Give Hope to Vulnerable Ecuadorian Children

The attention to children and adolescents has been completely normalized in the institution, since March 16 we are attending in the usual way as we did before the pandemic. Everything is returning to normal, in the sense of supporting the completion of tasks in our two working days. For Complementary Education from Monday to Friday from 2:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. and for the group of adolescents of Autonomy on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 8:00 a.m. to 12:00 noon. Attendance at the institution is all the time with masks and we make sure that the attendants do not present any symptoms at all, otherwise we ask them not to come to the institution to protect the health of the rest.
We noticed that the dynamism of the children and adolescents is as usual, a carnival program was carried out with all the enthusiasm and joy. As well as the sports days are being carried out and as a novelty they are participating in athletics: high jump and long jump; as always, soccer games are also played.
The disadvantage we are dealing with in relation to the study of children with learning disabilities is that in public schools curricular adaptations are no longer made; this has been left to the teachers' discretion and is not working in this way.
Regarding nutrition, we commented that since Friday, April 1, we have had the dining room open for the children and adolescents according to the agreement with the representatives. Only one meal is served: a substantial soup or a second with rice or pasta, accompanied by: salad, stew, omelet, etc.; according to planning and sometimes we accompany it with juice, fruit or a dessert.
The work in small groups with the mothers of the children for the workshops on bread and self-care tips has given good results; however, now they want to learn how to prepare other things: cakes, pizzas and we are happy to see the restless and excited mothers. For Mother's Day we are going to prepare a cake for the mothers at the institution.
From the microenterprise contest we acquired: an oven, a kneading machine, a blender and a mixer; from this I would like to comment that we make bread, cakes and other treats for the children and also to raise funds to encourage our colleagues by holding raffles.
During Lent we prepared fanesca, asking for support from the families with any product and we got two big pots, which were distributed and on that day we served lunch to the children in the dining room.
This is what I can share of the experiences of these last months in the institution.