UBECI!

Overall, my experience with UBECI has been wonderful! The staff and other volunteers are very supportive and the children we work with are so beautiful. I chose to spend two weeks working in the markets with the young children, one week with the 1-3 year olds and the second week with the 7-15 year olds. Every morning the staff would meet us volunteers at the office to head to the market together which I really appreciated. Since we spent about one day a week at each market, it was nice to see more of Quito and the different dynamics of the markets. At the same time, rotating the markets (each market location is only open a couple days a week so no choice) made it difficult to make progress with the children. Coming with parents to sell on a daily basis, some of these children are not in school and receive all their academic training from us. It was hard to repeatedly work with the young children unable to recognize basic shapes and colors we had covered the week before. At the end of the day, I had to look and appreciate the small successes in each child´s life and I am so glad UBECI is there for these children. Not only do they stress learning though books, puzzles, and lessons, they also emphasis hygiene, physical movements, and emotional wellbeing. The staff and volunteers do so much to be loving and present to these children. I highly recommend volunteering with UBECI and enjoyed my experiences in Quito with them!