Plan Ecuador Annual Progress Report 2010

A YEAR IN

ECUADOR 2010

SUMMARY REPORT

Active involvement by children in local media has been a focus in Ecuador in the past year

3

GOOD REASONS

OUR PRIORITIES

why Plan works in ECUADOR

in Ecuador

• Six out of ten children are mistreated, and children’s rights are not widely recognised at home, at school or by the state • A quarter of children have stunted growth due to malnutrition

• Enabling children to have a good education, grow up healthy, with clean water and sanitation, and live in families that are economically secure and have enough to eat

PANAMA

• Only half of young people complete ten years of education

• Helping children to make their voicesaheard and c to take part in development and decision-making au

C

• Protecting the most vulnerable children – those who work, or are disabled, mistreated or abused, and promoting children’s rights and a culture of good treatment

‘Plan uses different media to help children to make their voices heard and contribute to development in their community and beyond’ Guaviare Children have made a model of their town and assessed how their rights are affected throughout

ECUADOR COLOMBIA

ecuador facts Capital: Quito Population: 14.5 million Languages: Spanish. Quechua

is also widely spoken.

Climate: Although the country is not particularly large, there is great variety in the climate, largely determined by altitude.

The Pacific coastal area has a tropical climate, with a severe rainy season. The climate in the Andean highlands is temperate and relatively dry; and the Amazon basin on the eastern side of the mountains shares the climate of other rainforest zones.

Country Office Program Units

Caqueta

Economy: Ecuador’s natural

resources include petroleum, fish, shrimp, timber and gold. In addition, it has rich agriculture: bananas, flowers, ECUADOR coffee, cacao, sugar, tropical fruits, palm oil, palm hearts, rice and corn. Fluctuations in world market prices can have a substantial domestic impact.

Quito Manabí Norte Manabí Sur

Ventanas

Santa Lucia Santa Elena Progreso

Guayaquil

Quito Cotopaxi Guaranda Chimborazo Guayaquil Urbano Cañar PERU

Catacocha Cariamanga

Put

um

ayo

Focus on:

the right to participation Sustainable development depends on all parts of society taking part in decisionmaking, including children. Yet 60 per cent of Ecuador’s children feel their opinions don’t count. Plan gives children and young people opportunities for participation, expression and communication through radio and other media, clubs and community assemblies. We

strengthen children’s and young people’s organisations, supporting them to demand their rights from government institutions, and helping them play an active role in local, regional and national development.

The Voice of the Rooftops Aster has belonged to one of Plan’s journalism clubs for many years.

Through it, she has learned to produce radio programs, and these have become central to her life. She wants children in her community to be able to explore the world of communication, and talk about issues that matter to them. She’s now setting up clubs to give a new generation of children the same chances she had.

Building your dreams Growing up in Santa Elena, south-west Ecuador, Aster was shy and reserved, but had no shortage of dreams. When she was 13 she joined a journalism club called Chicos Pilas (‘Smart Kids’). Clubs like this are part of Plan’s participation work, which uses different media to help children to make their voices heard and contribute to development in their community and beyond.

Aster and her friends would get together to produce radio programs and they started to have their own weekly program. Aster gradually overcame her fear of the microphone and learned to say what she thought about different subjects. Local parents were pleased to hear their sons and daughters on the radio.

Little by little, the group became recognised in local communities, and more and more people started tuning in.

For Aster, radio means ‘Being myself, allowing me to express myself and grow as a person.’

She feels that she grew up in a radio booth.

‘My experience is different from that of other kids of my age’, she comments. As a teenager, she preferred going to workshops or broadcasting rather than going to parties.

Producing radio programs has opened doors in Aster’s life. She is now in her fourth year of university studying Social Communication, and wants to become a journalist. ‘This process which trained me and helped me grow both personally and professionally, together with other young people, led me to decide to become a true professional in communication.’

Learning to communicate Aster believes children have rights and that one of the most important of these is the right to express themselves. She wants to make sure other children have the opportunities she had, and so she spends her weekends teaching children about communication at workshops run by Plan. These prioritise community issues and issues the children want to talk about, and they produce a radio program that is broadcast from the community centre’s roof every weekend: La Voz de los Techos (The Voice of the Rooftops).

Aster is also setting up journalism clubs, supported by Plan. She has spoken to community leaders and the town council about the benefits of children taking part and learning new skills. Many people thought these clubs would not be sustainable in some communities, but Aster has shown that it is possible to run clubs in the most remote communities: ‘I said that it would be a success, particularly with rural communities with a different point of view.’

Gaining confidence Aster has more plans, such as creating a magazine, and taking the children to see a television program being made. She wants to build their confidence so they feel capable of doing big things, and see that children who do not live in big cities can make their dreams come true, just as she has done.

Children are the citizens of tomorrow, and enabling youngsters like Aster to express themselves and take an active role in community life is central to Plan’s aim to broaden decision-making and make adults more responsive to children’s needs. It’s particularly important in a country like Ecuador, with a history of authoritarianism, violence and instability.

Some names have been changed for child protection and privacy reasons.

‘Aster wants to build children’s confidence so they feel capable of doing big things’ Produced for Ecuador by Plan International Australia.

‘Better diet, better education!’ is the slogan for a school nutrition project in Charquiyacu

The Bigger Picture Plan is working with children, families and communities to find sustainable solutions to the challenges in Ecuador. We have only given you a small insight into Plan’s work in Ecuador with this report but over the past year we also: • Supported 44 rural ombudsman’s offices, which dealt with 900 child protection cases last year • Helped families to increase their incomes by supporting 175 savings and loans groups, providing small loans for 30,965 families • Improved young people’s sexual health by training 122 health workers who have treated 3400 teenagers and promoted sexual health to 17,000 young people • Improved education by training 3820 teachers and built or rehabilitated 95 schools Your support as a sponsor is crucial to achieving these results. With the resources provided by sponsors, Plan expertise and the collaboration of communities and local partners we are making a big difference to the lives of people in Ecuador.

Thank you for your involvement!

To learn more about Plan’s work in Ecuador visit plan.org.au/ourwork/southernamerica/ecuador

‘Children are the citizens of tomorrow, and enabling youngsters like Aster to express themselves and take an active role in community life is central to Plan’s aim to broaden decision-making and make adults more responsive to children’s needs.’