Before the publication of the measures where the restrictions on leisure are maintained for the realization of their activities, we declare: “Leisure is essential and safe, it is a right, it is education”.
Leisure is essential and safe. Leisure is a right. Leisure is Education
Before the publication of the new measures where the restrictions on leisure for the realization of their activities are maintained: esplais, camps facilities, centers, extracurricular activities, excursions …
- We state that leisure activities are safe activities, as evidenced throughout last summer camps and camps facilities, and corroborated by different studies on transmission and development of COVID-19 in children.
- We regret that these restrictive measures are taken that violate the right to education of children, in these spaces so necessary at an emotional and relational level, of contact with nature and of globalizing learning of children and young people.
- We want to confirm the double violation of rights that these measures cause to children, young people and adults with diverse educational needs, for whom educational leisure spaces often become essential spaces for community education and unique spaces for socialization, leisure and respite for their families, who need access to daily leisure education resources and who are often outside their region.
- We are saddened and removed by the great setback that these measures represent for the social recognition of leisure as an educational agent. We are education. We are not a complementary agent, but an essential one. Are we less safe or less essential than other activities? Is the legal definition of an entity more a guarantee of safety in terms of health than guaranteeing the minimum mobility of participants? Are we third level educational agents? The right to education also lies in leisure education.
- We are very concerned about how the associative fabric and the organizations of the country are paying a very high price for this crisis, and not only economically, but organizationally, which will have its consequences in the very near future with the lack of reliefs, the disengagement of young people and families and what this will entail at a social and community level.
- We explain that the regional delimitation does not make any sense from the perspective of prevention and safety, since travel to camps facilities and youth facilities is a journey to safe places and that are governed by the relevant measures and protocols and that allow the child to enjoy coexistence in natural spaces and outdoors.
Aware that the health situation is not progressing adequately, we appeal to take the necessary measures to reverse the situation, but not with restrictive measures that affect the most vulnerable people and the rights of children and young people to educational leisure.
El Prat de Llobregat, February 10, 2021
Federació Catalana de l’Esplai and Fundació Catalana de l’Esplai