Ecuador
From the Andes to the Galapagos Islands to the Amazon and the Pacific coast, Ecuador is a patchwork quilt of a country. Twenty-seven indigenous nationalities live here. Yet despite the country’s oil wealth, the majority of Ecuador’s people live in poverty, many on the margins of society.
Now we have groups of children, communities and teachers with the knowledge and the skill to make their lives safer.
Luis Stacey, Save the Children's Ecuador country director
What we’re doing
Our programme gives children a real chance to affect decisions that can give them a better education, protect them from harm and safeguard their rights. We provide practical services and work with government to bring about tangible, lasting change for children.
- We work in the poorest cantons of Guayas, El Oro and Esmeraldas provinces, where up to 65% of the population lives in poverty.
- A vibrant children’s movement is having a real voice in shaping decisions; we support 65 children’s groups.
- Our priority in Ecuador is making sure the poorest 10% of children get a better education and are protected from abuse.
- In 2010, we helped 10,800 children.
Cilennia was 13 when she became pregnant and was forced by her teachers to drop out of school. In 2010, many years and three children later, she went back to school, delighted to be studying again.
"I’m very excited to be able to finish high school – and then I’ll go to college," she says. "I might study tourism – I don’t know for sure. What I really know is that I want to keep studying."
Poverty, a history of discrimination against indigenous and afro-Ecuadorian people, illiteracy and growing violence, especially in the coastal provinces where we work, hold children like Cilennia back.
Ecuador is now also a major transit point for the drugs trade and people trafficking, and these are growing threats for young people. Ecuador’s oil wealth is not a guarantee of benefits for the poor.
Yet here, a vibrant children’s movement makes the idea of children’s rights come alive. Through supporting children’s organisations, and working with municipal, provincial and national government, we are changing children’s role in society.
What we’ve achieved
In 2010, 396 young people like Cilennia, once denied an education, studied in our basic accelerated learning project for children returning to school.
- In 2010 we helped 8,848 children previously excluded from education, or at risk of exclusion, in 83 schools.
- We’ve directly influenced municipal and provincial governments. In 2010, for instance, nine municipalities allocated more funds to education because of our advocacy, improving the quality of education in nearly 90 schools. They also created consultative councils to improve child protection
- More half of Ecuador’s children suffered some type of violence or abuse in 2010, according to a national survey. We work in schools to create systems of child protection. In 2010, we co-organised the first Provincial Congress Against the Sexual Abuse of Children for over 400 regional delegates and agreed objectives towards the eradication of sexual violence against children in El Empalme municipality.
- We’ve helped make 11,100 parents, teachers and other adults in 100 communities more aware of children’s rights to education, safety and protection.
What’s urgent
We want to maintain our standing as one of the top three organisations working for children’s rights in Ecuador.
We’ll also continue developing innovative and high-quality programmes to promote children’s right to education, protection and participation that could be replicated nationwide and overseas on a much larger scale.
You can help
Join us in giving children more say in government decisions.
Help us get more children back in school and educate teachers about children’s rights.