Ecuador: Case Study 1999
Anna Steinhardt
CASE STUDY
COUNTRY: Ecuador
PROGRAM: Centro Juvenil San Patricio
LOCATION: Fourteen kilometers outside of Quito,
the capital city of Ecuador. Another center is located in Bogota, Colombia
as well.
SPONSORSHIP OF PROGRAM:
The Inter-American Foundation began
funding them in 1985 with an initial grant of $10, 000. Other private
funding.
HISTORY OF PROGRAM:
None available/found.
APPROXIMATE NUMBER OF CHILDREN SERVED:
No information found.
CHARACTERISTICS OF CHILDREN SERVED:
The Center only serves boys ranging
from age 11 to age 16. They must either have no family or have previously
broken away from the family structure.
HOW CHILDREN ARE RECRUITED/SELECTED:
In order to stay at the Center,
boys must first spend a certain amount of time at "Mi Caleta." Mi
Caleta is a transitory shelter for street boys needing basic services.
Its goal is reintegration of street boys into their families or into
either of two shelters: La Grange Don Bausch or Center Juvenile San
Patrician.
PROGRAM SERVICES:
The program offers a free elementary
school to all the boys. The Center also supplies occupational training
that emphasizes integration into working society. The vocational skills
that they learn include carpentry, mechanics and electrical work.
The program also offers comprehensive preventative and curative health
services. Regular religious activity is an integral part of the boys’
daily lives. The boys are offered religious education and support.
All boys participating in the program live at the Center.
PHILOSOPHY OR APPROACH:
The main objectives of the program
are to provide the boys with an integral education enabling them to
reintegrate themselves smoothly into society. The ultimate goal is
reinsertion into their families and the community as an educated and
conscientious Christian who is capable of contributing to society.
There are a number of specific objective of the program which include
the following: 1) to reintegrate the youth’s personality through education
and close personal care of each youth, 2) to maintain a family atmosphere
through personalized treatment as well as a profound respect for the
youth so that the youth feels comfortable voicing any problems or
thoughts freely, 3) to reintegrate the boys into their families through
intervention techniques promoting family relations and strengthening
a family and community sentiment, 4) to give the boys a sense of responsibility
to social, political and family events in such a way that the boys
can now have a new life projection in an evangelical light, and 5)
to establish support programs that contribute to the development of
the youth.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
As part of the "Reintegration of
Personality" intervention program, the Center divides the boys into
10 groups called "families." Each group has a coordinator and a sub-coordinator.
Every Friday, the group convenes to evaluate the group’s and individual’s
behavior. At the same time, the coordinators meet to evaluate the
progress of each boy. The Center sees these evaluations as critical
in monitoring the progress of each child.
