Location

Ecuador - Is one of the smallest countries in South America with a total surface area of: 283,560 sq km. It shares borders with Columbia to the north and with Peru to the South and East.
According to the census of 2002, the current population of the country is slightly over 12 million. Due to the high levels of emigration many more ecuadorians are found abroad in countries such as the USA, Italy and Spain. Click below for a more detailed map of the country.

Quito - Is the capital of Ecuador. It is situated at 2.850 above the sea level and 25 years ago was declared a world heritage site by UNESCO.
It is a city with various contrasts but can be divided roughly into three regions:
- an historic centre, one of the best preserved examples of "colonial" architecture in Latin America
- the modern city typical of most western citys with high rises, shopping centres, traffic, pollution and other well known features - sprawling suburbs where the population resides. These regions or "barrios" are very polarised between rich and poor. It is rare to find these two extremes of society living side-by-side.

SOCIO-ECONOMIC
Recent data including results from the 2002 census indicates that the econmic problems of the country, especially in recent years have had a devastating impact on the levels of poverty in the country. By all accounts this is a growing phenomen with information from PNUD, a research institute revealing that up to 65% of the population of the country live below the poverty line.
This substantial portion of the population have not the daily means to provide for such basic services such as health, education, nutrition, housing and clothing.
The switch from the national currency (the sucre) to the US dollar in 2000 has slowly managed to bring some stability to prices within the country, however it has brought economic pain to large sections to the population in the short to medium term as the governmentt has been slow to permit wage increases to redress the imbalance created from the astronomical levels of inflation before and shortly after the switch. In a short space of time, Ecuador has changed from being one of the cheaper countries in South America to become of the more expensive.Corruptions is another blight on the possibilities of recovery and stability in the country. Year after year Ecuador consistantly scores high on the list of the most corrupt countries in the world. Hundreds of thousands of dollars dissappear daily from the national economic while in front of many of the prestigous banks live people with not enough to feed themselevs for a single day. Because of the desperate state of the national economy the black and grey markets have grown considerably with high instances of illegal child labour, postitution, drugs and arms trading etc.. Furthermore the events of recent years have only served to increase all the more the already high indices of emigration, both legal and illegal to other countries. Many rural towns and villages are being slowly depopulated as he inhabitants seek opportunities in the nearest city of beyond the countries boarders.

POVERTY
People may be considered poor if they fall into one of the following categories:
- Their abodes lack electricity
- The presences of a treated water supply is lacking
- There is no system of drainage / sweage.
- The average bedroom contains 4 or more people
- Within the family the majority is illiterate.
- One or more children from the family don’t attend school.
- The last baby of the family was not delivered by someone medically qualified, but with the help of a relative or a friend.

HEALTH
Recent data gathered by DNSPI (National Directorate of Health for the Indigenous People) states that in the rural and indigenous areas of the country up to 57% of children between 1 and 4 years suffer from malnutrition.
42% of women interviewed said that they had suffered the premature death of a child. Some of these women had lost 10 children.
Rural health coverage is mainly delivered by students in their final year of higher education. Starting out with a considerable degree of goodwill and desire they often become quicly disullusioned with the reality of the national health system. In addition the yearly change of personel does not permit the development of a deep doctor - patient relationship. In rural areas where the much of the general population still rely to some degree on shamanism and have an element of distrust for mainstream medicine, the lack of a proper relationship between doctor and patient has a detriment effect on the provison of an adequate health system.
With the recent economic problems of the country has come an increase in the number and duration of strikes, regional and national in the health service. At times rural areas are left without any regional health serices whatsoever and in the case of an emergency must travel up to 2 hours to the nearest hospital.