Agency: Fundación Nuestros Jóvenes

Location: Quito, Ecuador

Rescue home for trafficked persons: Hogar de la Madre Joven, Cuitsa Mamalla Hausi

Location: Quito, Ecuador

www.fundacionnuestrosjovenes.org.ec

 

Fundación Nuestros Jóvenes provides a variety of services to clients in the Quito area, as well as neighboring cities, villages and communities. Aside from the human trafficking program, these services include; prevention education for elementary school to university students, community targeted work shops develpoped based on risk and needs assessments, drug and alcohol treatment, HIV/AIDS prevention programs, an informational center/telephone library that serves as a crisis line for a vast array of issues, institutional assessment and research and outreach to homeless youth and street children, assistance for families with school age children (e.g. school uniforms, school supplies, medical needs, glasses, etc)

 

Since 2002, students from the Dominican Graduate School of Social Work´s International Social Work Program, have had the opportunity to learn and observe the daily work of a well developed human trafficking program. A technical team of social workers, psychologists and community educators work together not only to provide services, but also to initiate change in the systems and institutions that maintain the commercial sexual and laboral exploitation of persons.

 

Students divide their time between Fundación Nuestros Jóvenes´ main office and the rescue home in Mitad del Mundo. Work for students is not limited to human trafficking work. Students are able to interact with people in the community, provide workshops for parents, teens and children and assist with clients who are in need of financial or in-kind services. Much of the institutional and community work is done during the student´s time at the main office. Students also accompany social workers to interview potenitally trafficked victims. Family visits are also performed after a victim is interviwed in order to assess causes for the trafficking of the child, especially if trafficked by a family member, or if their is any risk of other children in the home being trafficked. Students will also accompany social workers to these family visits.

 

 

 

Hogar de la Madre Joven in Mitad del Mundo, is the other location where students will be practicing most of their direct services work. This is a shelter for trafficked victims, victims of commercial or laboral exploitation, pregnant teens or survivors of sexual abuse and incest. Many of the residents have experienced all of the previously mentioned life events and range in age from 12 to 19.

Services provided at Hogar de la Madre Joven:

 

• living space--shared bedrooms and singles for girls with children
• three daily meals--proper nutrition
• informative workshops
• educational workshops
• institutional assistance--in the area of health, labor/occupation, reintegration into mainstream living
• individual and family psychotherapy
• group therapy
• compassion, guidance, comfort

 

 

 

FNJ works closely with DINAPEN, who is the official national police of Ecuador that protects children. This law enforcement agency has a special unit for victims of human trafficking. Training and manual development was specifically directed to assist DINAPEN since it is a first response organization to child trauma and human trafficking. DINAPEN has recently been responsible for raiding numerous brothels and nightclubs where children and many foreign women were being exploited. Other organization´s Fundación works with to combat human trafficking is INNFA (Instiuto Nacional de Niñez y la Familia; National Institute for Childhood and Family), OIT (Organización Internacional de Trabajo; International Organization of Work), OIM (Organización Internacional de Migrantes; International Orginzation of Migrants).

 

 

 

Another student worked on prevention and provided educational workshops for youth on human trafficking. The student organized and facilitated public awareness and training conferences as well as lectures at numerous grammar schools, high schools and universities.

 

• Direct service - working with youth- victims of human trafficking - working with groups-
• Indirect service-possibly training of staff working with victims – school - prevention and education training
• Running groups at Municipal Library in prevention and education
• Possibly Guayaquil- (INNFA)

 

University: Pontificia Universidad Catolica del Ecuador (Catholic University Quito)

 

Libraries:

Catholic University, Quito, Ecuador

Maria Elena Machuca

Cultural Center of Quito

Dominican University Library

Use the Articles link to access over 100 electronic databases from anywhere you have internet access.

You will need to login using your Dominican Network ID and password - this is the first part of your Dominican email account and the password for your email. If you have forgotten your password, you can have the password reset by the IT department - check this before you leave for your placement.

