My roommate Mark got up early this morning and had a freezing cold shower. I got up a few minutes later and had a steaming hot shower. Gotta love life in Ecuador! Neither one of us felt the earthquake but our rep from Manitoba did. He stood in his doorway for a few seconds then decided he´d go get breakfast instead. Yep...that´s our Danny!
We met another great bunch of staff at the ADP we visited not too far outside of Ambato. This small staff oversees a region of
seven communities and over 3000 children and teens. It was so great to really connect with these folks despite our language differences. It´s amazing just how far a smile, a few hand gestures, and some broken Spanglish can go. Our common commitment to helping the kids of this region really makes us all one big team.
One important program in this area is the issuing of ID cards to children in each community. Often the children in these rural areas have no birth certificate or any form of government ID. By registering with World Vision we are able to track their health and education progress as well as offer them protection from anyone trying to take advantage of a "non-existent" child.
As our bus arrived at the first stop of the day we were greeted by hundreds of kids and parents in front of (and on top of!) the community centre. After a formal welcome from one of the elders and a really well done play about the benefits of registering children, we were able to see the registration process in action. As the kids lined up our entire team started working like mad to make animal balloons for each child as they finished the process. It was definitely organized chaos but it was a blast to know these kids were going to be cared for and to see the smiles on their faces when they got their animals.
Unfortunately, we were on a tight schedule so it was on to the bus far too soon and we were off to our next destination...
For complete photos from the journey click here.
To sponsor a child in Ecuador visit WorldVision.ca
No comments:
Post a Comment