“Too many children are like chickens, pecking at the ground. They need to be birds that fly.”
-Juan Andrade, Founder of Mano Amiga

      Poverty destroys families. Unable to feed or clothe their children, some parents see no other option than to abandon their children. Nowhere is this more devastating than in Ecuador, where the family unit is a strong cultural, social, and economic network. Underfunded and ineffective government welfare agencies leave these children with few places to turn. To survive they are forced to migrate, live on the streets, join gangs, steal or turn to prostitution. Ecuador is losing its greatest resource to another generation of poverty.

      Juan sees this large population of marginalized and poor youth as an opportunity for social change. His organization, Mano Amiga, acquires spaces throughout Ecuador not only to provide these children with their basic needs of food and shelter, but also to transform them into community leaders and social entrepreneurs, creating social change and economic development. At one location, in Chone, Mano Amiga helps 32 at-risk children develop their talents and self-esteem. At another location in Riobamba, Mano Amiga is creating an entrepreneurial incubator to provide talented, low-income youth with the tools to develop businesses and social change organizations that will create jobs and reduce poverty in their own communities.

      What’s striking about Juan Andrade is his optimism and vision. Working with little financial support, Juan created a model that has transformed thousands of Ecuador’s most at-risk and marginalized children into the leaders of tomorrow and today, earning him international acclaim and an Ashoka Fellowship. Not content to rest on his laurels, Juan intends to replicate his model all across Ecuador so that every child can realize his or her own potential and lead a dignified life. Live It! Adventures is proud to help him in his mission.

Chone: Giving Children a Future

      The Mano Amiga location near Chone, a medium-sized city by the Pacific Ocean, houses 32 at-risk children, ages 5 to 19. Each child carries his or her own, often heartbreaking, story. Some are orphans, others were abandoned by their families, others have suffered physical and sexual abuse, and many have families that are unable to care for and educate them due to lack of economic resources. Living in three different houses (with two additional houses currently being built), each supervised by a "mother," Mano Amiga provides children with a clean, safe place to live, three meals a day, and parental care.

      At Mano Amiga children not only survive…they thrive. Coming from such difficult backgrounds, it is astonishing how happy and well adjusted the children are. The kids care for one another, have chores, do homework, play soccer, and are surrounded by positive reinforcement. They attend local schools during the day, and an art school is under construction on campus where "[they] will develop the talents of these kids… and teach them to dream." The art school will not only serve the children of Mano Amiga but also another 150 children daily from the surrounding communities. The art school will serve as a vehicle for these children to act as ambassadors, preaching civic values and sharing their hopeful vision of Ecuador with adults.

      Mano Amiga's greatest gift to the children is hope for the future. Ask a child what they want to be and you'll hear answers ranging from “professor” to “veterinarian.” Compare that with the options they would have had living on the street, and you can see how Mano Amiga creates positive and significant social change. Juan hopes to spread this model all across Ecuador. Talk to the children and it is not hard to buy into his vision.      

      Live It! Adventures will spend five days at Mano Amiga's Chone location during its 2008 spring and summer programs.

Riobamba: Exporting Social Change

      Near Riobamba in the Andes is Mano Amiga’s most ambitious project to date: a campus that will help poor teenagers realize their dreams of starting their own social enterprises or social change organizations. The Manantial de Emprendedores Juveniles (Incubator of Young Social Entrepreneurs) includes an auditorium, a building for workshops, student houses, a house for professors, and the ever-present a soccer field. Around 80 high school and college-aged students at a time will spend two years here developing their own projects for social change. Youth will be selected from the city of Riobamba and the surrounding province Chimborazo, and will be primarily poor indigenous and non-indigenous teenagers.

      This innovative space provides a unique opportunity for tremendous homegrown social change. Rather than looking for jobs, these youth will create work for their communities. Mano Amiga envisions this campus as a regional incubator where students will develop projects for their own communities; be they businesses, schools for the poor, or medical clinics. Youth will learn business, technology, and organizing skills, and undergo training in leadership and community development. With this background and a micro credit fund, these young leaders will have an excellent platform to develop, refine, and implement their projects.

      Live It! Adventures is developing programs with the Manantial de Emprendadores Juveniles in Riobamba.