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What is RED FAMILIA?
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Red Familia (meaning
"Family Network" in Spanish) is a coordination of civilian society organizations belonging to
diverse cultures, creeds and political positions. We look for an integral
development of the person and of society from a family perspective. As a
network, we are for the defense of life, childhood, promotion of women,
family-centered sexual education and marriage.
Civil associations, institutions of private attendance, non-government
organisms, local political groups, educational and research institutes can
participate in it.
Although its members are organizations that work for the family, private
individuals and enterprises can collaborate as "friends of Red
Familia" with their time, their talent, creative ideas, human resources
and/or economic support to achieve the objectives of the network.
The Organizations and "friends of Red Familia" share a Statement of
Principles as a convergence point and they carry out an articulated work in
benefit of the family.
Organization
Red Familia is a national network, integrated by local
networks. It is a horizontal
organization, whose local and national coordination are rotary, and whose
members keep their independence, their own judicial statutes and their specific
objectives according to their mission, sharing the common objectives of the
Network.
Just as the participant organizations, the local
networks conserve their
independent performance concerning local matters; however, they follow common
criteria and procedures.
Since Red Familia is based on a coalition model, none of its members nor any
Council (local or national) can decide for it, or to make any participant act in
a certain way, even if there was an agreement or consensus. The participation of
the members of Red Familia is always voluntary.
As of today, more than 150 organizations, national and international, take
part in Red Familia; and its programs benefit more than 8 million people.
Areas of Work
What have we made?
Besides the institution's programs that now benefit more than 8 million
people at a national level, we have:
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Influenced decisively on the recognition of the right to life since
conception as a Constitutional right.
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Influenced on the position of Mexico in the UN Summit for Childhood, and
on the International Convention against human cloning.
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Preserved marriage dignity avoiding legal comparisons with homosexual
unions.
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Reoriented the gender feminism agenda in the Women Parliament.
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Supported civil servants who share our ideas, and government initiatives
for the family (laws, programs, studies).
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Developed a summoning capacity with plural and interreligious proposals.
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We are becoming an important reference in family issues for different
government echelons and political parties.
Some of the current projects include:
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The opening of headquarters of Red Familia in all the States of the
Mexican Republic
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The integration of thematic coalitions and the elaboration of their
working plans
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To promote the creation of NGOs for legislative lobbying
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The organization of the Third World Congress of Families
in Mexico City, March 29-31, 2004
As a coalition, we created a civil association, "Coordinadora de
Servicios de Apoyo a la Familia" that will serve as a node of
inter-institutional communication to:
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Configure coordination and linking of interdisciplinary, institutional and
specialized, working groups; the grounding of agreements, inputs and
outputs.
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Integrate coordination and maintenance of an active
network of contacts with
the government, media, enterprises, non-government organizations, networks,
and with political, religious and opinion leaders.
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Receive, integrate, attend, project and strengthen the institutions of Red
Familia.
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Monitor media, research, the elaboration of documents, and the gathering
of materials for use and benefit of members of the network.
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Develop strategies and implement operative mechanisms of social
participation and fund raising.
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Effectively spread the causes of the Network in
mass communication media,
press conferences, forums, congresses and other spaces for expression.
Vision, mission, and strategic goals
Background
In 1999, a group of people formed a
network that would allow them to sum efforts
and maximize results. They were worried about the growing problems of society in
our country and concerned about giving solutions through the work of the
organizations that they represented.
They conceived family as an irreplaceable institution, not just in the
solution and prevention of such problems, but also in the promotion of personal
and social development. They captured their shared vision in a statement of
principles and named this network Red Familia.
The coordination of organizations with different cultures, creeds and diverse
political positions, intended to look for the integral development of people and
society from a family perspective.
Development from a family perspective
It is a proposal to recover the family as a human space where a person could
receive the necessary basis for his or her development; and grow in his or her
essential dimensions - maternity, paternity, fraternity and marital love -,
archetypes of the circumstances of life. In such a way, we can walk with
maturity toward the consecution of our existence in society and contribute with
responsibility to the common good.
It is about strengthening the family, but it is not just that, since we
recognize the existence of incomplete, dysfunctional, disintegrated families and
their problems. It is also about learning from the family to replace - in
absence or inability - its functions, it is about supporting it and relying on
it to prevent and solve social problems, it is about recognizing in this
community of love its enormous capacity to transform men, women, and societies.
Vision
A country where the family, based on marriage and on love, is indeed the
basic society cell, which forms good men and women. A country where every single
family, incomplete or dysfunctional, has the necessary and subsidiary support -
from the government, institutions, groups and individuals - for a dignified and
integral development.
Mission
To impel an integral development of men and women from a family perspective
as a fairer and integrative nation project, shared by civil society and
government.
Strategic goals
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To offer the most effective solutions to social problems from a family
perspective.
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To support, propose and promote a favorable legislation for development
from a family perspective.
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To support, propose and promote public policies and positive government
programs for development from a family perspective.
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To influence on public opinion in order to create a constructive tendency
for development from a family perspective.
