To provide help and strengthen the ties of cooperation between the City Council of Mérida and the National Network of Shelters, within the framework of International Women’s Day that was commemorated on March 8, Mayor Alejandro Ruz Castro visited the Care Shelter for Women, their daughters and sons in situations of extreme violence (CAREM), where he toured the facilities and listened to the testimonies of the women who live there.
Accompanied by the president of the DIF Mérida, Verónica Cetina Arjona, as well as the director of the Municipal Women’s Institute, Fabiola García Magaña; the municipal secretary, Julio Sauma Castillo, and the chief officer, Mario Martínez Laviada; Ruz Castro supervised the care model and services provided to women and their families, complying with the provisions of the Law on Access to a Life Free of Violence in the municipality of Mérida.
“CAREM is one of the first shelters to be created as a Care Center and Shelter for Women with or without children in Situations of Violence. This is a secure temporary, safe, and free-of-violence space that provides comprehensive care. In addition, it provides psychological, educational, medical, legal, and social work services to women, their daughters, and sons who have been victims of extreme violence in the family environment, serving 176 women 280 girls children, and adolescents from September 2018 to date,” the mayor said.
The municipal president stressed that to guarantee the specialization of the services provided in the CAREM, there are instruments such as the Care Manual for Women in Situations of Extreme Violence, the Specialized Care Manual for Girls, Boys, and Adolescents in Situation of Refuge, as well as the policies to provide specialized services in attention to violence against women, documents that are aligned with the models of care specialized in extreme violence against women, which are national references.
“The shelter has been a member of the National Network of Shelters since 2014. The Network is a feminist organization made up of more than 75 prevention, care, and protection spaces for women, girls, and boys in situations of violence with national and international coverage,” he added.
The CAREM shelter has 12 rooms that are enabled by guaranteeing the rights to food, clothing, footwear, safe stay, health, education, and a professional interdisciplinary team to provide specialized third-level services.
In this space, municipal and federal public policies aimed at preventing femicides converge, providing safe, specialized, and free spaces 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
In this sense, Ruz Castro received a visit from Wendy Figueroa Morales, director of the National Network of Shelters, at the Municipal Palace to discuss the actions carried out in these spaces where security, comprehensive, and specialized care is provided to women with their daughters. and children in situations of gender violence.
Figueroa Morales thanked the collaborative work with the Network in the sessions held at the western headquarters of the Municipal Women’s Institute where Pap smear studies, mammograms, colposcopy, and an art therapy workshop were provided.
Finally, at the meeting, the mayor recognized the role played by the National Shelter Network, which represents the interests of shelters at the national level, providing spaces for the exchange of good practices in care processes and supervising that services are provided following the principles of human rights and gender perspective.
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