Reduce Work Hours for Ecuador's Street Children

Diana, a young mother, who has worked in the market for more than eight years, first started receiving help from UBECI when she was pregnant with her now 5-year old daughter. Since that time her daughter has learned writing and reading skills and some English. Just as important, she has learned to sing and play and has had a valuable and needed break from working in the market. UBECI will continue to support this child and family until she graduates from high school as they have done for hundreds of other children and families.

Melany, who is 11 years old and has been participating in the program for several years said that the help she received with her homework in addition to receiving school supplies helped her stay in school along with a much needed break from her work in the market. Melany plans to continue to use the services of UBECI to help her complete high school.

UBECI staff and volunteers continue to go to six different markets in Quito, five days a week to provide the street and at-risk children of Quito a structured break from their 12 hour work days in the markets. In September and October children between the ages of 3 and 18 received lessons in educational subjects such as geometric shapes and primary colors alongside self-esteem lessons teaching how to get along with people and family members, and to positively express their needs. Each day the staff and volunteers carry heavy canopies, mats, play and school equipment on the crowded buses of Quito, riding up to an 45 minutes to get to the market. They set up a school in a parking lot or field next to the market. Children either arrive on their own or staff go around the stalls in the market to pick up the younger children and sometimes even younger siblings who need attention while their older sibling participates in Play, Do and Learn. The children not only get a break from work, but the help they need to enroll and stay in school, leading to an opportunity for a much better life.

Although UBECI has come close to meeting our fundraising goal, we are slightly behind schedule in the amount of funds raised and the number or recurring donors achieved. We are looking for more recurring donors, starting in December when Global Giving matches the first month's donation after three months of recurring donations. The additional funds received at the end of the year will be used to maintain the current programs into the coming year and to help with other needs, such as replacing damaged toys and sports equipment for the children, extra gifts for Christmas, and more birthday gifts. We greatly appreciate your past support and so do the children we serve in the market. 

Links:

• Ubeci Web Site
• Ubeci Facebook Page

UBECI has had a fantastic summer, with a huge number of volunteers taking part in both the Street Children Project and Administrative support. Since our last report we began our Summer Program which stretches from July to August. During this period we help the children develop their artistic skills through dance, theater and drawing. Workshops were designed for each age group to develop the skills appropriate for their stage of cognitive development.

As with other UBECI campaigns, play is extremely important in the cognitve and social development of the children. Therefore physical games were incorporated into playtime, such as football and skipping, to develop skills in teamwork and leadership. These activities also allow the children to relax, unwind and enjoy their time away from work. 

During the Summer Program, songs were included at the end of each workshop. A variety of songs were used to teach coordination and to capture the children's attention. These songs were designed to be entertainig and educational, with the final goodbye song incorporating English words for the children to learn. These summer workshops were hugely sucessful and reached a large number of children. During this summer period we saw up to 40 children in attendence of our activites in one day at the largest market UBECI works at in South Quito. We were lucky enough to have atleast 10 full and part-time volunteers working in the markets each week, allowing for more attention to be given to the children's learning.

We have just recently ended our Summer Program and we are very excited to have begun our School Kit Campaign. As millions of children across the globe go back to school in September, we here at UBECI hope to provide the children in South Quito with the same opportunity to learn and develop. We found last year that less than 24% of the children who took part in our workshops attended school. Therefore we have been collecting donations of school supplies such as pens, pencils and notebooks to give to the children. We will be trying to get all of the UBECI niños school kits to emphasize the importance of academic learning as well as giving them and their parents the means to actually attend school. Donations for our School Kit Campaign will benefit over 300 children across South Quito. 

So what's next for UBECI? From September to October UBECI will be reinforcing educational activities such as math and reading games. The street children lack self-esteem in comparison to their counterparts so UBECI will teach the street children to value themselves as individuals, an important asset in order to succeed in school. 

With a busy few months coming up, UBECI are hugely grateful for all your support and donations! Your generosity enables us to keep improving our work and to increase the number of children we reach through our workshops. On behalf of all the staff at UBECI and the street children in South Quito - we say thank you!