The Ministry of Health will acquire the first 14,000 kits of the “Safe Dream” program consisting of cribs and other accessories for families that receive the Universal Child Allowance and that were made by inmates of penitentiary units, reported the health portfolio.
The initiative was embodied through an agreement signed by the Minister of Health, Carla Vizzotti, and her Justice counterpart, Martín Soria, and means an investment of 277,200,000 pesos by the health portfolio.
The initiative, aimed at children from 0 to 6 years old, is part of the 1000 Days Law, which guarantees comprehensive monitoring, protection and care for the health and life of girls and boys in the first three years of life.
“This is a huge step to be able to transfer funds, scale production and have the first kits to implement the program,” said Vizzotti.
The kits are made up of a bassinet-cradle, mattress, sheets, blankets, clothes and a backpack.
The minister also highlighted the importance of developing the strategy together with the Federal Penitentiary Service because it means “continuing to generate inclusion, work, resocialization programs in the context of confinement”, and thus emphasized the value of “training and dedicating time to this action that, without a doubt, is very positive”.
In the same vein, Soria stated that with this initiative “we are not only recovering such an important and fundamental public policy to reduce infant mortality and care for children, but we are also integrating health and care policies with our work policy in the prisions”.
The kits will be made by the Entity for Technical and Financial Cooperation (ENCOPE) of the Federal Penitentiary Service (SPF) and the kits are made up of a cradle-basket, mattress, sheets, blankets, clothes and a backpack.
They will be made by internal workers who participate in carpentry, textile and packaging workshops, among other activities.
The health portfolio announced that in this first stage there will be four deliveries, the first of 2,000 kits, then 3,000, in third place 4,000, and finally 5,000 kits.
“This is a huge step to be able to transfer funds, scale production and have the first kits to implement the program”Carla Vizzetti
For the production of the kit, a design manual and technical specifications were prepared, which was in charge of experts from the Industrial Design, Wood and Furniture departments of the National Institute of Industrial Technology (INTI); and the Faculty of Architecture, Design and Urbanism of the UBA.
Also from the Injury Prevention Committee of the Argentine Society of Pediatrics (SAP); of the Directorate of Perinatal and Childhood Health, and of the team of designers of the “Polenta” Industrial Design Studio.
The Ministry of Health assured that “the objective of this strategy is to reduce the rate of infant death at home, which represents 10 percent of total infant deaths.”
In this initial delivery, distribution will be prioritized according to vulnerability and health risk criteria, in order to reach the target population as production scales up.
