IES Costa Teguise celebrated its III Conference on Emotional Health last Wednesday, March 26, a project that is consolidating and has the invaluable collaboration of associations and public institutions on the island, and whose attention focused in this edition on addictions among young people.
The event was attended by the director of the educational center, Octavio López; the Councilor for Social Welfare and Inclusion of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Marci Acuña; the mayor of Teguise, Olivia Duque, accompanied by members of the Municipal Corporation; as well as representatives of the Gamas and El Cribo associations, families, students and teachers of the center.
The day began with the reading of a monologue written by Rosi González, president of the El Cribo mental health association, in the voices of Sara Blanco and Himar Robayna, 2nd year high school students. Next, Maitane and Aisha, from the subject of Psychology, presented the results of a survey carried out at the center on different types of addictions in adolescence, to continue learning more about this reality with the study prepared by the Island Council, which was presented by the technician Biotza Iceta.
Then it was the turn of the social worker Idaira Alemán, in charge of the project POR-NO hablar, which aims to provide tools to identify and address the impacts that pornography consumption can have on the affective and social relationships of young people. We learned the importance of working on communication in the family and preventing porn from being a taboo subject.
After the workshop, Councilor Marci Acuña presented the intervention of different users of the Addiction Center who have managed to rehabilitate. It was exciting to hear their testimony; and they all emphasized the role of the people who have accompanied them in this process, making them see a new way of living freely, without losing hope.
The next intervention came from the El Cribo association. Ana shared her experience of living with family members who suffer from serious mental health illnesses and Mari Carmen also offered her testimony as a user of the association, highlighting the importance of accompaniment and working on emotions throughout the process of caring for our mental health.
Before closing the event, the director of IES Costa Teguise thanked the participants for their presence, as well as the collaboration of the Teguise City Council and the Cabildo de Lanzarote. He highlighted the brave testimony of the people who shared their experience and the organization of the event by Fran Santana, professor of Philosophy at the center.
To put the finishing touch to these III Conference on Emotional Health, the verdict of the I Mental Health Micro-story Contest was announced. The mayor of Teguise, Olivia Duque, and the Councilor for Youth, Andoni Machín, presented the awards to the authors of the texts. Thus, Sara Blanco (2nd year of high school), won the first prize, followed by Marta Ibarra (1st year of high school) and Ariadna Martín (2nd year of high school). Congratulations to all the participants.
