Humanitarian Response Ecuador 2016- 2017

HUMANITARIAN RESPONSE ECUADOR 2016 - 2017

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“Our mission is to encourage significant strides in the way in which the world treats children, aiming to create immediate and long-lasting changes in their lives”. Eglantyne Jebb.

Humanitarian Response, Ecuador 2016 - 2017 María Gabriela Villalobos – Peru and Ecuador Country Manager Santiago Dávila – Humanitarian Response Team Leader María Teresa Mosquera – Field Manager Esmeraldas.

We would like to express our deepest appreciation for Save the Children’s team in all its different areas for their dedicated, committed and hard work throughout these 9 months facing the emergency generated by the earthquake that stroke Ecuador on April 2016.

More information: Nicole Villamarín Espinoza Communication Coordinator nicole.villamarin@savethechildren.org Ecuador, January 2017

Contact in Quito: El Telégrafo E7-10 and El Tiempo, El Batán Parish.

Phone: 02-2922163.

Contact in Portoviejo: Ramos Iduarte 208 and Chile.

Phone: 099-3705126.

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About us

Save the Children is an international organization founded in 1919. We currently work in more than 120 countries to promote and defend children’s rights. Our work is based on the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international agreements, as the Sustainable Development Goals. We carry out projects framed under the areas of education, health, protection against violence, governance of the Rights of the Child, emergency response, and risk reduction. We are an organization ruled under a dual mandate: on the one hand, implementation of development programs focused on rights and protection of children; and on the other hand, humanitarian response for cases of emergency around the world.

Since 2004, Save the Children has worked in Ecuador by implementing programs with partners and allies by promoting participation, protection, eradication of child labor exploitation, and access to high-quality education. Our activities have a countrywide scope and take place primarily in border areas and urban slums.

We are one of the most renowned organizations in Ecuador for our work with the childhood and adolescence.

Our operations in Ecuador have taken place in: Pichincha, Guayas, El Oro, Esmeraldas, Sucumbíos, Zamora Chinchipe, Cañar, Azuay, Bolívar, Cotopaxi, Tungurahua and Manabí.

ECUADOR

Introduction

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On April 16th, at 18h58, a 7.8 Richter-magnitude and 10km depth earthquake struck off the coast of Ecuador.

It was followed by strong aftershocks that were even felt in Colombia. Six provinces were declared in state of emergency and red alert: Manabí, Esmeraldas, Guayas, Santa Elena, Santo Domingo and Los Ríos. Manabí and Esmeraldas were the hardest hit provinces.

As a consequence of the earthquake, there were over 660 deceases and more that 28,000 people were left homeless. The damage on the infrastructure of schools affected over 170,000 children and adolescents whose school year’s start was delayed by over two months.

48 hours after the earthquake, the team from the Peru-Ecuador binational office, supported by the regional office, reached the affected areas to perform an initial assessment. Immediately, an office was installed in the province of Esmeraldas that hosted staff from many countries that arrived for the emergency. In accordance with the situation and conditions, four sectors for intervention were defined: WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene), housing, protection, and education. Afterwards, an assessment took place in the province of Manabí and an office was installed in the city of Portoviejo.

We focused our response on priority attention to rural areas. We have created methodologies and work groups that are fully dedicated to this response, and have yielded important results in the aforementioned sectors. For the WASH sector, we have repaired water and sanitation systems, and also organized important hygiene promotion campaigns. For the housing sector, we have one of the biggest responses in the country, which has supplied reinforced emergency tents to 1,250 families, through a valuable and successful community process of voucher distribution and redemption. For the education sector, our support consisted on reconstructing the infrastructure of many schools and, above all, we worked with teachers and principals with psychological and emotional support that directly impacts children and adolescents. Finally, our response in the protection sector has been focused on building and implementing friendly spaces for children and adolescents, directed by promoters credited by the community and trained by Save the Children staff on

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protection and child rights. The proposal seeks sustainability for the project beyond the moment of emergency so it becomes a permanent space for children; 42 Child Friendly Spaces are expected to be operational by March 2017 in Esmeraldas and ManabĂ­.

This whole intervention has taken place in coordination with the National Government and the local team for humanitarian response, respecting all provisions and generating solutions from our organization. During this time, more than 45 people have provided direct assistance to the emergency in different types of needs.

