Dear friends,
Thank you for joining the event "Enhancing the Role of Faith Communities in Protecting Vulnerable Children against Gang Violence and Organized Crime in the Northern Triangle and Mexico." The event was co-organized by the Global Alliance for the Elimination of Violence and by the Alliance for the Protection of Children (APN), a multi-religious and multinational coalition of more than 55 religious organizations created in 2017, works to protect children from violence in Honduras, El Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico.
The discussion highlighted concrete approaches that religious actors can take to help reduce the number of children who become victims or are recruited by gangs and organized criminal groups.
The event brought together prominent exponents of the US and Mexican governments and representatives of religious groups, private foundations, civil society organizations and academia to share on the multi-sector perspective and multi-stakeholder commitments to face the challenges faced by children in these four countries, mainly those who live in communities located in areas controlled by maras and gangs, at risk of being recruited by drug traffickers, in a situation of human mobility, at risk of being victims of organized violence on migration routes, including trafficking and smuggling, and adolescent boys and girls with fathers, mothers or adult references responsible for their care in prison.
The panel provided a platform for different stakeholders to share experiences, their programs and their contribution on the ground in preventing violence against children in the Northern Triangle area and Mexico.
We are pleased to share with you the video with all the presentations of the meeting.
You will also find below the Violence Prevention Guide, developed through a nearly three-year participatory process that included consultations with children and the identification of promising practices in the region. The Guide proposed evidence-based strategies and concrete actions that religious actors can take to prevent violence at the primary, secondary and tertiary prevention levels. The guide is available in Spanish.
