The Ministry of Education (Minerd) and the Specialized Corps for Tourist Safety (Cestur) have agreed to step up efforts to assist vulnerable children living in the tourist areas of the Colonial City and Boca Chica in Greater Santo Domingo and Sosúa in Puerto Plata.
Education Minister Antonio Peña Mirabal and Cestur director Air Force Brigadier General Juan Carlos Torres Robiou pledged to work to rescue children and young people who are at risk of being abused in these places.
Torres Robiou expressed his gratitude to Minister Peña Mirabal for accepting the proposal to integrate these children, many of which have been abused into CESTUR’s Boys, Girls and Adolescents Protection Program (NNA). He spoke of the many cases of children in tourist areas that are abused by tourists and Dominicans who take advantage of their helplessness.
He said that over the last five years, Cestur has rescued about 1,200 young people with the program. The armed forces have later employed many of the street children.
He said that Colonel Nieve Rodríguez is in charge of the CESTUR’s NNA program. He said that prosecutor Olga Diná Llaverías is the godmother of the program.
Meanwhile, Education Minister Peña Mirabal said he backed the Cestur program to rescue children and teenagers who wander in tourist areas when it was explained to him.
The head of the Ministry of Education said that the children and adolescents are rescued and taken to specific places, where they are treated by psychology professionals and then learn skills to reinsert themselves into a productive life.
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Ministerio de Educacion
Z101 Digital
19 December 2019