Home Visits

When children are taken to the government shelter, it is by DINAPEN, the national police in charge of the rights of children and adolescents in Ecuador. Sometimes children are found wandering the streets alone. Many times neighbors call the police to report that children have been abandoned for days while parents look for work.

Usually parents and relatives go to the shelter within a week or two thinking they will get to take their children home, but this is not the case because legally the shelter's social worker first has to decide whether the parents are able to care for the child. This process begins with an interview. The parents always have alternative reasons for why their children were brought to the shelter; a problematic neighbor who called the police out of spite, a child who simply got "lost", or it was just a one time drinking binge. But it is obvious from the parent's appearance and behavior that their problems are recuring and stem from poverty, alcoholism, and domestic violence.

When the interview is complete, the parents are given recommendations on how to begin the process of regaining custody of their children. For many parents this process is long. They need to enroll in Alcoholics Anonymous and parenting programs, get jobs, find day care for the child (many centers are provided by the government for a small, affordable fee) and obtain suitable living conditions.

During the summers of 2008-2011 I volunteered at the government shelter for children from infants to 10 years old and accompanied the social worker on home visits to remote poverty stricken neighborhoods in Quito. Most do not have proper electricity, sewage systems, or water. Many roads are unpaved. The rooms of dilapidated buildings that serve as homes are dark and damp with only one bed for the entire family and not much furniture. Occasionally there will be a small camping stove for cooking and one communal bathroom for all the families living in the building. I've visited some with no bathroom facilities at all.

Many families get their children back for a brief period of time, but investigations and home visits by the social worker often result in the return of the children to the shelter or placement with relatives. It is hard to break the cycle of poverty, alcoholism, and domestic violence that leads to children being placed in shelters. The social worker is insistent on education for these children in hopes of a better future for them. Public school in Ecuador is not compulsory. It is free, but shoes, a uniform and school supplies are required, For most poor children, these are unattainable. Los Jóvenes del Futuro acts as a catalyst by providing scholarships that provide for educational necessities.

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