The Tinajo City Council received this Thursday at the Ministry of Youth and Childhood the recognition, by Unicef, as "Child Friendly City", thus becoming the first municipality of Lanzarote to achieve it.
Before Minister Sira Rego and representing the municipality of Tinajero, the Councilor for Youth, Vianney Rodríguez, attended, who, together with representatives from seven other locations in the rest of Spain, took advantage of his minute of speech to defend, armed with vehemence, Tinajo's merit for the aforementioned recognition.
For the mayor of Tinajo, Jesús Machín, “the diploma as "Child Friendly City" awarded to the municipality of Tinajero is the result of a lot of work by the Department of Youth in recent years, a clear and successful commitment by and for our young people, to provide them with spaces and a voice more than deserved and needed. Tinajo becomes the first city on the island of Lanzarote to receive such an award, a source of pride for all the people of Tinajo and a clear sign that the path we have started is the one we have to continue walking to favor our young people,” concludes the mayor.
Councilor Vianney Rodríguez wants to “publicly thank the collaboration of the children and adolescents of the municipality, because without them this recognition by Unicef would not have been possible. There have been several years of constant work and close collaboration between the children and adolescents of the town and the city council. The rights of children and the spaces for child and adolescent participation are just some of the objectives achieved for this title of "Child Friendly City", an award to the entire town of Tinajo for placing our young people at the center of our policies, providing them with a safe environment as well as actions that enhance their rights, give them spaces for participation as well as greater options to live happily. I already said it when we found out about the award, the progress of children is the progress of Tinajo. Congratulations to the people of Tinajo, once again a pioneer on the island of Lanzarote.”
In the diploma delivery ceremony, in addition to Minister Rego, the president of Unicef Spain, Gustavo Pérez Pertierra, the director of the Iundia Institute (University Institute of Needs and Rights of Children and Adolescents, created by agreement between the Autonomous University of Madrid and Unicef), María Ángeles Espinosa; the secretary of the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces (Femp), Luis Martínez and the Secretary of State for Children and Youth, Rubén Pérez, participated.
In the ceremony, in addition to Tinajo, the municipalities of Andoaín, Benavites, Parla, Polanco, Moaña and Tres Cantos, as well as the Commonwealth of La Vega, also received the recognition of Child Friendly City.
The Child Friendly Cities Initiative aims to promote, together with Local Entities, that the well-being of children and the participation of children and adolescents are at the heart of local policies, with the aim that children and adolescents can exercise their rights and achieve their full development. This is an initiative led by UNICEF Spain since 2002 in alliance with the Ministry of Youth and Childhood, the Spanish Federation of Municipalities and Provinces, the University Institute of “Needs and Rights of Children and Adolescents”. For its part, Unicef states that it works in some of the most difficult places to reach the most disadvantaged children in the world. "In 190 countries and territories, we work for every child, everywhere, every day, to build a better world for all."
