The project first began in the year 2000. It is located in a small town called San Jose, just outside Quito. The town suffers from a number of social issues including: delinquents, prostitution, drug addiction, alcoholism and youth gangs. The project director used to be an IT technician, but after volunteering for 20 years, he decided he wanted to do more to help children in need in San Jose. In 2008 his project was legally recognized and established as a foundation. Initially the project was very small with just 17 children in attendance, however, within three months, there were 60 children and now the center caters for more than 85!
The center provides a safe place for children to go when they are not at school, as most of their parents work long hours and they’d otherwise be at home alone. Between 9am and 12pm, the center caters for young children and teenagers who then attend school later in the day. From 3pm until 6pm, the center cares for the children and teenagers who have been at school in the morning. The kinds of tasks you can expect to get involved with include: assisting with homework, creating fun and educational activities for the children, helping during meal times, teaching English, accompanying the children to the hospital if necessary,taking the children to the park for walks and games, making special occasions, such as birthdays, a fun time for the children by organizing parties or outings,making handicrafts with the children and then selling them to raise funds for the center, providing a weekly volunteer report to the volunteer coordinator at the, academia to enable the consistency of volunteer work.