The Scoop

Ok, so today we went to the equator! imagine that equator, ecuador, get it?

But seriously today we had a debriefing about what exactly SIFAT is trying to accomplish in Ecuador. Really interesting. You always know that there are underdeveloped countries all over the world, but to be honest rarely do I think about the reasons for their underdevelopment. Obviously there are plenty of reasons like corruption of government and lack of resources so I will spare you the details about that. I just want to focus on the area that SIFAT has seen a way to aide people in Ecuador.

Ok so I am not as well-educated with this as one probably should be so don't quote me or anything, but apparently Ecuador used to have the highest inflation rates in South America (and that is saying something). To try and fix this problem, the government switched over to US dollars. Instead of fixing the problem, it caused unemployment to shoot through the roof. This has lead to a huge immigration of Ecuador's population to Spain (it is more than 30% of the Spanish population). The problem here (well besides the obvious ones) is that in this great immigration, children are being left behind. The parents go over there leaving the children abandoned and uncared for. These parents are not heartless, I know that is how I am painting this pictures, they are victims of poverty and desperation. NO JUDGING until you are in the same situation.

So here is where SIFAT steps in:

Seeing the need for care for these children, SIFAT has started building daycare centers all over the city (this is a young dream, but one that it is slowly but surely succeeding in). They have trained neighborhood mothers to give them the skills to educate these children. The Ecuadorian government gives SIFAT $10,000 a year to pay the mothers and feed the children. Keep in mind that equals out to about 100 a month for each woman and 80 cents to feed each child three meals for five days a week. With the different teams that SIFAT brings in they help construct these daycares/churches. This cuts down labor costs by about 30%.

Again SIFAT amazes me with their simple genius. so interesting.