Abstract

AGUIRRE RODRIGUEZ, Lina María. Intervención institucional y aprendizajes de las niñas y niños empacadores en las tiendas de autoservicio de Tijuana, México. Convergencia [online]. 2008, vol.15, n.48, pp.71-102. ISSN 2448-5799.

The purpose of this article is to examine the approaches of intervention from the institutions involved in the Programa de Atención Institucional al Desarrollo Integral del Menor Empacador en Tiendas de Autoservicio (PAIDIMETA). This social program was implemented by governmental and private institutions as a response to the increase in the number of children who pack shopping in supermarkets and as a strategy to protect this infantile population. From the consecution of interviews with the children, parents and civil servants, and the revision of secondary data, we analyze these forms of intervention and the most significant learning of the empacadores with experience in the field is emphasized. It's argued that these approaches of intervention to these institutions should be evaluated. The author emphasizes two principal points: i) working children need new strategies of intervention to improve their labor and educational welfare; and ii) it's necessary to reconsider children, not as passive receivers of social programs, but as social actors, with the right to fully participate in the decisions that affect their life in labor, family and school.

Keywords : City Tijuana; packer children; approaches to intervention; child's learning.