Ecuador

Articles / Volunteer Evaluations

	Hi all, Been here over a month now and time seems to be flying - will be back before I realise it. One of the things I should have pointed out last week is that although life out here is very cheap for me, wages in the country are generally very low (only a couple of dollars a day). I am not sure what rate is paid at the dump but they get paid by the weight of plastic/card they manage to extract from the rest of the rubbish (households dont separate stuff for recycling before putting in the bin the way we do in the UK - it all goes to the tip where it then gets sorted). There appears to be generally less food thrown away than in the UK as people cannot afford to do so, so the smell is not as bad as walking past a bin lorry (though there are still better smells to be had!) This Sunday was Mothers Day here - it is a much bigger event than in the UK as the whole of the end of last week was devoted to it. On Thursday I peeled and cut up a small mountain of fruit... with a very large Ecuadorian knife (still have all fingers at last count!) - much happier if I could have used a peeler it has to be said! The mothers then came into the centre (minus their boots this time thankfully!) and were entertained by the kids singing a couple of songs and one of the teachers singing some songs. They were then fed the fruit, an omelette, and cake and presented with a framed photo of themselves and their kid (as taken the day before when they did come in with their boots and leave loads of dirt behind). On the Friday, monthers day celebrations continued with a live band for all the workers in the afternoon - they were also fed and given plastic roses with hearts on saying happy mothers day. The bonus to this was that all the kids were gone by 4.30pm. At the weekend the celebrations continued with many of the shops having special mothers day offers. This weekend we stayed around Quito - on saturday I went with Richard, one of the other volunteers, up the teleferiqo (cable car) to the top of the (non-active this time!) volcano behind Quito. There were some stunning views over Quito, and (as you may be able to see from the photos) we were so high up it was almost like you could touch the clouds. Walking up to the crater was completely weird as due to the altitude (we started at 4050m) the slightest hill left you completely gasping for breath. Unfortunately it was very cloudy at the top so not much to be seen. This week has so far been quieter at the centre (I am assuming people went to visit families at the weekend and have not as yet come back) though we were back to something approaching normal numbers today (not all the regulars are back however as we had 3 new ones (twins and another (possibly cousin?)) on Monday. Plan to take my camera there this week to get some photos so you can see them all.

• Evaluation by Louise Carver

	The first thing I noticed was the smell. I got used to this after a while but the centre is located right by the city dump. The kids are all in one room so it is very noisy; this makes it seem a bit chaotic but it is also part of its charm. You really feel part of the group and part of the community. It can be quite stressful to start with as the younger children find it very difficult to be separated from their parents. The daycare centre is open from 10am-5pm, and volunteers are needed all the time. I mean all the time. There are approximately 70 children whose parents live and work on the rubbish dump but the daycare centre is equipped to hold just 35 and it is rarely full. This means the majority of the children still spend their days on the dump. It is very important therefore to educate the parents into the importance of the daycare centre, and to ensure that the children that do attend enjoy themselves and benefit from it. To ensure this it needs as many volunteers as possible to show love and attention to the children. With the help of many more volunteers one thing I would like to see happen is the bathing of children and brushing teeth everyday, however this is not realistic at the moment. I feel this is a very worthwhile project; the staff are very friendly and really appreciate all the work of volunteers. The project has it's flaws but these are mainly due to lack of staff, therefore they can be solved with the help of volunteers.

• Evaluation by Lizi Mortimore

	Just thought I would send you a quick email to say thankyou for everything. I have had a fabulous time in Ecuador and working at the project. It was one of the best experiences of my life. I have written a report (below) which hopefully outlines what I was doing and how I found the whole experience. I hope that you can use this to encourage more volunteers to spend their time at this project as it really was fantastic. The project is in the north of Quito and it is where all the rubbish from the city is taken to be sorted and disposed of. The rubbish is sorted by hand but unfortunately many of the people who work there also live amongst the rubbish. Therefore the workers children live and play in the rubbish as there is nothing else for them to do. This isn't very healthy and a lot of the older children end up getting into trouble. An organization from the USA called Extreme Response has been working with the people of this project for a number of years. Six months ago they opened a daycare centre for the workers children. The centre is quite basic with one main play room, a small area for the babies and another room which contains some beds. There is also a small outdoor area with two swings, a climbing frame and some slides. The first job was to sweep and mop the inside of the building, change the sheets on the three beds and tidy up the toys. In addition to these tasks we would also welcome the children as they arrived. The children ranged in age from 2 months to 6 years old. This was the busiest part of the day as many of the children cried when their mothers left them. In addition, all the babies needed to have their nappies changed. Usually all the children arrived by 10am. Generally there were between 10 to 15 babies and 20 to 25 older children. At 10am two teachers arrived, and they washed the children's hands and faces. They then sang songs and had a morning snack. At about 11am the children played games, coloured pictures or did an educational activity until lunchtime. A typical activity might be to draw an animal on a piece of paper for each child then get tear up coloured paper and glue it onto the animal to create a colourful picture. The children were all given a healthy two course lunch at 12.30pm after which they brushed their teeth. For the rest of the day they did other activities, for example taking a walk or jumping over a skipping rope. There was also an afternoon snack at 4pm before the daycare centre closed at 6pm. I had a great time at this centre, the other workers were extremely warm and welcoming. The kids were also fabulous. I spent a lot of my day caring for the babies as I felt my help was most needed there. Often in the morning I would change 12 nappies in half an hour! The children were amazing; they are very selfless and love to have fun. I had a wonderful time playing with them and it was so hard to leave them at the end of my time in Ecuador as I had built up good relationships with all of them. There is a tremendous need for volunteers at this project; the main problem is the lack of workers relative to the number of children that attend. They also need to expand the number of facilities and supplies, for example toys, nappies and wet wipes. I know that they want to give the children more educationally based lessons so there is scope for volunteers who want to contribute towards improving the children's skills. Many of the children struggle to count and recognize different colours. Whilst in Ecuador I climbed Cotopaxi, at 5900m and one of the most active volcanoes in the world. I was sponsored to do this and managed to raise nearly $300 to donate to the children's centre. So far this money has been spent on toys, nappies and a blackboard to help give the children proper lessons. Extreme Response is trying to improve the conditions at the centre all the time. Currently they are setting up a doctors surgery next to the daycare centre. This will be great as the parents and children are often sick due to working in the rubbish all day. They also struggle to be able to afford a doctors attention therefore often going without and risking worse illness. I worked at Zambiza from 8am until 3pm and had one of the best times of my life! The work was often tiring and it was sometimes heartbreaking to see how filthy some of the children were. However, the children were so giving and full of life that my time there was extremely rewarding. For example each day the children were so pleased to see me that they came running up with cries of "Senorita" and gave me a big hug. It was amazing to build up such a strong bond with each of the children. I would definitely recommend this project to anyone thinking of going to Quito.

• Evaluation by Rachel Smith