 

Some recommended resources for your research and coursework:

 

 

ABI Inform Global (About)

Academic Search Premier (About)

Business Source Elite (About)

Childhood Development & Adolescent Studies (About)

Criminal Justice Periodicals (About)

ERIC (Ebsco Host) (About)

Health and Psychosocial Instruments (About)

Health Source Academic/Nursing ( About)

Lexisnexis About

Medline with Fulltext

Omni Fulltext Mega

PAIS International

PsycARTICLES

PsycINFO

Social Services Abstracts

Social Work Abstracts

Sociological Abstracts

 

Government Information:

Google directory of government information

U of C-Boulder - Ecuador Gov. Publications (Note - some resouces are available to U. of C-Boulder students only)

 

 

Some of these databases are ABSTRACT ONLY while others contain abstracts and fulltext articles. Some index books as well as articles. You will need to read the citations carefully. The databases are linked to each other so you may be able to access the fulltext of an article in another database -- use the "find full text article linker" or "WilsonLink" buttons when available.

 

Feel free to email (reference@dom.edu) or IM the reference desk if you have questions. The reference desk is staffed Monday - Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. (C.S.T) ; Saturday, 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m.; Sunday, 12:00 p.m - 10:00 p.m. 

 

Library Search Tips

 

Student Posts

 

3/08/09

Feliz dia de la Mujer! Happy Woman´s Day! Isn´t that great that they celebrate a day for women in Ecuador?! I suppose every day should celebrate women, but having a special day dedicated to the warmth, love and strength women contribute to the world is much needed. I think that says something about this country that they celebrate woman´s day. On Friday we held an event in honor of woman´s day and invited professional women to come and speak about what they do, what their obstacles have been and what wrods of wisdom they can give to the young women who live in the rescue home. It was a really beautiful event....we had a woman who is an officer in the Ecuadorian Army, a singer, a dancer, a lawyer, the first Ecuadorian woman to ever climb Mt. Everest, psychologists, social workers. It was great to hear them talk about their passion for their work and see that there is so much hope for the girls we work with to be anything they want to be.

 

I have been working a lot and have obviously negelected to share a lot about the work I´ve been doing or my experiences here in Ecuador. Every day here gets better and better and Quito is a city with more to offer than I could have ever imagined. There is so much natural beauty that just looking out the window and seeing the mountains within your reach is worth being here.

 

Since I have been here we have had 6 new entries into the rescue home and this has been keeping my fairly busy. 3 of those 6 entries are from another country that is non-Spanish speaking and this has been quite challenging. For security reasons I can´t mention details right now, but working with girls who are from a completely different culture and cannot speak the language has been a learning experience in itself. Ecuador is a transit country and there are a number of countries from which one does not need a VISA to enter into Ecuador...many of these people come to Ecuador and stay in the coastal region with the intention of going by ship to the U.S. There are many children who are vulnerable to be trafficked and/or exploited who enter into Ecuador this way. This is the case with the 3 foreign girls and we have yet to figure out if they were trafficked, smuggled, exploited, we´re still unsure. 2 of the the other new girls were discovered after an operative in a nightclub. They were victims of child commercial sexual exploitation and both were forced into the situation by a ¨boyfriend¨. The newest girl is only 10 years old and was ¨given¨by her mother to a woman in Chile, who was exploiting the young girl for labor. Integrating these girls with the 11 girls who were already living in the home has been challenging, frustrating, interesting and rewarding. I wanted to talk about this a little bit, because although my macro projects here are very important to me and I value to the idea of macro work, being with these girls has been the best thing that has happened to me. They are really brave and strong and good people. They humble me and they make me see what it´s like to value simple things in life. I worry about them and I care for them and I have a lot of hope for what they can do with their lives in the future. Getting to know them, though, and learning about what types of family lives they had, how they came to live at the home are actually great ways of learning about what types of macro interventions can work.

Providing a workshop on family planning at a junior high school

 

I tell people every day how beautiful I think this country is and although this is not a rich country there is beauty in most things here. My favorite spots in Quito this week are the Mercado Iñaquito, the park on Amazonas and la Patria and Mr. Chancho where I ate mote y chicharron...mmmmmmmm.

 

¨I cried because I had no shoes, until I saw a child who had no feet¨--Guayasamin

 

2/14/09

This is Akane, contributing my two cents about Ecuador and Quito in the 2009 round of travels. I have not had the opportunity to write about my experiences yet, because I´ve been so busy, but that goes to how you how much there is to do here. I will amuse and delight you with my tales and also give some tips for other students wanting to take nestle in the greenery that is the Pichinchas (those are the mountains surrounding Quito). By the way, Feliz día del Amor y Amistad! (Happy Day of Love and Friendship). I like that they use that here in Ecuador, because it doesn´t include people who do not have a romantic partner. This is a picture I took from the top of the basilica in the historical center of Quito.

