Impact Ecuador focuses on the poor Quito suburb of Carmen Bajo, partnering with Carmen Bajo Church to offer community building programs and to construct a 3-story facility housing a medical clinic, kids education wing, youth drop-in centre, and church sanctuary.
Background: Ecuador
Ecuador suffers economic disparity, with several poor neighborhoods facing high unemployment and social problems resulting from grinding poverty. Carmen Bajo is one such area, a poor suburb of Quito, with less than 15% employment and what few jobs exist are low paying and menial. Such grinding poverty and lack of hope causes family breakdown, alcoholism and other social problems.
Carmen Bajo Church (CBC) began in 1996 as a hot meal and Sunday school program in the garage of Dr. Roy Ringenberger, an American Medical Missionary, with Pastor Fabian Erazo and his wife Grace joining the church in 1999. In partnership with Compassion International, CBC continues to meet the practical needs of the community, with a hot meal and tutoring program for more than 100 children, youth outreach, family and marriage counseling, addiction support, and prison visits.
International Teams is partnering with Carmen Bajo Church to resource and expand the reach and impact of its ministry to poor children and broken families.
International Teams' Involvement
Over the past few years, International Teams' short term teams have been working in Carmen Bajo building relationships, feeding and teaching children, and working on small construction projects. A recent commitment by a lead donor has facilitated a three-year International Teams program to support Carmen Bajo Church with the construction of a 3-storey ministry centre housing a medical clinic, a youth drop-in centre, children's classrooms, and a church sanctuary. International Teams will also help CBC expand its impact to youth and kids by hiring full-time youth and children's pastors. International Teams will assist the medical clinic by purchasing equipment and hiring medical staff. In the future, International Teams will assist in initiating a couple of micro-enterprise projects, including a plastics injection molding facility and a handicap accessible carpentry shop.
Impact Ecuador
