The charitable purpose of Friends of Ecuador Schools is to purchase and deliver classroom materials to schools in remote areas of Ecuador.

Our Goal is to improve primary school education in these remote communities so that the young people will be better able to cope with the changing world. Empowering the youth of these communities allows them to reside in their community instead of migrating to crowded cities.

Friends of Ecuador Schools seeks to improve the remote school education programs without encouraging the students to migrate to the cities. We work directly with community leaders, educators and families in remote villages to protect their communities and their culture. Through charitable solicitation Friends of Ecuador Schools purchases consumable and permanent materials for the classrooms of rural schools in Ecuador. In this way, we hope to bring these young people closer to an education that they must have to build sustainable communities and families.

The students must be able to read, write, perform basic math, and think for themselves, so that their contact with the remainder of the world will not mystify, overwhelm, or take advantage of them. Empowering the youth of these communities allows them to reside in their community instead of considering migrating to crowded cities.

The students must learn to handle cash and to manage cash. They need to preserve their culture, farming skills, forest, water, and have income enough to support a family. They need to be educated about their legal rights and know how to defend them. Yet, many are impoverished and lack the funds to obtain school education.

There is no library or source of literature for these people to read. Most students never see a newspaper in their community. These kids hunger for the written word and interesting pictures.

Most of the items purchased are used during class time, because the students do a lot of copying from the board. There are no printed pages or hand outs. The students have no dollars to buy additional materials.

The barter system is changing to a cash system. This is an increasing stress on communities which have traditionally relied on subsistance farming and the barter system to support their families. Families are very social and enjoy each other, but may be driven away from the community if there are no ways to earn an income.

Students have an eagerness to learn and community members understand the importance of their children learning how to read, write and use numbers so they have a chance to better themselves in the future. What is missing is the books, paper, pencils and other minimal supplies so that they have the opportunity to learn. Books give students a broader view of the world and allow them to "see" beyond their community which helps them make decisions as to what is important to their community and themselves.

The children in the communities we are working in enjoy attention from visitors, volunteers and any interested persons, especially when they have a camera. While you are there and you have their attention is the proper time to teach.

Community members appreciate on-going communication. Too often in the past, groups or individuals come to the community and tell them that they "will be back" and then never return. Friends of Ecuador Schools is committed to these communities and will not abandon them and not return. We will continue to be there for our communities.

Click here to read Charlie Connor's article, In Spite of it all: Ecuador's NGOs