 

I have been here since January 23rd and I feel like I´ve been here for way longer than that, but in a good way. Quito is a huge city, with people living very close together, but with a lot of love and a lot of life. I look out my window every morning and see the greeny mountains dotted with multicolored houses and buildings and I´m greatful and amazed to be looking at something so precious. I seriously feel like I could live here. There´s so many things to see and do, so many differnt parts of the city and the variety of poeple is astounding. I was surprised to see that within a 2 block radius of where I´m staying there is a Chinese restaurant, a Lebanese restaurant, a Japanese restaurant, pizza, cheeseburgers, a hot dog stand! As you can see food is quite important to me...otherwise I wouldn´t be mentioning this. But who doesn´t like food? People had me convinced beofre I came here that I would be eating Cuy (guinnea pig) every day and that is far from the truth. Make sure you eat all the Ecuadorian food you can though, it´s sooooooo good and sooooooo inexpensive. It´s food for your soul. Order an almuerzo (lunch) and for $2 you will get a big bowl of soup, a plate of meat with rice and potatoes, a very tasty homemade juice and a small dessert. Most people eat lunch a little later, like at 2, so they eat bigger and it´s more than you could ever want.

 

Let´s talk about work.....I have been pretty busy and I´ve been doing quite a few things outside of the office. Exploratory, if you will. I was sent to look for a birth certificate of a client at the civil registry and wound up having to go to the south end of Quito. Not a short hop skip or jump. The redeeming part of that day was the fact that I had to pass through the central historical district of Quito in order to get there. This is an area with cobblestone steep....really steep....take your breath away steep streets and Spanish Colonial era buildings with balconies facing the street. When I got to this civil registry place I felt really good about myself that I found the place and it was like I´ve lived here forever, waiting in line with the Quiteños getting their marriage liscenses or drivers liscences renewed. This all sounds sort of mundane, but for some reason it made me feel good to mix in with the people who live their lives here. I also accompanied a girl who was rescued recently, to get her very first pair of eye glasses. This too was a really cool experience, going to the exam with her and helping her pick out the glasses, talking to the doctor on her behalf...I kind of felt motherly and I enjoyed spending the day with her. She asked me stuff about the U.S. and I asked her stuff about the coast (where she´s from). These are experiences that will allow you to learn more than any book can teach you. Twice a week I go to Mitad del Mundo to work at the rescue home. This is quite the journey, I take two buses and probably walk a cumulative of 2 miles. I have never encountered a place that takes care of girls with such love, care, compassion, mothering. I could go on and on. These girls are so brave and have been through more than I can probably imagine. This is an environment that really protects them yet allows them to be who they need to be. I´ll explain more about what they do with the girls in later entries, but I´m very impressed by the work they do with these girls. I could shed a tear :) These are the colors in Ecuador´s flag below. It´s a piece of a mural painted on the walls at the rescue home.

 

I´m rambling a little since I have yet to write on the wiki, so I will conclude with Akane´s tips for you future grad students wanting to come to Quito.

 

1. The bus is only 25 cents and this buys you travel to long distances with spectacular views of the mountains, sounds of the barrio, an aching arm from holding on so tight to the railing, perhaps whiplash and a new sense of personal space, as riding on the bus does not give you any

2. There is an internet cafe or shop (i guess we´ll call it that) on every block...you can use the internet, skype, do whatever you need to do for about 80 cents and hour. There´s also telephone booths called ¨cabinas¨ on every block and calling the U.S. is also very cheap...probably about $1 or $2 for an hour!

3. Wear good shoes...I have never walked so much in my life and the 3, 000 blisters I have can atest to that. I didn´t invest in good shoes and my big size 10 feet are not accomodated for in this country

4. Chevere means cool, basically. Everything here is chevere....all you will here is chevere and they do not say adios, they say chao or chao chao (and they do not spell it ciao like the Italians, they spell it chao, don´t mess that up)

5. Always keep an umbrella and a removable sweater with you....don´t ask why, just do it. You´ll thank me.

 

Un abrazo muy fuerte

 

2/5/08

I am in Ecuador, and it's beautiful. The city is huge, and the way the mountains are in the clouds is pretty cool to see. It's definitely colder in Quito than I thought it would be, though. Maria Mercedes is a wonderful host mother, as she is explaining us everything we need to know, and she took us to her ranch for the weekend. (It's gorgeous, peaceful, AND warmer there.) Not much has happened on the work front yet, but tomorrow we will meet Veronica, our supervisor, to find out more and start discussing what we're going to do for the next ten weeks.

