This Thursday morning, the Arrecife City Council did not have the usual politicians sitting in the plenary hall, but young representatives from all the Infant and Primary schools and the Secondary schools of the capital.
It was the seventh Municipal Children's Council, which the Social Services Department of the capital's City Council organizes twice a year, with the aim of allowing the youngest to participate in public life and contribute their main demands as citizens.
Chaired by councilors Lolina Curbelo and Encarna Páez, during the two hours that the Children's Council lasted, the children requested above all improvements in the sports infrastructure and the buildings in which they study.
Ayose is 9 years old, represented the Mercedes Medina Díaz School of Arrecife, and among his main demands he listed the need for his school to have "a new assembly hall and a larger music class".
Sports and furniture
"The sports hall needs changing rooms and a good floor to practice physical education. We don't have a cafeteria and they sell us sandwiches in a small room," he stressed.
Nélida attended the plenary hall as the head of the Antonio Zerolo School and during her speech she suggested to the City Council that they fix the greenhouse in her school. "It is in very bad condition, the roof has fallen and the people from the institute step on it."
Another of her requests was based on the renovation of the furniture in the centers. "Parents have been waiting for years for the dining room, and now that we have it built, we have been waiting for months for the furniture(...) We have also asked for new baskets and nets for the goals, and I have suggested that the computer classes have enough computers for the students because we don't learn anything in pairs."
Leisure and neighborhoods
There was also concern for the environment in which they live, and the young people requested more surveillance in their neighborhoods, improvements for the disabled, more green spaces and, above all, a greater leisure offer to enjoy the weekends.
For example, Cristina, who spoke at the Council representing the Las Salinas Institute, remarked that "an island like Lanzarote that lives from tourism must overcome the problem of architectural barriers." The young people insisted that they "would like to have more leisure activities, and that this is not only at night".
Response to demands
The councilors say that these demands will not fall on deaf ears, but that will have to be evaluated in what will be the ninth Municipal Children's Council at the end of the course. "What we do is transfer each of the proposals to the councilors of the City Council or to the institutions in charge of satisfying these complaints," explained the councilor for Social Services, Lolina Curbelo.
A girl commented at the end of the session that "the representative of our school proposed something last year and nothing has been done, but this year it has been said again, let's see if they do it."
According to Curbelo, "at the beginning of each course we take attendance to see what has been done and what has been improved." Thanks to the work of several educators and intermediaries from the Department of Social Services, for the municipal official "this year it has been achieved that the children expose us their concerns to improve their quality of life within the classrooms, and they not only ask for better materials but also that the teachers help them and understand them."
"We understand that they have a lot of work, but we are students and we need things in good condition. We only want to learn from the elders," commented another child.
