DIF (Desarrollo Integral de la Familia) is a government agency for the under-privileged adults and children in the area.

Each year DIF provides Christmas presents to these children, based on their school attendance. These toys are the only Christmas gifts most of these children receive, as their parents cannot afford to buy such luxuries.

Eagle Wings Foundation has been a strong supporter of this program for several years. The parade and distribution of the toys is a heart-rending experience. Between EWF and the Rotary Club, over five thousand toys are disturbed in the surrounding small poor towns.

DIF also offers many other programs, such as a medical program which not only provides the usual medical services but also canes, walking canes for the blind, walkers and crutches.  DIF also supports the Asilo program which provides care and lodging for the indigent who have no families.

The Sistema Nacional para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (SNDIF) is a public institution in charge to implement, apply, and give dimension to the public policies in the social assistance scope.

The SNDIF has its background in the Gota de Leche Program that in 1929 gathered a group of Mexican women concerned with the nourishment of boys and girls from the Mexico City surroundings.

From Gota de Leche, the Asociacion Nacional de Proteccion a la Infancia is created and it started receiving support from the Loteria Nacional para la Beneficiencia Publica.

On January 31, 1961, taking as basis the school breakfasts, the Instituto Nacional de Proteccion a la Infancia (INPI) was created by Presidential Decree as a decentralized institution, which generated a social attitude of great sympathy and support towards infancy.

On July 15, 1968, the Institucion Mexicana de Asistencia a la Niñez (IMAN) was created, also by Presidential Decree, with an orientation to take care of boys and girls who were orphans, abandoned, helpless, disabled, or having certain diseases. Later, in the seventies, the Instituto Mexicano para la Infancia y la Familia is created.

And so in 1977, by Presidential Decree, the Sistema Nacional para el Desarrollo Integral de la Familia (DIF) was created by the merging of the Instituto Mexicano para la Infancia y la Familia (IMPI) and the Institucion Mexicana de Asistencia a la Niñez (IMAN).

Today, DIF is going through a consolidation phase and organic reorganization as part of an administrative modernizing process that will allow it to adapt to the new conditions of the Social Assistance in Mexico so it can be prepared for the challenges that the future will bring.

Attention Program for the Infancy and Adolescence:

This program promotes public policies through prevention and attention strategies to influence in the integral development of girls, boys, and adolescents in vulnerable situations. By this means, it promotes the full exercise of their rights bringing them the opportunity of receiving an integral formation.

Although it is responsibility of state and municipal DIF offices to implement this program, its execution also depends on the participation of families, communities, and public and private sectors.

This program is regulated by operation rules and to achieve its objectives it counts with different actions and strategies.

Disabled Persons Attention Program:

The objective is to give integral rehabilitation services to population with disabilities or at risk of presenting it, as well as to plan, organize, and control the operation and follow up of the Centers, Basic and Mobile Rehabilitation Units with the purpose of contributing to their social integration.

The policies or operation strategies are...

• to elaborate, establish, give follow up and evaluate the policies and guidelines in valuating, treatment, and social integration of the persons with disabilities of the National System rehabilitation services.
• to watch the functioning of the rehabilitation operational statues in the states as well as carrying out the work programs accordingly with the collaboration agreements stated with States DIF.
• to participate in updating the norms in rehabilitation matters as well as in promotional and academic events concerning attention of disabled persons.
• to participate in making the directories of rehabilitation services institutions existing in the county.
• to compile the information of the institutional resources, services rendered, and the characteristics of the assisted population of the National System Rehabilitation Services.

Lines of Action are...

• to integrate the work annual program of the National System of Rehabilitation Services.
• to supervise the policies, systems and operational and functioning procedures of the rehabilitation centers and basic and mobile rehabilitation units.
• to compile the information and keep the situational diagnosis updated of the rehabilitation centers and basic and mobile rehabilitation units.
• to give counseling and technical support to the State and Municipal DIF Systems on rehabilitation matter and social integration of disabled persons.

Family Legal Assistance:

The objective of this service is to give legal assistance in family matters, in order that any person has access to justice in equal circumstances. This service is free of charge and can be requested by any person facing some type of family legal problem such as: divorce, loss of head of household, child support, etc.

Families and Vulnerable Population:

This program is a strategy on the long run designed to prevent social vulnerability, through community development actions, legal orientation, and social integration, that allow to increase the level of life of the most unprotected population so they can achieve social development.

This program is governed by operation rules and counts on different actions and strategies to achieve its objectives.

Prevention:

Prevention is one of the three pillars that sustain the new approach of social assistance in Mexico (prevention, professional training, and co-responsibility). It refers to identify and attend all causes that provoke vulnerability before it is presented with its effects.

Taking care of vulnerability causes and preventing them will avoid reaching painful situations of a more complex solution.

Donate through Eagle's Wings Foundation

These are more than thirty organizations that rely on donations and grants from the Eagle's Wings Foundation for their existence. It is our hope that you see the great poverty and needs of those who have so little.

As generous as our donors are, we never have enough to provide assistance to all of the worthy organizations asking for our help. I should point out that any group asking for aid is carefully screened and must provide receipts for each dollar they spend.

One of the requirements for the use of grant money is that it must be spent to help people directly. It cannot be used for such things as salaries or administration.

We hope you better understand the work of EWF and will make a donation. Anything you give will be greatly appreciated.

Please make checks payable to "Eagles Wings Foundation" and mail to:

Universal Vacation Club-Eagles Wings Foundation
c/o Ms. Ana Galvan
404 Camino Del Rio South, Fourth Floor
San Diego, CA 92108

Or, email the local office of DIF for more information at difvallarta@gmail.com.