-Tracy

 

2/12/2008

 

So far, I've been learning a lot about the dynamics of trafficking within Ecuador. Today, we went to the home where the rescued girls live, and talked with one of the psychiatrists. I always thought trafficking was a kind of snatching of girls off the street and forcing them into slavery. On the contrary, many girls here go into it somewhat willingly. This is what we learned:

A pimp/chulo will look for more vulnerable girls outside of their colegio. He brings her gifts and jewelry and takes her out to eat. Most likely, she doesn't have the greatest home life, and he invites her to live with him. Gifts and good things continue (including drugs), and after three months of treating her like a queen he says he has no more money, and she must start working. He introduces her to sex work, and she does it out of love for him. Eventually, he starts mistreating her, and he threatens to kill her or her family, so she cannot and does not want to leave. This guy isn't just a pimp, he's also a killer, so she doesn't know if he will do it or not. He makes $5,000 a month per girl. She can ask for clothes or to go out to eat, and it will happen. Once they get rescued to the home, they don't have that kind of “freedom,” and they definitely don't have the drugs, so these are reasons that they want to leave the safehouse.

 

It is a horrible situation, but it's really interesting to learn the dynamics that are specific to Ecuador.

 

PS – This is the website for Fundaciòn. www.fundacionnuestrosjovenes.org.ec

-Tracy

 

2-14-2008

Happy Valentines Day!

 

Yea! My first posting for Wiki. I guess I can take this time to leave the next students that are going to Ecuador some advice as I go through this experience so maybe they can come into this with a little bit more understanding and knowledge from the student’s perspective. So completely through away and forget what those teachers told you! Hahaha. Just kidding, but no really…

 

1)Remember that Ecuador is not Mexico. Not even close. Different food, different weather, different culture, different expressions, different sayings, etc… The American culture is use to categorizing all Latino’s and people think we are all the same (Mexican). Drop that. Quickly. You will not find pesos, tacos, quesadillas, or menudo (the band or the food).

2)Ecuador has a small airport and many people believe it or not fly in from the States. Don’t be in a hurry when you get there because you will have to go through migración, which is like a customs, and you have to get your bags checked and your pass port looked at. This line is super long!

3)When Maria greets you do not-I repeat do not call her Maria. She really does not like it. Call her Maria Mercedes.

4)Ecuador changed there currency to the American dollar so you wont have to worry about exchanging currency.

5)Talking about money----Carry small bills, not because it is not safe to carry large bills, but because nobody, I mean nobody can make change for a twenty, No Joke. I had to go to two different banks to make change for a twenty dollar bill. So first thing is first change all your bills to tens, fives, ones, and change.

6)Everything is inexpensive, especially the bus and trolley system. If you can, skip the cab ride. It costs 25 cents for the bus and a transfer.

 

That is all I have for now, but don’t worry I will come back with more!!

 

***Sergio

 

Advice for future Ecuadorian pasantes: make sure you bring some warm clothing. To sleep in as well. I never thought it would be this cold here...you think Chicago's cold, but generally not inside the house! Umbrellas/ponchos/water proof clothing/bags/etc. are not a bad idea either.

 

As far as other advice I feel the need to dispense (piggybacking on Sergio's post), come down here with some ideas in mind when thinking about work at Fundación. Be proactive about getting involved in what they're doing as well. And hang on tight when riding the trolley.

 

We're starting to get involved in working with college groups and planning for a megaevent in June—the first ever month against human trafficking. Be prepared to learn a lot from them because obviously they know more about what works here, but don't hesitate to share your ideas either. Also, if the staff invites you to lunch, know that it will be the same place with basically the same food every day. =)

 

- Tracy

 

I’m back with more!

 

7)Always bring a sweater with you even if it’s nice out. There is a saying in Ecuador – “You’ll experience all four seasons in one day”. They are not over exaggerating! One minute it will rain the other it will be hot and sunny and then all of a sudden it will be dead cold. Take a sweater just in case

8)Taking about cold— Bring worm, I mean worm pajamas. It gets really cold at night and these homes are not built like in the States. There is no heat or space heaters here. So be prepared to have cold feet at night.

9)Chévere!!!! That is a