Noticias

In Cochabamba, significant progress has been made toward institutionalizing the School for Families, a service designed to promote protective parenting, prevent violence against children and adolescents, and strengthen emotional well-being among parents, caregivers, and communities. Advocacy efforts led by Save the Children have played a pivotal role in consolidating this innovative model, which now benefits from a formal legal framework and operational protocols ensuring its sustainability and continuity within the municipality. The initiative has also expanded to other cities, including Sucre, La Paz, and El Alto.

The process began with a commitment to strengthening the services provided by the Cochabamba Municipal Ombudsman’s Office for Children and Adolescents through the School for the Family. This partnership improved the response to cases that have been brought before the courts, that is, when the courts refer parents and caregivers to the School for the Family for psychological support and guidance on non-violent parenting, even though they had previously committed an act of domestic violence. Thanks to this joint effort, the support was enriched and diversified, shifting from focusing solely on cases brought before the courts to extending it to the community at large from a preventive perspective.

Community engagement has been essential to this progress, especially through the active involvement of community promoters. These women act as the operational backbone of the School for Families, working to prevent child abuse by promoting respectful, emotionally aware, and nurturing parenting practices within their own families and neighborhoods. Their participation has been key to enhancing the project’s sustainability and cultural relevance.

In 2021, the initiative gained formal recognition through a municipal decree approving the key tools and officially supporting both responsive and preventive interventions. These are all guided by Save the Children’s “Safe Families” (Crianza Protectora) approach—more than a strategy, this model has become a transformative force for building healthy family relationships and improving lives.

The recent approval of the School for Families Protocol marks a decisive step forward in institutionalizing and securing the continuity of the project. The protocol outlines a structured set of actions and reaffirms the municipality’s commitment to ensure that this initiative continues to grow as a national benchmark in promoting protective parenting and safeguarding children’s rights in Cochabamba.