Protecting childhood development and rights in Mexico.
Highlights:
- The Pacto por la Primaria Infancia was signed to ensure the development and protection of children’s rights in Mexico, witnessed by enthusiastic children at Papalote Museo del Niño.
- Key attendees included presidential candidates and Mexico City’s government head candidates, who committed to prioritizing early childhood well-being.
- A major focus is on preventive healthcare, aiming to lower disease, disability, and infant mortality rates by addressing gaps in vaccination coverage.
- The pact sets a goal to ensure 90% of children aged one to two years complete their vaccination schemes, alongside initiatives to improve health education, infrastructure, and vaccine availability.
- Highlighted by Aranzazú Alonso Cuevas, there’s a call for collective commitment to provide optimal conditions for Mexican children.
The laughter, applause, and playfulness filled the Papalote Museo del Niño while boys and girls in capes dreamed of becoming police, soccer players, or even presidents. On April 22, the Pacto por la Primera Infancia was signed, representing the more than eight thousand families living at this stage. Its objective is to guarantee the complete development of girls and boys and protect the exercise of all their rights.
During the event, the three presidential candidates and the candidates for the Head of Government of Mexico City participated to confirm their intentions to prioritize the well-being of early childhood. As a result, an audience full of children and their parents applauded when they heard: “One, two, three for my rights!“
We all have to assume the commitment to take care and provide the best conditions that allow our children to be well.
Aranzazú Alonso Cuevas
One of the most important areas is investing in prevention methods to reduce the rate of diseases, complications, disabilities, and death. In a context where statistics expose a worrying reality, the lack of priority in policies aimed at early childhood becomes evident, especially in children’s vaccination issues.
Currently, in Mexico, 13 of every thousand babies do not reach their first year of life, 1.3 million suffer from chronic malnutrition, and 60% of one-year babies do not receive a complete vaccination scheme. Despite being one of the most profitable methods to safeguard health, a gap persists in your access in our country. Many diseases, such as tuberculosis, hepatitis B, diphtheria, tetanus, poliomyelitis, and measles, can be avoided by the proper use of vaccines. This problem should be a priority, especially considering the recent vaccination problems in Mexico. Undoubtedly, it will contribute to reducing infant mortality and morbidity levels.
The fourth objective of the pact is to ensure that 90% of children between one and two years of age have their complete vaccination scheme. This covers the commitment to launch awareness campaigns to educate people about the importance of vaccination, investment in cold chain systems, capacity development for health professionals, and improvement of distribution channels and hours and days of availability in all health centers. In addition, the creation of sustained vaccination campaigns is also suggested to guarantee coverage.
And, how are you going to commit yourself? No one can go without a commitment.
Aranzazú Alonso Cuevas
It is crucial to adopt priorities. Instead of focusing on health strategies to protect a human right, other agendas have often been prioritized. Therefore, in this column, I want to highlight that Mexican children need vaccines. Six out of 10 still need a complete scheme. As Aranzazú Alonso Cuevas, General Coordinator of the Pacto por la Primera Infancia, said, “We all have to assume the commitment to take care and provide the best conditions that allow our children to be well […] And, how are you going to commit yourself? No one can go without a commitment.”
