The Ministry of Human Capital, led by Sandra Pettovello, advertisement that signed an agreement with the Child Nutrition Cooperating Foundation (CONIN) – founded by pediatrician Abel Albino – to facilitate the distribution of food that were close to expiration, stored in the warehouses of Villa Martelli (Vicente López, Province of Buenos Aires) and Tafí Viejo (Tucumán).
The Foundation received 43 thousand kilos of food to distribute since the beginning of Javier Milei’s administration (La Libertad Avanza)according to the information that the Ministry contributed to the Federal Justice.
In February 2024, the Ministry of Human Capital had already signed a agreement broad with the foundation, with the objective of “developing and promoting projects and activities that are of common interest in order to implement actions and activities within the framework of the ‘Argentina Plan against Hunger'”, according to what was published by the Government.
What does the CONIN Foundation do? Who is your president? What other governments did you work with? We tell you in this note.
What is the CONIN Foundation and who is Abel Albino?
According to official WebCONIN is a non-profit organization founded by pediatrician Abel Albino in the province of Mendoza, on September 4, 1993, and its mission is “to break child malnutrition in Argentina.”
The CONIN method, according to its website, “is a set of comprehensive programs, with scientific support, and based on procedures used to achieve a variety of objectives governed by one idea: eradicating child malnutrition. Such procedures are developed through tasks that require skills, knowledge, abilities and adherence to a code of ethics and values.”
Albino took the CONIN Chile method, devised by its founder Dr. Fernando Mönckeberg. According to your CVwas born in 1946 in Buenos Aires, and in 1972 he graduated as a doctor from the University of Tucumán.
He specialized in Pediatrics in Chile, at the Luis Calvo Mackena Hospital, where he met Dr. Mönckeberg, who was already working on the issue of child malnutrition.
In 1987, he received his doctorate in Medicine from the National University of Cuyo, and 5 years later he moved to Spain to study Molecular Biology at the University of Navarra.
In response to the query of Checkedfrom CONIN confirmed that Albino He continues to participate in the Foundation constantly “because it is his.”
Criticism of the CONIN method to combat child malnutrition
According to him method CONIN, in the first years of life, “in this ‘critical period’, thanks to the characteristics of brain development, we can intervene positively: at a nutritional level; at the family level, strengthening bonds and bonds; and at the developmental level, stimulating the child on a psycho-affective and motor level. In this way it is possible to reverse the damage; But after this period there may be permanent sequelae that make adaptation to society, emotional ability and learning difficult.”
However, it is a method discussed by doctors and scientists, who consider that the approach to malnutrition must be interdisciplinary. and must consider social determinants – real causes of poverty -, not just welfare measures.
The Argentine Society of Pediatrics issued a release in May 2017 from a note published in the magazine “Viva” of Diario Clarín, entitled “If we feed the children well, in 20 years we will be a power”, a quote from pediatrician Abel Albino, where he claimed to have the recipe to “break child malnutrition in Argentina”.
“Based on this undoubtedly shared objective, he recommends ‘that each child receive from the moment of birth onwards a box of milk per month’ as a solution to child malnutrition. This lacks scientific basis and is far from being the ideal solution,” the SAP statement said.
“As a scientific society, we reaffirm that breastfeeding is the most efficient, healthy and economical strategy that exists to combat childhood malnutrition, in addition to preventing numerous diseases that are a scourge as serious as malnutrition, overweight and obesity,” they added. .
Additionally, in 2018, more than 100 scientists indicated that Albino’s statements were based on the myth of “the first 3 years of life”, which were already denied by Dr. John Bruer, in 1997, in his book Myth of the first 3 years.
According to your websiteCONIN has 30,500 recovered children in 110 centers in 18 provinces. However, on its page it does not present scientific studies that allow us to evaluate this result.. A search in the PubMed database returns only 2 works carried out in Argentina.
The first, from 2006, titled “Child undernutrition, health and poverty, comprehensive intervention program”, evaluated only 75 patients and the data presented do not allow conclusions to be reached.
The second is from May 2009. The study is titled “Tackling malnutrition and poverty: evaluation of the CONIN experience” and was published in the journal Nutrition Reviews. In it, a nutritional, cognitive and social evaluation was carried out on the children of the CONIN Foundation centers in Mendoza, Argentina, between 1996 and 2005.
“During the study period, a total of 478 schoolchildren aged 5 to 17 years were evaluated (186 in the CONIN group and 292 in the non-CONIN group),” indicates the study, which warns that “no differences in weight were found.” and height between the groups, only a brief difference in the maturation of the children treated in CONIN.”
Abel Abino’s false phrases about condoms and HIV
In 2018, the founder of CONIN, Abel Albino, said during his presentation at the Senate hearing where a bill of voluntary interruption of pregnancy that had half a sanction from the Chamber of Deputies: “The condom does not protect them from anything [a las personas] because the AIDS virus passes through porcelain.”
In this note Checked explained why this was false: A study by the World Health Organization (WHO) – which was published in 2004 – established that the latex condom did not allow the passage of the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), nor particles the size of sperm or other cells. that cause sexually transmitted diseases (STDs).
The WHO maintained that “the impermeable barrier generated by the condom ensures that infectious agents from genital secretions are not transmitted, which is why it remains the main tool to prevent the spread of HIV and other STDs.” The institution clarified that these contraceptives must be produced “in accordance with the highest international standards.”
It was not the first time that Albino spoke on the subject. He also did so in November 2015, in a interview on Radio con Vos, in which he said that condoms were not effective in the fight against HIV, since “the virus passes through even porcelain” and that the “solutions to man’s problems are not technical, the solutions are ethical.” “These are decisions we have to make.”
From the CONIN Foundation, On July 26, 2018, they published a release breaking away from those sayings: “The aforementioned statements were made by Dr. Abel Albino in a personal capacity, not on behalf of the CONIN Foundation and therefore do not imply a position, nor do we share it as a foundation as such.”
The CONIN Foundation during the government of Mauricio Macri
As explained in this noteIn April 2016, the then Minister of Social Development of the Nation, Carolina Stanley, and the then president of the CONIN Foundation, Abel Albino, signed a agreement for “the construction of 30 new spaces for the care and prevention of malnutrition, and 3 care spaces for cases of malnutrition with social risk.”
This was within the framework of Decree No. 574/2016by which the National Early Childhood Plan was created as a tool “to guarantee the comprehensive development of boys and girls from 45 days to 4 years of age inclusive, in situations of social vulnerability in order to promote the promotion and protection of their rights , which will be implemented within the scope of the ministry of social development.”
According to reports from the then Chief of Staff, Marcos Peña, the national government delivered between 2016 and 2018 to the CONIN Foundation more than $78 million. YesIf inflation is considered, Total silver as of April 2024 would be $4 billion.
So far, according to what he was able to verify Checked, the Foundation It did not have any agreement during the Government of Alberto Fernández (Frente de Todos).
In response to the query of Checked about the distribution plan that the Foundation has regarding the food delivered by the Ministry of Human Capital, and about what studies they have about the impacts that its work has had in the fight against child malnutrition, at the close of this note it was not obtained answer.