In spite of all the effort already invested, there is still a lot a work remaining, as the earthquake affected areas that even before April 16th 2016 did not have decent living conditions for their inhabitants, left alone an approach to work with children and adolescents. Therefore, it is not only a commitment but also a responsibility and duty to continue working with issues related to recovery and development in these sectors.

Humanitarian Response Ecuador 2016

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Objective: To improve the current conditions of the communities in order to provide wellbeing, health and protection to children and adolescents by supporting the recovery of the affected population, teaching safe building practices and creating community resilience against future and possible disasters.

Intervention: Our work focuses on early assistance and recovery of people’s lives after the earthquake of April 16, 2016, especially in rural communities of the provinces of Manabí and Esmeraldas via water and sanitation programs, hygiene promotion, protection, and reinforced emergency tents.

Intervention Area Esmeraldas

Manabí

Muisne San Gregorio Bolívar Daule Salima Chamanga

Sucre Tosagua Junín Bolívar Chone Montecristi Portoviejo

ECUADOR

Investment

$ 1’800.000

Human team of

More than 45 people

Months of work

9

1FPQMF SFBDIFE

18.000

6 Manabí: Cantons and Communities Chone

Montecristi

Bolívar

Junín

Tosagua

Bellavista Santa Marta

Pepa de Uso La Sequita Simón Bolívar Eloy Alfaro

La Soledad Las Delicias

Agua Fría El Palmar Pechichal Adentro Pechichal Afuera La Ciénega El Guasmo

Juncal Tambo Los Corrales

Sucre Sur

Sucre Norte

Portoviejo

El Banco La Corona La Florida La Laguna San Bartolo San Ignacio San Marcos San Roque Las Caras Puerto Ébano San Agustín

Chimborazo El Relleno Piquigua

Arriaga El Bejuco La Encantada

Esmeraldas, intervention in the canton of MUISNE. List of precincts and communities.

Chamanga

San Gregorio

Daule

Bolívar

Cabo SF

Chamanga La Florida Los Laureles Boca del Tigua Piedra Fina

San Gregorio Tres Vías Boca del Río Sucio Balsalito

Daule Agua Clara Bellavista La Tola Maldonado Pedro Carbo 10 de Agosto

Portete Mompiche Isla Bolívar

El Salto

Salima

Muisne

Salima El Limón El Bonito Golpeacoco

Muisne

Education and Protection Program

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Objective: To build, through a community process, friendly spaces that offer psycho-social support, protection, health promotion, and leisure for children and adolescents affected by the earthquake.

The program is addressed to volunteer community promoters that have been credited by the community and trained by Save the Children. Each space hosts in average 71 children and adolescents between 3 and 16 years of age. In each space, leisure, instructive, cultural and other activities are held. They allow children to socialize, express themselves and thrive in a safe environment. All members of the community can participate as well.

Activities and actions

Leisure, recreational, cultural and instructive actions.

Campaigns for health, personal hygiene and child rights.

Psycho-social support for children and adolescents.

Support for parents on violence prevention and promotion of positive child raising.

Education and Protection Program

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Distribution of materials for promoters and attendees.

Identification of cases of violence, especially gender-based violence and contact with specialized agencies.

Description of the friendly space: Inner area

27.00 m2

Structure

Cane and bolted wood

Walls

Shredded cane

Roof

Zinc

Referential cost

$ 850

Scope: Friendly community spaces until March 2017

42

Children and adolescent able to access Child Friendly Spaces

+ than 3.000

Community promoters

250

Shelter program – reinforced emergency tents

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Objective: Provide comprehensive support for families in rural areas affected by the earthquake by building reinforced emergency tents with a particular approach on safe construction.

The housing program has operated under a community process of voucher redemption that has engaged the community with the humanitarian response, playing an active role in the solution. For this, we start with a communication process with the community about the work Save the Children is performing. We carry out a program on capacity development for risk and disaster reduction, and safe construction techniques for families, masons, and carpenters. We showcase the construction process of a reinforced emergency tent prototype. Then, we distribute vouchers that can only be redeemed for building materials for reinforced emergency tents. Authorized providers, who have been previously selected and trained on the voucher redemption procedure, following strict criteria, supply the materials

Voucher redemption process: Selection and training of local vendors on the voucher redemption process Training for families on the voucher redemption process Voucher distribution for beneficiary families Voucher redemption in selected vendors’ shops Technical assistance for families on the building process of reinforced emergency tents.

