In the new legislature that begins next year, there will be a new woman representative for the department of Colonia and for the Frente Amplio. This is Cecilia Badín, a graduate in Nursing and former director of the Colonia Hospital.
A member of the Popular Participation Movement (MPP), Cecilia Badín arrives at parliament as a substitute for Nicolás Viera, who will assume the seat in the senate after the appointments in the cabinet and different government positions. Viera occupied the eleventh place in the Upper House and is one of the prominent men from the department of Colonia who have reached the senate.
As a Broad Front woman arriving at the Chamber of Deputies, Cecilia Badín reflects what was done by Mercedes Santalla (unfortunately deceased), predecessor of today’s deputy Viera. Therefore, we Colonians will once again have two women as national representatives, since Nibya Reisch (Colorado Party) will also assume the seat.
In this framework, EL ECO spoke with the new deputy, who has already begun to tour the parliamentary environment, being present at the tribute that the General Assembly paid to former vice president and senator Danilo Astori, one year after his death. “It was very emotional, very nice. And I started to venture from within, although I assume the first of March,” said Badín.
When it became clear that I would be a deputy, “what I felt first was joy and a lot of responsibility ahead, although the first time will be a lot of learning, because I do not have parliamentary experience, that is the reality. But I have a lot of interest and desire to listen to people and solve people’s biggest problems, look for solutions to the lack of work, the lack of opportunities.”
She said that her new management will be totally different than usual. “I come from the health area, and although there is a lot of administrative and bureaucratic work, obviously it is different, right? I have to do a kind of orientation in this new stage that has greater public exposure.”
Although he had two periods of exposure in hospital management, “that has nothing to do with it, it is remaining at the legislative level and then in the territory, what I actually like and am most interested in.”
Cecilia Badín pointed out that “work in the territory is fundamental for me. “I am going to tour the department from end to end, it is the main objective we have as legislators.”
Asked by EL ECO what would be the points where she would place greater emphasis, she expressed: “we are working with Nicolás, the current deputy, and of course there is a transition stage that I am doing with him, but the important points are also those that They are considered at the government level. I think that in Cologne there is a lot to work on, there are work problems, there are problems of labor conflicts, which have recently come to light; also problems of young people with difficulties in accessing secondary or tertiary studies. “There must be an order of priorities and, well, go out on the field.”
Badín expressed that being a woman allows her to be more present in the territory, “which we know a lot about, not because we are only women, but because we know the realities of particular situations, the complexities that women have, of women who are alone and are heads of families. Women who have had a hard time getting ahead, sometimes because they do not have opportunities or because they have had other difficulties in life…”
Regarding the management of the Colonia Hospital in this administrative period, Cecilia Badín expressed that “a lot of work needs to be done in Colonia. The Hospital had many difficulties, it could be a departmental hospital, which grew exponentially to be a center of development and I think it remained a bit on that plateau,”
There was a lack of services, of specialties, as in all public health in Uruguay, “difficulties in accessing medicines and specialists. For example, the tomograph was installed but it never worked.” The service in private health has also declined, in access to specialties. “There are significant waiting lists… I think that was also a big failure and a great complexity, that everything that has to do with public-private complementarity did not work. “This was at the national level, at the Ministry level.”
She is…
Cecilia Badin. He lives in Colonia del Sacramento, he is 53 years old. She is married with two children, 29 and 20 years old. She has a degree in nursing, received for 26 years. He had two periods in the administration of the Colonia Hospital and has a master’s degree in hospital management. He has worked in the private health area and in recent years, in Asse.
