Working together in Reconciliation

Ecuador Street Children

Ecuador comprises different climate zones: Sea coast, mountains, rainforest and self-contained island systems. Each region has its own cultural, culinary and ethnic character.

Many poor rural inhabitants migrate to the cities in search of better living conditions. The different cultures converge in the poor districts around the big cities. Prejudices and age-old resentments clash there.

This is also the case in the slum of Balerio Estacio in Guayaquil, where we have been working for more than 12 years.
It is all the more astonishing that the local leadership team, which took over the work last year, consists of three people who could not be more different in their origins.

Thalia, a young Afro-Ecuadorian woman from the coastal region, Nancy, an older lady from the mountain region of the Andes and Christian, a father with a lighter skin color whose family has lived in the greater Guayaquil area for generations. His grandfather regularly refused to pay Nancy's relatives their wages because he thought they were not worthy of them due to their origin. Christian had discovered this while researching his family history and asked Nancy for forgiveness for the prejudices he had also discovered in his heart.

Nancy, in turn, realized that she harbored resentment against Thalia's cultural group and was able to reconcile with her as well. As a result, friendships have emerged from the most contrasting of impressions, and the team works extremely well together.

More information about the projects in Ecuador https://tos-ministries.org/en/worldwide/ecuador