Mexican Day Care Wins United Nations Award Rocio Zayas - Rumbo de Mexico
go to original May 11, 2012

MEXICO CITY – Although President Felipe Calderón cannot, by law, attend the presidential campaign closing ceremony on June 27, he will be able to go to New York to receive a United Nations Public Service Award.

On Thursday, the United Nations announced that Mexico’s state-run day care program, “Programa de Estancias Infantiles,” won second place in the 2012 UN Public Service Awards.

Heriberto Félix Guerra, the federal secretary of social development, said, “The program is no longer just in Mexico. The United Nations wants to implement this program around the world.” Félix Guerra said the program is being developed in various countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Calderón said that 9,500 day care centers, which attend to 200,000 children, have been created in the country since the beginning of his administration and that because of the program, 260,000 mothers have entered the workforce.

The president said that the number of day care centers that have been built in the last six years is more than the number of day care centers the Mexico Social Security Institute (IMSS) and the Government Employees Social Security Institute (ISSSTE) created over the last 60 years.

Félix Guerra said that in spite of Congress assigning a limited budget to the project, the federal government will achieve its goal of building 10,000 day care centers in the country.

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