We are one month into the new school year in Ecuador. Here is what has been happening at the Mission:

We have over 250 students in our scholarship program at the Mission School this year. These families cannot afford the $25/month tuition to send their children to school. For the first time ever, we were also able to provide school supplies and books to ALL of our students in our scholarship program. We purchased, packed, and delivered the school supplies and books over the last several weeks. You can read more about the school supply distribution process in our last blog post.

Due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, students returned to virtual learning this school year. Those that have internet access connect to classes throughout the day and complete their homework and testing using an online portal. Students without internet access are given weekly packets to guide their learning. The vice principal at the Mission School shared that many more students are able to connect to their virtual classes this year compared to last.

A few of our scholarship recipients in their home ‘classroom’. These siblings share the laptop to connect to their virtual classes at different times throughout the day.

The children at the Mission Home are in a far better situation than most, both with access to the internet, as well as access to the tutors we hired. The children are divided by age and grade level into groups of 5-12 students and spend all morning with their tutors. They connect to their virtual classes and receive supplemental lessons, as well as homework help and test preparation.

Our 10 university students are doing well! They continue to receive classes virtually but have all advanced on schedule so are that much closer to receiving their degrees. We also have 12 students in a preparation course for university. The course is helping them get ready for an entrance exam that they will take in August. If they receive scores high enough they will be able to enter a government sponsored university in the fall.

We hope the children return to in-person instruction at the Mission School soon! Vaccinations are under way and most of the teaching staff at the school has had the chance to be vaccinated already. Despite the many challenges of virtual learning, we are proud of our students, as well as the staff at the Mission School, for their perseverance and commitment to education. And most of all, we are grateful to all of you for supporting them!

As every parent and teacher knows, going back to school requires a lot of supplies! Historically, we have provided all of the necessary school supplies and school books to the children at the Mission Home, as well as to some of the most resource limited students in our scholarship program. We have always wanted to expand the program to include all of our students on scholarship, and this year we are happy to share that we were able to do so!

We spent the last two weeks preparing the supplies, and it sure was a process! It started with a 20 hour trip to Guayaquil, the large city that is 3 hours away from the Mission School. We were able to buy bulk quantities of school supplies at reduced prices. We then spent a morning dividing the school supplies into individual bags for each recipient. 

The last step was getting the supplies and the school books to the students. It would have been simpler to have the students pick up their supplies and books from the Mission School. Unfortunately, many of our students cannot afford the cost of transportation when they do not otherwise have to be at the school because of virtual learning. As a result, we had the privilege of delivering supplies and books to some of our most remote students. 

It was quite a process preparing our 250 scholarship students for the beginning of the school year. But they now have the books and supplies necessary for another year of learning! As we made the deliveries, many of the families shared their deep gratitude for helping their children start the school year off well. We pass this gratitude to all of you! 

Thanks to the generosity of so many of you, we reached our goal and raised $100,000 over the past 6 weeks in our Education Changes Everything Campaign! THANK YOU!

We will be using this money for scholarships for children from poor families, school supplies and books, and new school equipment. As the new school year starts in Ecuador, these children will be better educated because of your support.

Since we cannot thank you in person, we made this short video to share our gratitude.

We are so excited to share this video from Jenny in our final week of our Education Changes Everything Campaign.

There are 5 days left to help students like Jenny. All new or increased monthly donations will be matched for the next one year. We are so grateful for your generosity!

As you can see in this video, a university degree opens doors and permanently changes a young Ecuadorian’s life. Despite graduating in the midst of a global pandemic when job opportunities are scarce, Jenny will soon start working and earning 3 times the average salary in Ecuador. We are so proud of her accomplishments, and eternally grateful for all of the support from our donors that made this opportunity a reality for her.

Moms, thank you for all you do for us and for the world!

As our Education Changes Everything Campaign continues and the final countdown to the Ecuadorian school year begins, our Vice Principal sat down with us to make a short video for you.

