CISOL: School For Working Kids

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The Educare school was opened in 2000 and is run by the Ecuadorian NGO, C.I.S.O.L. (Centro de Inciativas Sociales Latinoamericanas) as a private school for poor families in Loja, Ecuador. After decades of studying child poverty and labor, members of C.I.S.O.L. decided that education was the key element to ending child labor. They decided to open a school specifically designed to accommodate children who were at risk of having to neglect their educations to work for their families. Seemingly minor things–the price to feed a child their lunch, for example–can prevent them from getting an education. Often a family will take their child out of school so they can work to earn money that would turn around and be spent on feeding them.

Educare provides a way to bring children back to formal education or stop them from ever leaving it. By providing quality, private education on a sliding scale (that goes as low as $5/year) and providing things like free meals, dental and medical exams, children from some of the poorest families in Loja can send their children to school with the hope that their future will be brighter.