Uruguay Grows With You one of the priorities for MIDES
The Secretary of State has defined a strategy for the protection of children and pregnant women in rural areas, strengthened through an agreement recently signed with the Ministry of Public Health and with ASSE in particular.
“We have set the goal of arriving earlier and arriving with everything in the case of pregnancies” said Nicolás Lasa.
“It was happening to us that the Ministry of Health, ASSE, basically notified the Ministry of Social Development that there was a new member in the family at the time of birth” said the National Director of Social Development during his visit to Cerro Largo. “We said that we are interested in knowing when there is a diagnosis of pregnancy because it is the moment when we can take advantage of between 7 and 6 months of support during pregnancy so that the mother can receive prenatal care, so that she can have support, so that she can have guarantee and food security.” he added.
This support from MIDES translates into transfers, but also into nutrition so that the child can develop better even before birth. “Now we have an agreement through which they notify us at the time and we have a joint visit from the Uruguay Crece Contigo Teams and the ASSE Teams during pregnancy to those women who are taking it in rural areas. After birth, after discharge, in the first days we have a second visit” he commented.
“This is part of the strategy of arriving earlier, of arriving with everything, so that they receive the transfer, the support and the guarantee of general rights” he insisted. “In addition, in the places that we are not able to reach in person through the Telecare modality of Uruguay Crece Contigo, we are reaching very remote places in the country, some of them very close to Cerro Largo where, based on an experience or a referral to a CAIF in towns that suddenly do not have more than 10 homes, we have found women who were carrying out their pregnancies in a lot of loneliness” Lasa assured during contact with the media.
The National Director of Social Development of MIDES said that in Uruguay the ways of living are changing.
In that sense, he said that since 2013, data on nutrition, child development and health have been collected through a survey. “We interviewed the children that we interviewed that year again in 2018, in 2023 and we are going to interview them again in 2028 to be able to track how they were developing” he explained. “Every 5 years we incorporate another litter to compare it with the previous one” he pointed out.
One of the most significant changes observed is linked to the composition of households. The number of single parents tripled, with 95% being headed by women. “We are having homes with single women raising their children” held.
“Combined or extended households were reduced to less than half, which are those where the parents live, the children live, but also a grandfather, an uncle or a cousin, someone who collaborates and also strengthens the care network many times” stood out. “In 2013 they were 31% of homes and today they are 13% of homes” revealed Nicolás Lasa.
In suburban areas the number of single-parent households is 17%, but in rural areas it is 20%. “The data really alarmed us because they challenge us, because food security is a problem in rural areas, it is 15 points below suburban areas where they have 59% environmental security. This shows that what exists in rural areas is food insecurity, whether mild or moderate. This challenges us and makes us mobilize many resources, heads and joints” he concluded.
