The first lady, Gabriela de Bukele, received the 2022 Eureka World Science Prize, which was awarded by the World Council of Academics and University Researchers (COMAU) in Barranquilla, Colombia.

“I want to thank the World Council of Academics and University Researchers for this invitation and this recognition that, more than an award, is an incentive for our government and for all of us who are working for early childhood,” said Gabriela de Bukele through a video to those attending the award ceremony.

During her intervention, she explained each of the actions framed in the implementation of the National Policy to Support Early Childhood Development Grow Together and the Born with Love Law for Respected Childbirth and Loving and Sensitive Care for the Newborn.

She highlighted the importance of implementing the four axes of the policy: health and nutrition; education and care; the environment and protective environments, and protection of early childhood rights.

Similarly, she shared the experience of the implementation of the Law Nacer con Cariño, a regulation that made El Salvador the first country in Central America with a respected childbirth law.

“The Born with Love Law for Respected Childbirth and Loving and Sensitive Care for the Newborn is part of the Health and Nutrition axis, the first initiative of the Growing Together Policy that becomes law. The law has the purpose of changing the way in which present and future generations of Salvadorans come into the world”, she stressed.

The First Lady emphasized the actions developed within the framework of the implementation of the regulations, such as: prenatal education for mothers and companions; continuous and specialized training in the maternal and child areas for health personnel; promotion, support, and protection of breastfeeding; skin-to-skin contact, and late cutting of the umbilical cord.

“We hope that our commitment and work will become an inspiration for the rest of the countries in Latin America, because everything begins in the first years. Once again, thank you very much for this recognition. We are going to continue working for early childhood, because in El Salvador every boy counts, and every girl matters”, the First Lady pointed out.