Amigos de Finlandia strike again in Cuenca!

In case you are wondering, Amigos de Finlandia is all of the people who donated to the collection.

Cuenca is the third biggest city in Ecuador, with a population of around 350,00 and lying 459km from the capital. It takes ten hours on the bus. I was lucky enough to travel by plane which only took 35 minutes from Quito. If you ever have the chance to come to Ecuador, I really recommend a visit.

The centre of Cuenca is stunning. The churches, cathedral and buildings are architecturally beautiful, and the only entertainment you need is to be able to walk around admiring it all. It is known as the cleanest town in Ecuador and in the centre of Cuenca at least there is evidence of significant wealth.

This is largely due to the fact that Cuenca is also the town from which the most people have emigrated to earn money abroad. Some of these people have then invested in the town by buying property - which inevitably has pushed the prices up for everyone else. Property here is more expensive than in Quito. You would never guess just by walking around the centre that you were in a poor country, but as is so often the case, what is visible to the visitor does not tell the whole story.

Part of my day in Cuenca was spent at a school for girls between the ages of 6 and 13, called the Escuela Uruguay. Unfortunately the school had already shut for the summer holidays, so I couldn't meet the girsl, but I was met by the Director, Judith Illescas, together with three of the teachers who were kind enough to tell me about life at the school.

The 350 girls are all from low income families. Those that have work earn $220 per month. Those that do not have regular jobs have considerably less. Although from the outside the building looks reasonable in fact resources are very limited. More classroom space is needed but there is no funding to continue the building work. There is no canteen for the children to eat in, so lunch is sitting on the ground outside. Ideally the teachers would like to build some sort of structure, or even cover, so that meals can be taken inside, preferably sitting at tables.

The other pressing need is for computers. There are less than a dozen computers for 350 children, all of them received second hand and therefore not equipped with modern versions of Word. When I asked how many the school would ideally like to have their ambitions were modest. They said ten new computers would transform the situation. As would a printer, for the children to be able to see their work. (The school currently has no printer).

We spent a long time discussing the problems faced by the school and Ecuadorian society in general. The teachers estimated that up to 30% of the girls from this school came from families where the parents had moved abroad to work, leaving the children with extended family members. Because of visa problems many of these parents never come back, not even to visit, leaving the children effectively abandoned with family members who do not necessarily want them and who certainly can't afford to feed the extra mouths.

Those girls who do have parents at home often talk about violence within the family and it is thanks to these wonderful teachers that they feel they have somewhere safe to talk about their issues.

As a side issue I asked whether the girls had the chance to learn languages, and was told that they were taught English, but that there was only one part-time teacher for the whole school, meaning that in reality they only had one hour a weel of English. It occurred to me that in a beautiful town such as Cuenca, already a magnet for tourists, being able to speak English would be a huge advantage for the future for these girls.

In any event, I did not have enough to build new classrooms or a canteen, but at $400 each I was certainly able to offer the purchase of a new computer for the school. Even though this was a modest contribution given the needs of the school, the teachers accepted it with tears in their eyes and asked me to thank everyone who had contributed. Translated from the Spanish their words were these..

"We want to thank you from our hearts. You are angels sent from God. May God bless all of you and your familes. Thank you."

The computer will be the first equipped with Word 2007 and the school plans to publicise its arrival once the girls arrive back at school in Spetember. They will say that it was donated by "Amigos de Finlandia"...which is you. So thank you.