In this short video, Tania and Michelle share how Michelle’s scholarship has changed their family. Watch to see how our scholarship program is impacting lives!

Help us reach our goal of raising $100,000 to support our scholarship program and families like Tania’s by donating today.

• $250 gives a scholarship to a family that lost their income during the pandemic for the next school year
• $500 buys a new computer for the computer lab
• $1,000 provides new desks for one high school classroom
• $10,000 buys new desks for the entire elementary school

One of the most popular dishes along the Ecuadorian coast is a fish stew called encebollado. It is tuna fish based, with tomatoes, onions, yuca and spices, garnished with pickled onions, and always served with a side of chifles (plantain chips). Though we would understand if the sound of fish stew does not immediately entice your appetite, we are here to share that encebollado is absolutely delicious. And no one makes it better than the mission home kitchen. 

At the mission home, the children eat encebollado once a week. Cooking begins at 5am when the albacore tuna starts boiling. Yuca is peeled and chopped and placed in a separate pot of boiling water. Next all the vegetables are chopped, sautéed, and added to the yuca along with spices to form the base of the soup. Once the tuna has been cooked, it is a long process of deboning and separating the filets into small slices that finally get added to the base of the soup. Simultaneously, the plantains are peeled and cut into thin slices using a “mariquitera” or plantain slicer. They are then fried and sprinkled with salt to create the crispiest most delicious hot chip you have ever tried. 

By about 12 noon all the food is ready and it is divided into portions based on the size of the various “houses” within the mission home. The “chicas”, or adolescent girls’ house, gets a large pot of soup, since they have over 25 people in their home. The “niños” or little boys, get a smaller but equally impressive amount given the 19 people in their home. And so it continues until each house has their portion. Designated children from each house arrive at the kitchen around 12:15 to retrieve the food for their group. The children eat in their respective homes with the missionaries overseeing them. After all the children have eaten, the missionaries take turns eating their own lunch. As we say in Ecuador when food is served, buen provecho! 

A photo catalogue of cooking encebollado at the mission home:

1. Peel and chop yuca. Chop all veggies. Boil tuna, yuca, and sautéed vegetables.

2. Add vegetables and spices to boiling yuca to form base of soup

3. Debone and separate tuna meat.

4. Add tuna to soup base to form encebollado

5. Divide into smaller portions for serving

6. Peel and cut plaintains using a “mariquitera”

7. Fry plaintains to form chifles

8. Garnish with pickled onions. Buen provecho!

One of the best ways to see love in action is on a birthday at the mission home. For each child, employee, and missionary sister, the home goes to great lengths to make a birthday feel special. A birthday usually starts out with a special breakfast, including a fruit display with the child’s name carved from melon, and pineapples in the shape of stars. It continues with an afternoon party on the patio, usually with several song and dance presentations. The presentations stand in the place of gifts, as groups of children get together to ‘present’ something special to the birthday boy or girl.

There is always a special cake, and usually jello as well, and of course there is enough for every child to enjoy. You can be sure that in addition to the party, the birthday boy or girl will receive many beautifully and carefully crafted handmade cards from the other children and missionary sisters. At night the celebrations continue with a smaller dinner in the home where the birthday boy or girl lives.  

When many children arrive at the mission home, they have never celebrated a birthday before, and may not even be aware of the date of their birth. When they have their first birthday at the mission home, most are overcome with emotion. Some have shared that their birthdays are an emotional reminder that they no longer live with their biological families, some have shared that it is simply overwhelming to feel so special and loved. We understand that it is probably a combination of many things.  

There are so many good reasons to approach birthdays with as much enthusiasm as the missionary sisters do at the mission home. Child psychologists have stated that celebrating birthdays with children can help increase their self-esteem, can establish or strengthen social relationships with friends, can create positive memories, and can help children have a perception of time. But most importantly, and the reasoning the missionary sisters give for their detailed and extensive celebrations, celebrating birthdays helps acknowledge the worth of each child, and is a simple way to express the love and care that the missionary sisters hope that each of the children feel during their time at the home.