Esmeraldas

Country information

SOS-Kinderdorf International has been active in Ecuador since 1963 when Gerhard Engel, founder of Ecuador's first SOS Children's Village, made contact with our organisation. By 25 September 1963, the construction work on the first SOS Children's Village in the country had already started in the Ecuadorian capital Quito. A total of twelve family houses were gradually finished in this village up until 1970. In 1979, the SOS Children's Villages in Esmeraldas and Ibarra went into operation. In April 1997, SOS Children's Village Ricaurte followed. There are now also numerous additional SOS facilities in this country, such as SOS Kindergartens, SOS Vocational Training Centres, and SOS Social Centres. The most recent Ecuadorian SOS Children's Village to date, in Portoviejo, became operational in Summer 1999 and was officially opened on 5 March 2001. Esmeraldas is a provincial capital and is located in the northern part of the country and the SOS Children's Village itself is situated approximately 30 km from Esmeraldas, directly at the entrance of the small village of Atacames. There is an airport at Tachina, 55 km from the SOS Children's Village. SOS Children's Village Esmeraldas was built on a 1.8 ha site at the mouth of a river. It is situated only 300 metres from the Pacific Ocean not far from Ecuador's most beautiful beach and comprises 12 family houses, a village director's house, a house for aunts, an SOS Kindergarten and an SOS Social Centre. In the immediate vicinity are the local public schools, a doctor's surgery, a dentist's surgery and the "City of Boys" with a printer's shop and a bookbinder's shop in which young people can obtain vocational training in order to find a job later on.