Help working children into school

CENIT continues to face many challenges and the need for the centre’s services has never been greater. It is a tragedy that there are increasing numbers of working children on Quito’s streets. They are not safe and working also interrupts the children’s education making it increasingly difficult to secure a brighter future.

The crime rate has risen in Ecuador due to the pandemic and economic crisis, which has left the country in dire circumstances. The streets are not safe for children and yet many children are out working, collecting bottles to earn a few cents, for example. Some children chose to stay out on the streets because family life has broken down, with more people turning to alcohol and drugs to escape the bitter realities of daily life.

ViaNinos UK supports the tutoring programme at CENIT by financing the salary of a local teacher. Through this programme, volunteers and teachers support children who are struggling at school to help improve academic performance, build confidence, and prevent school desertion. The programme also offers recreational activities, a safe social space, and a hot lunch and/or healthy snack. At CENIT, they ask for a contribution of 25 cents for lunch, but many families can’t manage to pay this. Of course, nobody is turned away.

The tutoring programme offers a safe space for children, where they can get help with their homework. Through the programme, staff can also identify learning difficulties, behavioural issues, health, social or family problems and access support for the children.

In the academic year 2022-2023, CENIT provided services to 375 children, of these 49 children were supported through the tutoring programme. Thank you for your donations which make this possible.

Did you know ViaNiños was founded in 2003 by former CENIT volunteers? That's how long we have been working together with CENIT! Thanks to your help, we can reliably support CENIT every year, thereby enabling working children in Ecuador to access education build a brighter future.

Whilst ViaNiños makes plans for our 20 year anniversary, CENIT have already celebrated 30 years with the release of a book. The book is called "Memorias del Corazon" (Memories from the heart) and provides information about CENIT's valuable work in promoting education and fighting child labour in Ecuador. There was an official book launch in Quito.

CENIT always marks important events in the calendar with the participation of all the children and International Women's Day is no exception. Historically, CENIT was started to help working girls and the CENIT community know only too well about the suffering and injustice experienced by girls and women in Ecuador on a daily basis and work hard to fight against it. 

Below are some photos from when ViaNiños volunteer, Eva-Maria, went to visit CENIT. As you can see, all the core programmes continue and children still benefit from a daily hot lunch as well as a welcoming centre, professional support and other resources such as the lovely library.   

Thank you for your donations and thank you to CENIT for all that you do! 

The CENIT community are still feeling the impact of the pandemic. During the lockdowns, markets were closed and the children and families that make up the CENIT community lost their main source of income. CENIT staff saw many more children out working in dangerous environments and spending time begging on the streets. In the struggle to eliminate child labour, things have been moving in the wrong direction, which is why CENIT's work is more important than ever.

Thankfully, the children are all back in school now, but of course there is a lot of catching up to do. Approximately 90% of CENIT children do not have access to internet at home, so it was impossible to conduct online learning. Instead, during the lockdowns staff visited the children every two weeks to provide worksheets for children to be able to learn at home. But the consequences of the school time missed will be felt for years to come.

The demand for CENIT’s programmes is greater than ever and they now have 80 children participating in the street outreach programme, 90 in the tutoring programme and 80 in the school. There are also 25 members of staff supported by volunteers. Since the pandemic, there are far fewer international volunteers, but CENIT have successfully engaged more Ecuadorian volunteers mainly through links with the universities.

CENIT continues helping children and young people turn their lives around through education and training as well as social and psychological support and healthcare. We are proud to be partners of this fantastic organisation.

Thank you for supporting CENIT.

We were delighted to partner again with the organisation School in a Bag to provide school bags and equipment to 150 children at CENIT. The school bags were filled with essential items such as pens, pencils, notebooks and maths sets etc. This time we included a small hygiene kit as well complete with facemask, soap, towel, toothbrush and toothpaste. After a long and difficult period where the pandemic severely interrupted learning, it is great to know the children are back in school and have all the items they need.

Due to the pandemic, it has been a while since anyone from ViaNinos visited CENIT, but we are pleased to report that Vero and Albrecht (ViaNinos Germany) will be heading over to visit soon. So we will be able to provide more of an update next time.

We were concerned to hear earlier this year that CENIT had lost funding to provide lunches for the children and decided to step in and help for the rest of this academic year. This means the children will continue to get a hot, healthy lunch each day, which improves, nutrition, attendance, concentration and academic performance. It also gave CENIT some time to secure alternative funding for lunches for the next school year.

There have been various events at CENIT over recent months. For example, on 12th June CENIT hosted an event for International Day for the Eradication of Child Labour, in order to generate awareness and show that children should be our priority, and we must work hard to secure the right to play and study. The slogan for the day was, “Let’s work together, to eradicate child labor!”

Earlier the same month, CENIT celebrated their 31st anniversary and organised an event together with other civil society organisations as well as representatives from central and local government and offered children the opportunity to participate and stand up for their rights.

Children enjoyed a photography workshop run by volunteers as part of the academic support programme whereby children participate in a variety of activities every Friday.

Another popular day on the CENIT calendar is Children’s Day, which is enjoyed by all. As they say at CENIT, ‘if we could view the world through the eyes of the child, the world would be a happy place!’

Thank you for supporting this project which brings so much joy to so many children in Quito, Ecuador.

It has been a difficult start to 2022, with the pandemic reaching a new peak in January. At CENIT, they opened face-to-face classes on 3rd January but shortly after the authorities announced a return to online schooling. This is a devastating move for the children supported by CENIT who will struggle to learn from home. When the children returned to class last September, they had already missed nearly 18 months of regular classes. But with soaring numbers of staff and pupils catching Covid, they had no choice but to close schools again. Thankfully, the COVID vaccine campaign has progressed over the last year reaching most people in Ecuador, including the poorest. Plans are in place for all schools to return to the classroom in February but, as everywhere else around the world, Omicron is spreading fast.

The pandemic has been damaging to Ecuador’s children and young people. After 10-15 years of progress with schooling rates up at 95-96% by 2019, one of the longer lasting damaging consequences of COVID will be the spike in the level of school desertion and children missing out on their education. It will be very difficult for them to ever catch up again once in-class schooling resumes, a problem that will affect the poorest in particular for years to come. In addition to the loss of education, the children are missing out on the healthy lunch they would normally enjoy at CENIT and the important social interaction. Many children have suffered from the isolation, and some have experienced increased anxiety, as well as violence and abuse. CENIT have reported higher numbers of children working and begging as well as an increase in early pregnancy and/or early marriage.

Despite these challenges, the team at CENIT have been working hard to support vulnerable children and their families, to prevent school desertion and keep children safe. 

We are pleased to be collaborating with the organisation School in a Bag again this year. CENIT are currently ordering new school bags with all the items the children will need for their return to school (pens, pencils, notebooks, maths sets etc). Each bag will also include a hygiene kit with a facemask, soap and sanitiser. We hope the bags will be a nice surprise and a welcome gift for the children as they come back to class. We will update on this project next time.

Thank you for your support for this incredible project!