The National Administration of the Education, Nutrition, and Child Comprehensive Care Centers (CEN-CINAI) invested almost $900 thousand dollars to provide nutrition and child development services to children under 13 years of age, pregnant women and women in nursing period that are in extreme poverty.

The CEN-CINAI system was able to surpass the goal of providing attention to 4000 new families in the 2015-2018 period and to date they are providing benefits to 4,400 new families as part of the Strategy “Puente al Desarrollo” (Bridge to Development).

The Strategy Puente de Desarrollo involves the commitment of different areas of the National Administration of the CEN-CINAI. Also, the integration of information with several institutions with the objective of reaching geographical areas where the population is more vulnerable, and in this way providing the interdisciplinary and comprehensive attention they require”, indicated Gabriela Castro, National Director of CEN-CINAI.

Among the benefits provided by the CEN-CINAI program to families in poverty are: complementary nutrition, which involves daily or monthly food, provided to compliment the nutrition of underage minors and pregnant or nursing women; there’s also the Child Protection and Attention Service, which is given to minors on a daily basis in the different CEN-CINAI centers, which involves daycare, food, early education and comprehensive care of their development, through the free daycare service parents have the possibility of going back to work and/or study knowing that their children are in good hands; this allows them to improve their quality of life .

The Puente de Desarrollo initiative provides assistance and support to families with the idea of helping them evolve towards economic independence, and stepping away from a welfare model.

Costa Rica was able to decrease the poverty index in 2016, going from 22.3% in 2014 to 20.5% in 2016.