Construction of a Community for the needy

Project location: Ecuador, Guayaquil
Project start date: June 2008 - Project end date: March 2009
Project number: 2008-13
Beneficiary: Asociación Ecuatoriana Santa Marta

Asociación Ecuatoriana Santa Marta is a nonprofit civil association. One of its main goals is to support and sustains vocations who devoted their lives to the service of evangelization. In this sense, it helps in obtaining the necessary resources to provide the required means to carry out their pastoral and apostolic activities.
The organization understands the importance of contributing to the formation of vocations who devoted their lives to help the poor and the needy. Among these vocations, there are several girls who have established their concrete path to serve through The Marian Community of Reconciliation.
During their six years of work in Ecuador, the sisters of The Marian Community of Reconciliation - called Fraternas - have received 6 national vocations from this Country. The pastoral and social work carried out by the Fraternas now reaches 5300 people annually. Some of their social activities are:
• Cultural and professional workshops to promote human development;
• Emergency assistance in case of damages caused by bad weather conditions (floods, storms, etc);
• Mission trips to poor towns;
• Health campaigns;
• Counselling;
• Solidarity campaigns for the needy;
• Catechesis for children and young people.
At this time, the number of young people which the Fraternas accompany in their lives of faith is 1640. The leadership training guided by the Fraternas has allowed these young people to undertake social aid projects in many poor areas of Guayaquil.
The sisters humanitarian aid's work benefits at present about 2630 people. This number has been increasing every year. Also, a growing number of young people seek to give their gifts and talents to help the poor families, contributing to the construction of a more fair, reconciled and united society.
Another important focus for the Fraternas' apostolic work is the spiritual guidance to the families. For the sisters, family is a key field in people's training and therefore they seek to instil in families values that lead to a dignified life and to an integration in the society in which they live. The work with families benefits 1030 people directly.

The Marian Community of Reconciliation needs to build a house for 13 new vocations, in order to fulfil in a better way the apostolic work of the sisters in Ecuador.
The apostolic work performed by the Fraternas is directed to the needy, young people, families and culture. Emphasis is placed on pastoral work with school children and university students, preparing them to become agents of social assistance for the needy. As soon as the sisters have a community house, it will be possible to organize more efficiently their apostolic work to increase the number of young people linked with adequate space to accommodate them.
The land where the apostolic community will be built is located in an area of increasing development and urban growth. Therefore, the presence of the sisters will make it possible to work directly with hundreds of families, inviting them to participate in the apostolic work with the neediest. Likewise, they may begin working with new groups of young people who live in places close to the community, without neglecting the existing ones, giving them the tools they need so that they can, in turn, undertake projects to help the poor.

The Nando Peretti Foundation is co-financing the construction of a Community for Vocations of the Marian Community of Reconciliation who consecrate their lives to serve the needy, youth,  families and culture in Guayaquil, Ecuador

Good environments for the apostolic work performed by the Fraternas will provide a better accompaniment to the many people they take care of, as well as double the current number of persons to whom they serve. Likewise, since its field of action is aimed at all social levels and is applied in all different realities, the construction of the community will allow the sisters to provide the necessary infrastructure to continue their contribution with an increasingly effective service and a multiplying effect.