sometimes, many of them come home with a distant and sad look, and it quickly becomes clear that something is happening to them. Therefore, we feel the need for a psychologist to try to identify cases that require more urgent intervention,” said the same source, adding that the center also needs more partners to support the children’s activities and nutrition.
For More News And Analysis About Cape verde Follow Africa-Press
