On the Northen hills of the Ecuadorian capital of Quito, we can find Escuela "Juan Carlos Peralta", a bilingual elementary school under the direction of the Ministry of Education.
The full name of the school is "Community Center of Intercultural and Bilingual Educacion - Juan Carlos Peralta"
Earlier last year, our KOICA team member Joseph Lim was assigned to DINEIB, the national authority over intercultural schools like Juan Carlos Peralta. Currently he is running a community development program with the collaboration of the school principal and the teachers.
During a basic Excel class for 12 teachers with 5 computers
The project started almost "accidentally" while Joe was teaching an Excel course for the school teachers. During the classes, the teachers began to express concerns regarding the school and the community to Lena Flores, Joe's co-worker at the DINEIB. Surprised by grave issues like malnutrition, the two began doing research through various means, community meetings and home visits.
Lena and Yoona Choi (KOICA nurse) visiting a local home. The mother has 12 kids, and most of her children live with her in the 2 bedroom house
Lena addressing the PTA with issues concerning the neighborhood
After meetings, interviews and surveys, we have categorized the following pressing needs as the following:
[1] Health - Health issues due to the imbalance in nutritive intake and lack of sanitary knowledge
ex) Average height shorter than normal students their age
[2] Education - Lack of professional knowledge and ability due to a weak teacher training infrastructure, and a lack of basic equipment, which leads to a general low self-esteem.
ex) Five computers for 220+ students and a cafeteria with no furniture
[3] Environment - Domestic violence, racism, environmental contamination, lack of family planning.
ex) Continuing contamination of water due to littering in and around the river, as well as the rising delinquency in the neighborhood.
[4] Economic sustainability - Vicious circle of poverty due to high unemployment rates and low level of education
ex) The neighborhood is comprised of mainly immigrants looking for oppornities, but they find themselves without the skills and the work experience to work and sustain their family.
As we familiarized ourselves with these needs, a number of people, organizations, and government bodies were able to gather around the table to partner in assisting the community leaders bring their neighborhood to health.
The first area we are focusing on is the urgent issue of health. Yoona Choi, our KOICA teammate and nurse, is currently cooperating with the local Centro de Salud (Public Health Center) to give the students immediate individual medical attention.
Beginning with general health exams, the kids will receive a full blood and urine test, thanks to the support of the Ministry of Public Health
Also, we started a small garden project that will try to counter the malnutrition issues we have at the school, and the students will learn first-hand how to care for a garden at the same time.
Making the garden under the supervision of a KOICA agruculture expert
A short briefing on how to care for the plants
The seeds that are planted in this garden will later be transplanted into pots, and given to a number of families, so they can enjoy the harvest of their own land.
Teachers graduating the Excel course that now enables them to grade classwork through a computer
In addition to the health initiatives, we are working on rearranging and fortifying the school library, opening job training courses for the school's parents, doing teacher training in various subjects, raising cuy (guinea pig -- makes a famous Ecuadorian plate), planting trees and doing recycling campaigns to fight against littering and contamination, among many.
We are yet in our beginning stages, but our main goal is to work with the local community, not instead of them. We have formed a neighborhood development team (the neighborhood President, the school President, and the school PTA President) and with them we are visiting different government bodies, so they can develop channels to receive information and support in the future. There are much to be done, but the success of this project lies on the hands of the community and people like you, through whom Ecuador will gain the awareness and the help they need.
[1] KOICA stands for KOREA INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION AGENCY, which basically is the Peace Corps of Korea
This project was made possible through the collaboration of KOICA(Joseph Lim, Yoona Choi, Hyunjun Choi), DINEIB(Lena Flores), Youth World(Sharon Chun) and the Santa Maria Neigborhood Development Comittee.
Cooperating Institutions.
Team member contact information.
[1] KOICA Joseph Lim: faithful.pineapple@gmail.com
[2] KOICA Yoona Choi: yoonachoi79@gmail.com
[3] KOICA Hyunjun Choi: chj1472@gmail.com
[4] Trinity Christian College Social Work Intern Sharon Chun: sharchun@gmail.com
[5] Ministry of Education Ecuador DINEIB Lena Flores: lena_li21@hotmail.com
Cooperating Institutions.
[1] KOICA Joseph Lim: faithful.pineapple@gmail.com
[2] KOICA Yoona Choi: yoonachoi79@gmail.com
[3] KOICA Hyunjun Choi: chj1472@gmail.com
[4] Trinity Christian College Social Work Intern Sharon Chun: sharchun@gmail.com
[5] Ministry of Education Ecuador DINEIB Lena Flores: lena_li21@hotmail.com
※ This post was written to promote the project. Questions, suggestions, or corrections are welcome.
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