Overcoming Poverty

Ecuador Street Children Sponsors & Donors Humanitarian Aid

Cristhian is now part of the team for the prevention program in Abdón Calderón, Ecuador, and is dedicated to helping children and young people who, like him, had a difficult start in life.

He grew up in a very poor neighborhood of Abdón Calderón. His family of seven lived in a single-room shack, and there was never enough to eat. Every meal consisted of rice and sometimes an egg, but there was never enough to fill their stomachs.

Cristhian had to start working in the fields when he was just seven years old. He had very little time for school. Nevertheless, he managed to graduate from high school, though a year late. Since then, he has worked as a day laborer in other people’s fields. He cut grass with a machete and harvested coconuts.

His workday began no later than 6 a.m. and continued without a break in the scorching heat of the day, often exceeding 35 degrees.

Because he is rather slight of build and had a cleft palate as a child, he was often humiliated at school and and by superiors. Lacking self-confidence and any sense of a future, he began attending events organized by TOS Ministries International as a teenager. 
There he encountered the love of God and found new hope for his life. Talking to one of the team, he shared that he sometimes secretly dreamed of taking photos, but that this seemed out of reach for him. 
The team encouraged him to take his first small but concrete steps. He began taking photos of the activities at the creative workshops and sharing some of his meager earnings with others. 

People were thrilled with his pictures, and he later even dared to take two photography courses. His photos stood out, even though he was shooting with nothing more than an old cell phone. He began praying for his own camera. Soon, someone gave him a professional camera. With it, he began taking on assignments for photo shoots at weddings and other events. 

He still can’t make a living entirely from photography assignments, but his fieldwork has already been reduced, and he recently sold his first commercial.

In the evenings, he dedicates his time to the local children, passing on to them what he himself was fortunate enough to learn. Today, Cristhian is a self-assured young man who still has many dreams for his life and is driven above all by hope for the children and young people around him. He wants to ensure they don’t end up in drug gangs but instead break free from the cycle of poverty.

If you want to know what our project in Ecuador is all about, you can read about it here: https://tos-ministries.org/en/branches/street-children/drug-and-crime-prevention#c29528