Ecuador - Buen Pastor

Students: 72
Where HOPE is given: Families
Began partnering with E=H: 2012

The Episcopal Church of Buen Pastor is located in South Quito. Work in this community began 29 years ago. Until about eight years ago, the church struggled with attrition from its membership. At that time, the church changed their mission to be family to the community. This included not only the church services, but also more programs within the community, such as care for the elderly, a feeding program, teaching literacy, etc. The neighborhood has a unique population of people in particularly vulnerable situations. There are a high number of people involved with drugs, dysfunctional families, and young people living without their parents.
The scholarship program has expanded to not only help students, but also their mothers. Buen Pastor has a thriving small group ministry where the mothers of scholarship students can receive fellowship, support, and mentoring. In the meetings the mothers have the confidence to open up about problems or complicated situations that they are going through. The empathy they have is extraordinary, and it’s wonderful to see one mother pray for another.