A group of 36 young people are performing clean-up work at the Tula Chico archaeological site in Hidalgo as part of the “Youths Building the Future” program.

Each of the workers, who started the job last month, receives a monthly salary of 3,600 pesos (US $190) from the program, which is managed by the federal Labor and Social Welfare Secretariat.

The program is currently employing 800,000 youths at a variety of jobs across the country; 333 are working for the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) at archaeological sites and museums.

Women account for 58% of those enrolled in the program while men account for 42%. The term of employment is one year.

INAH director Diego Prieto told the newspaper El Universal that the institute hopes to employ 800 youths through the program by September.

“This program is making it possible for us to expand our base of employees, while at the same time train people who can later join the institute,” he said. “These young people aren’t putting INAH personnel out of work, because these are new jobs.”

Prieto said that when the brigade of young people started working at Tula Chico, the site was in bad shape. The perimeter fence was broken allowing visitors to enter freely, there were backlogs in maintenance and the museums were out of date.

According to Hidalgo Governor Omar Fayad, the state will invest 19 million pesos (US $1 million) in improvements at Tula Chico, while INAH will invest 2 million.

Source: El Universal (sp), Unión Guanajuato (sp)