(Average building time: 4 days) Follow-up and monitoring

House description:

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Inner area:

18.00 m2

Structure

Cane

Walls

Shredded cane

Roof

Zinc

Referential cost

$ 600

Scope: Families granted vouchers to procure materials for emergency reinforced tents

1.250

Home kits delivered

+ than 800

Invested in local economic regeneration for housing

$ 550.600

Masons and carpenters trained on safe construction

120

WASH program – Water, Sanitation and Hygiene

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Objective: Support communities and schools on the restoration, implementation and general repair related to drinking water, sanitation, and hygiene promotion.

The program evaluates the condition of water and sanitation systems to start a repair process and, thus, improve life conditions in the community. This goes together with hygiene promotion programs that are undoubtedly linked with health topics for which campaigns and activities are developed in order to improve the life quality of people, especially children and adolescents.

Actions: Repair of water and sanitation systems.

Distribution of water purification tablets.

Construction of latrines in communities, schools and friendly spaces.

Training for community promoters on health topics.

Training for children and adolescents on hygiene promotion.

Implementation of the hygiene campaign “Give me 5� in schools and friendly spaces.

Distribution of hygiene kits.

Scope: Latrines for families

400

Schools supported

30

People reached

15.000

Kits delivered

1.175

Activities for health promotion

75

Trained health promoters

60

People with enhanced awareness

6.000

From my view – Photography workshops in child friendly spaces

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Objective: Empower teenagers in affected areas through self-expression, by using photography as a tool to encourage resilience by exploring and acknowledging their identity as well as their community’s.

With the name “Desde mi mirada” (From my view), Save the Children with the help of 6 professional photographers held 6 photography workshops in Esmeraldas (October 7, 8 and 9, 2016) and Manabí (October 14, 15 and 16, 2016), mainly targeted to adolescents of the communities.

This activity allowed the integration among young people of the community and provided them with a new tool for expressing their emotions and feelings. With a camera in their hands and after an 8-hour session, the groups worked in teams and told their stories through pictures, restating their identity and acknowledging their valuable environment.

Scope: Child Friendly spaces

6

Photography workshops

6

Participating children and adolescents

118

Esmeraldas

Pedro Carbo, Balsalito and Agua Clara communities

Manabí

Cárcel Simón Bolívar, Pechichal Afuera and La Soledad communities

Community fairs

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Objective: Create a community-dedicated space that provides fun activities, information on topics related to risk management, safe construction, hygiene promotion and, particularly, protection of children and adolescents.

More than 3.000 people attended the community fairs that took place during a whole day in 6 different zones of the Manabí province. Puppeteers and actors supported the staging of small plays with messages about the importance of hygiene and personal care –aimed mainly at Zika prevention– and topics related to protection and rights of children and adolescents.

Additionally, a stand was build to deliver information about safe construction and risk management, with the goal of sharing important information with families in order for them to be prepared against a potential disaster. This space shared Save the Children’s work from its different areas of action with the community.

Scope: Cantons of Manabí

5 Sucre, Junín, Bolívar Chone and Montecristi

Number of community fairs

6

People reached

3.000

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Projects carried out together with: Ministry of Education SENAGUA Security Coordination Ministry Ministry of Health Ministry of Economic and Social Inclusion Judiciary Council State Attorney General Canton Councils Local Committee for Emerging Operations (Manabí and Esmeraldas) Community leaders

Donors that contributed to this endeavor: CERF – OIM OFDA – USAID One Foundation SCI‘s own funds Cummins Generalitat Valenciana UNICEF

With the support of: Natalia Lafourcade: Cash donation QBE: Cash donation INTEL: Cash donation Creacional/AAG: Donation of design and social network management services Unilever: In-kind donation of personal hygiene items Grupo Norma: Donation of notebooks for schools and friendly spaces GSK: Donation of hygiene kits AIG Seguros: Donation of hygiene and school kits Faiquito: Donation of housing kits

www.savethechildren.org.ec Save the Children Ecuador @SaveChildrenEC SaveTheChildrenEcuador Save the Children Ecuador