Throughout February this is what I've done (in reverse order of amount of time spent on each activity): climb, write, rest, and work with Summit Adventure's ISAS program (Immersion, Service, Adventure Semester). While doing these things, I've gotten to work with some amazing (I don't use the word lightly) people and organizations. Rather than tell you exactly what I've been doing, I want to tell you these organizations with which I have been closely working.
1. Remanso de Amor (literally translated "Haven of Love")
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| A teacher at Remanso de Amor instructs her class of disarmingly cute (but alarmingly feisty) preschoolers. |
Remanso de Amor now operates in ten different locations throughout South America and Senegal, Africa. It is a Christian organization started in Quito, Ecuador by some of those amazing people I mentioned earlier, Ramiro and Jenny Maldonado. Ramiro has several graduate degrees and multiple (I'm not sure how many) doctoral degrees. He is a lawyer as well as the founder of Remanso de Amor; he has been petitioned to be an ambassador for Ecuador; he has also been seriously recruited to run for the Ecuadorian Presidency. He has chosen instead to continue running Remanso de Amor and to raise his two kids. Jenny is an accountant (and I don't know as much about her).
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| Jenny and Ramiro, with kids Jonathan and Carlita |
They decided to start Remanso de Amor while visiting some houses in Argelia Alta. One particularly memorable house (shack) they visited was a single room. In one corner was the kitchen, in another corner everyone slept, in another was a crib for a newborn, and in the fourth corner was the bathroom. When Ramiro and Jenny walked into the house there was blood on the floor, several young children, and no father. They came to find out the mother had recently born a child in the house which accounted for the blood on the floor. When asked who helped her bear the child, she pointed to one of her children who was about eight years old. The Maldonados left the house moved in spirit, and crying. This is when they decided to do whatever they could to help Argelia Alta.
Remanso de Amor focuses on helping communities in a holistic fashion, not focusing solely on spiritual, or medical, or social issues but addressing all of them within communities. In Argelia, Remanso has started a church, a school (preKindergarten-University), and a microbusiness program, all of which promote the independence, financial and otherwise, of the community members. Remanso also brings in a group of Ecuadorian doctors at intervals to address medical issues, and they send out social workers weekly to visit nearby homes. The new focus of the social work program is the reduction of infant mortality. They specifically visit homes with babies to monitor the health and progression of the infants. They do mental and physical exercises with the children as well as a small bible study with the families.
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| Summit Adventure works with Remanso on every Ecuador course. I asked this guy to make a funny face. |
Recently, Remanso de Amor has faced serious financial setbacks. Ramiro and Jenny both lost their jobs and are looking for work that will allow them to continue running Remanso de Amor. Along the same lines, the government is requiring Remanso de Amor to build a chemistry laboratory in order to maintain their accreditation. This requires a fourth floor to be built onto the school costing somewhere between $20,000 and $30,000. Because Remanso is a school for the poor, the families cannot afford to pay much for school. "The hardest thing," says Ramiro, "is [raising enough money for] paying the professors." The school is being fined every month the fourth floor is not built, but Ramiro says he does not have anywhere to get the money.
Life is not easy for the Maldonados right now. If things do not improve, they will soon have to make changes such as moving their children to a different school; But the thing that most struck me about the Maldonados is how often they laugh and smile in the face of their current adversity. Their generosity with their time and money seems to compete the frequency of smiles on their faces. They related their struggles to a group of Summit Adventure students during an interview. When asked why he is not living for himself comfortably, without the struggles of running a non-profit, Ramiro seemed puzzled by the question as if it had never occurred to him. "Because Jesus says to help the poor and make disciples," he said. So Remanso de Amor continues, though not without cost. "Now, if they offered me an Ambassador job," says Ramiro shrugging and half-joking, "I would take it."
2. The Davis Foundation (The Happiness Foundation)
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| Brothers Eduarado and Elpis help me make popcorn in the kitchen. 2 of their other siblings live with them in the orphanage while their mother retained their youngest sibling. |
The Davis Foundation is an orphanage in Conocoto, a suburb of Quito. I believe it was started in the late 60's by missionary Henry Davis who discovered that many orphaned children were living with criminals in a nearby prison because they had no where else to go. Henry brought them to a house in Conocoto near to a separate governement-sponsored orphanage. Over time, and with the specific help of Ecuador's first lady at the time, the Davis Foundation was given a 50 acres of land and the control of the neighboring orphanage. Henry hoped to work himself out of a job at the orphanage and eventually did. It is now Ecuadorian-run.
I stayed at the Davis Foundation for two stints of five days this month and got to talk extensively with Bill Davis, Henry's brother. For my first five days at the foundation, I ate all of my meals with one of the houses of children. There are twenty houses in all, each with about twelve kids and a parent (or parents) who live in the house with them. The students attend a school on the property for seven hours a day, then work on the foundation for three to four hours. They do homework, clean the houses, tend to the crops and livestock, and maintain the property.
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| Guinea pigs, or "Cuy", are the cutest thing on the menu in Ecuador. The orphans are currently tending to over 200 cuy which they sell for their meat. They require constant attention and tending to them teaches responsibility. |
The thing that stood out to me most about the Happiness Foundation was, surprisingly, the happiness of the children there. The orphanage I visited in Belize was underfunded, understaffed, and overcrowded. The children at the Davis Foundation have much more, food, space, and affection. They seem to be socially well-adjusted and respectful. Many ex-orphans, including my taxi driver, are business-owners in Conocoto. I believe this is due, in part, to the wisdom of the board that runs the orphanage administering discipline and structure. Also, adequate resources are made available through the work of Dorothy Davis (the late Henry Davis' wife) who is in the States managing all of the fundraising for the orphanage.
In short, all of this is to say that Remanso de Amor and the Davis Foundation are, in my opinion, doing an excellent job of bettering the lives of some of the most needy people in Ecuador, one of the poorest countries in South America. Both organizations are sustained by fundraising and donations, not because they don't want to support themselves, but because their main customers are the extremely poor who are unable to pay the organizations offering them avenues of escape.
If you're interested in helping out The Davis Foundation or Remanso de Amor, there are a couple of ways to do so. Know that money donated to these organizations is not making Ecuadorian children dependent on foreign money, it is helping them become independent so they can be well-adjusted and skilled adults who have heard the Gospel of Christ. So, to help out you can do these things:
1. Support a child or make a donation to the Davis Foundation at their website at www.housesofhappiness.org
2. Donate to Remanso de Amor, through Summit Adventure. 100% of your donation will go to Remanso de Amor. Because Summit's website will be under construction a little while longer, donations given before the website is running will have to be sent to PO Box 496, Bass Lake, CA 93604, with a note saying that the money is for Remanso de Amor.
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| During chores, Oguita, sister of Eduardo and Elpis, rocks out on the broom-guitar. |
That's all I've got for now. Don't feel obligated to give. I just wanted get some information out about the organizations I have been working with down here, and let you know a couple potential ways to put your money towards very noble causes. I'll try to write soon about what I specifically have been doing. Thanks for the support.
