The Minister of Human Rights and Citizenship, Silvio Almeida, informed this Sunday (1st) that the government intends to improve the unified election of guardianship councilors, a process that should change the way in which candidates running in the election are announced.
Present in the northern part of the capital of São Paulo to participate in the election as a voter, Silvio Almeida stated that he has no reservations regarding the candidacy of declaredly conservative figures, as, for him, what matters is that they maintain their commitment to defending the rights of children and adolescents and follow the principles of the law.
“I don’t see it as a problem, quite the opposite. I think it’s part of democracy [ter] candidacies with a more conservative, more progressive profile, from people who profess a faith, who have a religion. And also people who have no religion. What I see as a problem is when there is no commitment to what the Federal Constitution and the Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA) provide,” he declared.
The minister added that the department he commands has plans to improve the performance of guardianship counselors and intends to find a way to hold accountable those who stray from the mission they should fulfill.
“They are employees, public agents and should be valued for that, but they also have to have the responsibility that public servants have. The Guardianship Council is not used to proselytize, either politically or religiously, it simply has in mind, as its objective, the care of children and adolescents, as determined by law”, he reinforced.
In the municipality, 1,240 candidates are competing for 260 vacancies for guardianship counselors. São Paulo is the largest electoral college in the country and had around 150 thousand voters in the last elections for the guardianship council, a body that enjoys autonomy to enforce the ECA, in force since 1990.
The total number of voters is close to that of voters in municipalities such as Araçatuba (143 thousand) and Bragança Paulista (126.8 thousand), according to the city hall.
For the municipal secretary of Human Rights and Citizenship, Soninha Francine, the Guardianship Council is still seen as a body that responds after a tragedy has occurred, which diminishes its importance.
“On the other hand, it is used almost as a bogeyman, because it says “look, behave yourself, otherwise I will call the Guardianship Council on you”. So, in addition to people not knowing how it works, there is wrong information. This is already an initial challenge. Before asking people to leave their homes for an election, and voting is optional, you need to make them understand what they are voting for. Sometimes, we have to become aware of the pain, see the barbarity of violence against children and adolescents and understand that they need everyone to be protected and that there is someone who does this as a daily occupation”, he points out.
She added that, in every election for the position, comes the challenge of counting on the support of the press to publicize it and that, this year, the election gained more visibility due to the mobilization of the city hall and the federal government.
Asked about the division that is manifested in the councilor elections, similar to what has happened in other elections in the country, such as the presidential elections, Soninha confirms the impression: “This is the only thing that is not new.”
“It has been at least two elections since this polarization took place, with the entry of a group that is quite influential, mobilized, articulated, which even claims to have a conservative profile and has been acquiring many advisors. The election itself reverberated more. So, this fact also had repercussions. In São Paulo, we know it closely and know that there are councils that lack internal plurality, and that is the drama”, said the secretary.
“We can’t stop either the conservatives or the progressives from winning. No field has this right. The problem is that, as it still remains in some places, and São Paulo is one of them, the possibility of voting for five candidates, it is easy to elect five people from the same group and this greatly harms diverse representation within the collegiate. A good collegiate is diverse”, he argued.
Municipal public servant Sueli Fortuna has always made a point of choosing her candidate for the council. This time, she decided early on who would be the name that would win her vote, as it came up in her circle of friends. “I think it’s our obligation as citizens,” she said. For the public servant, the concern, currently, is no longer with her children, but with her grandchildren, and the government of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva devotes more attention to the subject, which has led to the population’s interest in the topic growing. , this year.
“We went through a moment of transition, which is beneficial for these issues”, he assessed.
Director of the Martin Francisco Ribeiro de Andrada Municipal Elementary School (Emef) for two years, Andrea Abdala believes that there would be even more voters if there was greater publicity about this Sunday’s election. She highlighted that, while outside of school counselors play a central role in protecting minors, inside institutions, it is necessary to pay attention to signs that students may give, indicating that they are in trouble and need help.
“We have evidence at the school and, based on that, we investigate the facts. If the board is not active, they are left adrift. We talk to these students and realize, with this more attentive listening, that something is wrong, we do some research to find out how the relationship with the family is and we are faced with very complex realities,” he said.
Retired teacher Mercedes de Souza went today, for the first time, to the polls that will define the composition of the Guardianship Council in the capital and, in her case, the vote goes to a counselor she already follows. The ideal profile, for her, is someone who goes deeply into the investigation of each case that comes to the attention of the school council and management and who is able to dialogue with the student’s family.
“He is active and always helped us, he never let me down. He’s running again. I only had this candidate, in fact. I want to change things that I don’t like,” he summarized.
The changes in the traditional family model, previously composed generally of a mother, a father and children, is something that impacts the expectation regarding the attitude that a teacher should assume, according to Mercedes, for whom the school should serve as a vehicle of emancipation.
“When a child goes to school, they no longer have the family they used to have. So, the school also has to understand this. We think, I’m giving it here [esse saber] and then you can free yourself. It is necessary for a psychologist and an entire network to help students understand that the world changes,” she said. “When there are problems in the family, this is reflected at school,” she observed.
See more: Election of guardianship counselors takes place across the country this Sunday (1st)
Source: CNN Brasil
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