In June 2010, I hope to participate in a global service project in Manta, Ecuador. The Circle K Club of Western Washington University and the Kiwanis Club of Manta are collaborating to promote “Service, Leadership, and Fellowship” among the schools there, engaging teens in service involvement and away from violence, drugs, and sexual activity. At various schools we will be mentoring children and young adults to volunteer, starting with beautifying their schools. The area lacks school funding (governmental), contributing to the high rate of poverty leading to children dropping out of school to pay for necessary home amenities from not being able to pay for school fees, which we will help to alleviate.

In 2005, the United Nations Population Fund estimated that 50% of the 21.1 million people inhabiting Ecuador are struggling on two dollars a day and 20% surviving on one dollar or less a day. The Afro-Ecuadorian and Indigenous children grow up facing poverty and extreme challenges accessing education and health care, more so than other children. Many children facing chronic malnutrition are indigenous children living in rural areas, affecting more than 26% of children under age 5. Malnutrition limits the body’s physical growth and immune function as well as the brain’s capacity to function under a decreased caloric intake and negative energy balance. Health care access and services are lacking as well, with as much as 70% of the population uninsured and having no other way to pay for health services.
The Ecuador government has guaranteed free basic education to all children but there are still huge problems with the schools set-up. With poverty comes the inability to pay for school supplies. Beyond providing the building to allow the children to congregate for class, the school operates on an extremely limited amount of resources, forcing the books, teaching materials, and utilities to be paid for by the children’s families. As little as this may sound to us, many children end up working instead of going to school, in order to help pay for food, housing costs, and basic family amenities. Depending on the area, the legal age to work is between 15 to 18 years old, but the government does not enforce this requirement due to how essential it is that the children help keep families from becoming homeless. For example, children as young as 8 years old work long hours on banana plantations in rural areas. Children under the age of 12 in urban areas work shining shoes, collecting and recycling garbage, and selling and begging.
This project will touch on all of these issues in a variety of ways. At various dining halls and schools in Manta, Ecuador, we will be involving the children, teens, and community members in volunteering through the painting and fixing of their school. We look forward to making a positive influence on the various communities by promoting community service. While at the schools, we plan to teach the children a few games to share with their friends. Through these two ideas we will be encouraging the children to keep busy in a positive manner that will not only benefit them in the long run, but their community as well. Due to the lack of school funding and health care access, we will be bringing school supplies and basic medical supplies for the teachers to distribute. The school supplies will help keep the children in school, away from long hours on plantations or shining shoes, and take a portion of the burden of paying for school items off the family’s shoulders. We will be collaborating with the Kiwanis Club of Manta Ecuador to encourage young students from the nearby college to participate in the service project. The overall goal is to influence the college students to build a Circle K club to charter and encourage the children and community members to continue to volunteer around their community.

Last year, I traveled to Panama with the same group (Pacific Northwest Circle K) and spent a week building a classroom at one of the local schools there. We also got a chance to see some of the things the Circle K and Kiwanis clubs in Panama are doing for their community there (e.g. teaching kids English at other local schools, building and managing community activity centers, among other things). We hope that by establishing a club in Ecuador, it would benefit the city of Manta as well.

The estimated cost is around $1800 but my plan is to raise a third by asking family and friends to donate, another third through fundraising, and the last third out of my own pocket. I love to travel and volunteer and this opportunity blends both of those passions together. So I would greatly appreciate any donations made to help me raise money for the trip :)

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