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To offer civil society concrete forms of participation for development
from a family perspective.
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To have advice from a council of specialists and intellectuals that could
contribute to guide development from a family perspective.
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To project Family Network
nationwide and form international bonds.
Declaration of principles
Inspired by the Statement of Principles on the Family that was promulgated in
the Second World Congress of Families in Geneva, Switzerland, officially opened
in the Headquarters of the United Nations on November 15, 1999, convened by the
Howard Center, an institution with a long path in the work for the family.
Family and Society.
The family is the fundamental social core inscribed in the human nature,
founded on the voluntary union of a man and a woman, through the life-long
agreement of marriage. Stability, autonomy and fecundity of the family as an
institution, are necessary for a healthful society. That is why social and
political institutions should promote its integration, reaffirming its rights
and responsibilities.
Family and Person.
A well-established and dignified family life agrees with the legitimate
aspirations of a person, for basic needs such as ownership, affectivity and
security, for instance. The family is the ideal space for a child to be
conceived, to grow, to develop, to receive education, to be helped in the
illness and to be accompanied during the aging process until the natural death,
according to his or her demands as a human being.
Family and Marriage.
The marriage is shaped through the pact of marital love and a conscious and
free election. Man and woman accept each other with fidelity in the intimate
life, willing to procreate and educate their children.
Husband and wife have an identical dignity, they share the obligations at
home and the responsibility of bringing up their children.
It is a high-priority for society to strengthen the institution of marriage.
Family and Sexuality.
The sexual nature of a man and a woman is manifested through his or her
physical and psychological characteristics. These differences are natural and
are not determined by the artificial roles of society. Sex is the power of life,
of love and of togetherness; its purpose is the procreation of children. Sexual
education is a responsibility of parents. The sexual disorder is a cause of
suffering and multiple social problems.
Family and Life.
Each human life is invaluable; it represents wealth for the family and for
society, so it has to be welcomed with solidarity.
Every single person deserves respect to his or her physical, social and
spiritual integrity, and the safeguard of his or her individual rights from
conception until the moment of natural death. Under any circumstance life cannot
be submitted to extortion, manipulation, experimentation, commercialization,
violence or destruction.
Family and Procreation.
Human procreation, characteristic of personal beings, demands the existence
of the family. According to his or her dignity, every man or woman deserves to
come from an act of love, not from an adventure, and even less from a test tube
experiment.
The mutual acceptance of a married couple implies the potential maternity or
paternity, a service to life; including the admirable figure of full adoption.
Parents have rights, as well as obligations and responsibilities toward their
children.
Family and Population.
Procreation depends on the family; therefore, the conservation of the species
depends on it. The parents, free of any kind of political, social or economic
coercion, are entitled to decide on the number of children they want to have,
and the period of time between them.
International pressure to exercise an indiscriminate birth control through
temporary or permanent sterilization is not justified. In any circumstance,
Abortion will not be promoted as a method of birth control, not even in the
situation of emergency contraception that hinders the implantation of the
fecundated ovary.
Family and Religion.
Parents have the right to transmit their religious faith to their children,
and raise them according to it. Families have the faculty to believe, practice
and expressly manifest their points of view about religion. The religious
institutions have a crucial role in the ethical and moral formation that
sustains a culture. The true tolerance is indispensable for a peaceful
coexistence.
Family and Education.
The family is the privileged space for the education of children. Parents
have the first responsibility, so they have a preferential right concerning
their education, according to their own traditions and cultural or religious
values, particularly regarding sexual education. The state will provide
subsidiary education in a responsible form, respecting the family principles,
beliefs and values.
Family and Health.
The family home is a space of coexistence where basic needs of daily life are
satisfied. The family will have basic professional and humanitarian medical
support, during all the stages of life, without regard to its social or
economical situation. Education and medical institutions, public or private,
will have the explicit consent of parents to treat the health of a minor, also
regarding sexuality.
Family and Economy.
The family is a favorable center to foment the work culture, indispensable to
obtain the means for subsistence. The support to the working mother and father
to take the family economy ahead has to be kept in mind in the design of
economic matters, considering that such things that support families, also
sustain the economy in general.
Family and Ecology.
As a unit, the human beings and the family constitute the core of the
concerns related with a sustainable development. The family has the right to a
healthy and productive life in harmony with nature.
It is necessary to promote a new culture that incorporates daily decision
making, starting from home; a new development structure to obtain resources,
preserving nature.
Family and Media.
Mass media has an important role in the modern structure of society. Due
to its reach and penetration, it represents a formative element that has impact
on individual and social behaviors. When this influence is negative, it harms
family values.
We should appeal to the authority of the parents, to the responsibility of
the authorities and to the conscience of communicators and advertisers, to find
suitable ways to regulate a positive use of the media.
Family and Government.
Through public administration and by all means necessary, the government
should look for the common good. Its role is subsidiary, and it should not seek
to replace family neither to substitute it in the vital roles it has in society.
Frequently the family is harassed by policies that threaten its physical,
social and moral integrity. We must demand to the authorities to orchestrate
policies that would permanently benefit family, the basis of society.
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