Meet Carina and Danna

I read in the paper yesterday that of all the countries in South America, Ecuador is ranked third after Bolivia and Haiti in terms of the inequality that exists between the rich and poor.

Although its not hard to find evidence of considerable wealth in the big cities, this is not the reality of the vast majority here. For many, life is a question of day to day survival and you can find stories to make you weep on every corner if you stop long enough to ask.

I thought I would tell you just one of these stories.

Carina lives alone with her nine year old daughter Danna. Until Danna was seven she was unable to speak, and Carina took her repeatedly to the doctor to try and find out what the problem was. Various doctors told Carina that her daughter was suffering from the flu, or from asthma and there was little they could do.

You should also know that Carina, who is 29 years old, is the eldest of ten children, the youngest of whom is seven. There is no father on the scene and their mother died four years ago. As the eldest child Carina took on responsibility for her younger siblings as well as her daughter.

The family were living in the province called Esmereldas on the coast. There was almost no work available, so the family relied on what little they could earn from collecting fruit and other occasional work.

Eventually Carina decided that the only way she could help her family was to move away from the family home to Quito were she had heard more work was available. She has now been here for two years and works as a helper to an elderly lady who pays her the minumum wage of $220 net per month. She pays $60 per month in rent for what I can only describe as a shack. It is no more than 15 square metres and covered with a tin roof. It has no heating or washing facilites and the toilet is outside. The "kitchen" is a bag of rice and some pans lying on the ground. There is nothing covering the earth floor.

The money left after the rent goes towards food for herself and Danna - and then towards supporting her nine brothers and sisters who have little else to live on.

Carina continued to look for a proper diagnosis for Danna once in Quito and she succeeded in getting one. Danna had cancer of the throat. This was why she had not ever been able to speak.

Danna has now had two operations and is waiting for a third. Her voice is a little bit "husky" but she is able to speak and even tries to sing. She is an enchanting child who never stops smiling.

We went to visit them at home and I asked what Danna would most like to eat. At first she said she liked vegetable soup, but when I asked again she admitted that she would love to go to Macdonalds. She had been once before but it was three years ago.

I have never been a fan of Macdonalds - until now. Seeing the delight on this little girl's face in having a happy meal to eat made it feel, for a few moments at least, like the best place in the world.

I have spoken to the doctors in the cancer Foundation who have said that with the throat cancer Danna should not be living in these conditions, but that the family has no other option.

It is at times like this that I wish I could wave a magic wand and make things different. Not being able to is horrible.

In any event, whilst it is noting more than a tiny gesture in the circumstances, I have passed on $200 to Danna and her Mum from our Finland collection. Knowing that most of this money will probably go towards supporting Carina's siblings we have also bought several new outfits and toys for Danna. It is nothing more than a drop in the ocean in relation to what this family would really need and it feels totally, totally inadequate but I hope that at least Danna will enjoy wearing her new pink clothes. When I asked her what she would most like to have she told me that her biggest wish was to have a bed so she didn't have to share a mattress with her mother anymore.

We only have two days left here but I am going to do my best to at least organise this before we leave. It is not much, but if we can give this little girl her own bed then that will be something.

That's all I can tell you really. The saddest thing is that there are hundreds of stories like this in Ecuador. It hardly seems possible that we have got to the year 2010 and families are still living in these conditions, but there we are. I am not going to give up searching for that magic wand.