Today I spent the day working with a fellow Peace Corps volunteer and her counterpart organization, JUCONI – Fundación Junto con los Niños. JUNCONI is a foundation that works with “street working children” in Guayaquil to promote reintegration into school, to support the family structure through social work, to reduce violence within the home and to provide schools with support to cope with special needs kids.
Today we volunteered at a small elementary school in Isla Trinitaria, which is a primary Afro-Ecuadorian community and also known as one of the most dangerous places in Guayaquil. We spent the day cleaning classrooms and scraping down walls to prepare for a new paint job.
The view of the elementary school from the second floor
two girls chipping paint in a classroom
more volunteers from the elementary school chipping paint
volunteers in a classroom
It was a new experience for me to travel to Isla Trinitaria and to see with my own eyes a level of poverty that I have not yet witnessed in the city. Isla Trinitaria lacks elemental services, such as paved roads, drinking water, plumbing for sewage, waste collection and legal electricity supply.
elementary school students waiting in the snack line
smashed in between the big kids
A little girl playing on the school slide
Me and the group of volunteers from JUCONI
