Child Sponsorship Background from Ibarra, Ecuador

SOS Children's Village Ibarra

The SOS Children's Village Ibarra is located at an altitude of 2,000 metres on the lagoon of Yahuarcocha, which itself gained historical importance because of the Incas. This SOS Children's Village is only eight kilometres from the provincial capital Ibarra and is about 140 km from the Ecuador's capital Quito.

The third SOS Children's Village in Ecuador was built on 4.6 hectares of land and has twleve family houses, a village director's house, an administrative building with offices, a room for medical care, and a house for the SOS aunts (SOS Children’s Village mothers in training who assist current SOS mothers in their everyday work and stand in for them if they are ill or on holiday).

Other SOS Projects in Ibarra

A total of 40 preschool children from both the SOS Children's Village and the neighbourhood can be supervised in the two group rooms of the SOS Nursery School, which opened in 1985. Another 90 children can be supervised in the SOS Social Centre Ibarra. It was opened in May 2004 and is also run as a day-care centre.

Furthermore, the SOS Social Centre also offers preventive health care for children and programmes aimed at strengthening and supporting less fortunate families in order to prevent them from breaking up. Two SOS Youth Homes (for girls and boys) were opened in urban Ibarra. Young people from the SOS Children's Village can be housed there for the period of their secondary or vocational education, which gradually prepares them for an independent life.

Background to Ibarra

Ibarra was founded in 1606 by Spanish explorers.  It is a city in northern Ecuador and the capital of the Imbabura Province. It lies at the foot of the Imbabura Volcano and on the left bank of the Tahuando river. It is about 45 miles northeast of Ecuador's capital Quito.