On Monday and Tuesday of this week, OTEDUCA, the education and training team of OTD Chile, trained 28 officials of the National Service for Minors of the fifth, sixth and metropolitan regions, continuing with a process of joint work that began this year.
Aner Jiménez, responsible for gender issues in the Department of Juvenile Justice of the National Office of SENAME, said that “it is the first time we gather professionals from different centers, and they came from the two major areas of the Service, Juvenile Justice and Rights Protection “.
“They are very interested and what they appreciate most is that the persons who have lived experiences are the ones who deliver the contents, as well as the dynamics and interaction with the participants. Of course also the contents, many of them have attended trans persons in their centers and makes them a lot of sense” said.
Psychologist Barbara Epuñan, who works at a service center in the area of infringement, had never known a transgender person. “It is a very interesting meeting space, where from the experience we know what it means to be trans and empathize with what it implies.”
On the usefulness of this type of training, the professional believes that at the level of service it is necessary to make a paradigm shift. “From institutionality we have to generate a radically change on how we are looking, because we act very much on the contingency. We need to look for worthy spaces for trans users and workers. I’m leaving with the task of transmitting all these concerns to the team I work with, we are called as public officials to restore rights to this community. ”
The joint work with OTD Chile aims to continue consolidated, one of the projects is to generate actors in the centers or regions that are involved in the issue to generate a wide support network. “In the area of juvenile justice, we are open to continue working with OTD. We are open to look at our manuals and technical guidelines to review whether there is any bias that we did not see and that we can correct”, Jiménez said.
Photography: Javiera Salgado Herrera.
OTEDUCA team. Franco Fuica, Luka Suban, Paola Muga and Jacqueline Rodríguez.
Translated by: Javiera Saavedra R.
