New Project in Ecuador
Craft Aid International have established an exciting new project to provide training and employment for people with disabilities in Santo Domingo de los Tsachilas, in Ecuador. Whilst the Ecuadorian government is attempting to make people with disabilities feel more included in their society, the reality is that most adults with disabilities find it practically impossible to find employment and are consigned to a life of poverty as a result. Craft Aid International is looking forward to working with the Primera Iglesia Bautista to help them establish a project that will start to meet the needs of the many people with disabilities desperate for training and employment. A local church, Primera Iglesia Bautista, has already set up a charity that works with children and young people with disabilities, called Vida en Abundancia. The young people at this project are already producing some crafts, but the charity wants to extend the project to provide employment to people with disabilities. Last March, Craft Aid sent out skilled volunteers, Lydia and Mark Trezise to work with the charity and help establish the project. During her degree, Lydia volunteered at Neema Craft Centre in Tanzania and this ignited her passion to use jewellery as a tool for social justice. As a couple they have a strong desire to use their lives for the betterment of others and are open to going wherever God calls them. At the project Lydia takes care of design, training and manufacturing, and Mark takes care of admin, social media (and of course making a good cup of Yorkshire tea!) They welcomed the first group of trainees in January, who graduated in June this year. They're now fully trained and have been equipped with everything they need to run their own paper making workshops from home. They bring their products to the project every fortnight and are paid for the excellent work they've made, providing them with a regular income with which to support themselves and their families. We're already training our second group of trainees! (Photos to follow soon!)
You can find out more about Mark and Lydia on our Meet the Team page.
To support Mark and Lydia in their valuable work, please click here.
To support Mark and Lydia in their valuable work, please click here.
Ecuador Newsletter - May 2017
Welcome to Ecuador.....!
Hello and welcome to our first newsletter to be actually written in Ecuador! We arrived safely, if a little weary, after 18 hours travelling and have been getting to know Quito and Ecuador a little bit over last 5 weeks. Here's a brief summery of what we've been up to so far...
When we first arrived we stayed in a hostel in Quito's historical centre where we met up with Susie (the lady who runs 'Craft Aid International'), Jill (the lady who set up 'Life in Abundance Trust', the foundation we will be working with) and Heather (Jill's friend). They had been in Ecuador for a while beforehand laying the ground work, making contacts and ensuring we weren't coming out to a dead end!
After a whistle stop first couple of days which involved visiting markets, sorting out phones, talking about the project and a myriad of other things it was time for Susie to fly onto Peru and for us to leave the hostel. The original plan had been for us to live with an Ecuadorian host family whilst at language school but Jill put us in contact with an American teacher who lives in a suburb of Quito called 'Valle de los Chillos' and was kindly offering to put us up for the duration of our time in Quito.
We decided to stay with Amy for a number of different reasons, even though we knew it might slow down our language learning a little bit. However it has certainly been the right decision as we are really enjoying out time with her and she has helped us out in so many different ways. Living in the valle is very peaceful and the views of the mountains and snow covered volcanoes are breathtaking.
A couple of weekends ago we visited the beach at Tonsupa. It was a gruelling 7 hour drive each way, made longer on the way there because of the destruction of one of our wheels by an almighty pot hole. We were waiting for the breakdown people when a friendly trucker pulled over and changed the wheel for us. It was quite and experience to be broken down in the dark, on a twisty mountain road with lorries over taking other lorries at high speed. Happily we lived to tell the tale and had a wonderful time at the beach.
Hello and welcome to our first newsletter to be actually written in Ecuador! We arrived safely, if a little weary, after 18 hours travelling and have been getting to know Quito and Ecuador a little bit over last 5 weeks. Here's a brief summery of what we've been up to so far...
When we first arrived we stayed in a hostel in Quito's historical centre where we met up with Susie (the lady who runs 'Craft Aid International'), Jill (the lady who set up 'Life in Abundance Trust', the foundation we will be working with) and Heather (Jill's friend). They had been in Ecuador for a while beforehand laying the ground work, making contacts and ensuring we weren't coming out to a dead end!
After a whistle stop first couple of days which involved visiting markets, sorting out phones, talking about the project and a myriad of other things it was time for Susie to fly onto Peru and for us to leave the hostel. The original plan had been for us to live with an Ecuadorian host family whilst at language school but Jill put us in contact with an American teacher who lives in a suburb of Quito called 'Valle de los Chillos' and was kindly offering to put us up for the duration of our time in Quito.
We decided to stay with Amy for a number of different reasons, even though we knew it might slow down our language learning a little bit. However it has certainly been the right decision as we are really enjoying out time with her and she has helped us out in so many different ways. Living in the valle is very peaceful and the views of the mountains and snow covered volcanoes are breathtaking.
A couple of weekends ago we visited the beach at Tonsupa. It was a gruelling 7 hour drive each way, made longer on the way there because of the destruction of one of our wheels by an almighty pot hole. We were waiting for the breakdown people when a friendly trucker pulled over and changed the wheel for us. It was quite and experience to be broken down in the dark, on a twisty mountain road with lorries over taking other lorries at high speed. Happily we lived to tell the tale and had a wonderful time at the beach.
We normally go to language school for 4 hours every weekday morning and then have almuerzo, which is lunch. The Ecuadorians eat their bigger meal at lunch time and an almuerzo is best likened to the meal of the day. You normally get a bowl of soup (meat with veg) followed by a choice of either chicken, meat or fish which is always with rice or potatoes (or often both), veg and salad. You get a fruit juice to go with it and sometimes a small desert of fruit or a sliver of cake. There are very few options but for $2.75 it's brilliant value and always tasty, although you can't be a veggie in this country!
We get homework from school so after catching the bus home we get that done and then try and process all we learnt in the mornings lesson. We are both finding learning Spanish ok but there are many difference between it and English and getting to grips with 4 different past tenses and 4 different future ones is taking it's toll! We are, however, getting there slowly but surely and we are managing basic conversations with the aid of hand gestures and Google translate!
Thank you to all who have donated, it really will make a massive difference and we couldn't do this project without you. If you haven't yet donated and want to, please use the button at the bottom of this email marked 'donate here'. Thank You.
We have visited a few other places outside of Quito over the last couple of weeks. We went with the church we are attending here in Quito to a remote village near a volcano called Cayambe. There the church were doing medical and dental checkups, hairdressing, games with the kids and giving out food and clothes. It was great to be part of and opened our eyes the lack of basic amenities in some of the rural parts of Ecuador. The people are incredibly warm, welcoming and generous even with so little.
Our best trip however has been to a village called Salinas de Guaranda which is high in the mountains about 5 hours from Quito. It is an incredible place where they make chocolate, cheese, wool, sausages, sweets, footballs, baskets, clothes and many other things, all as a cooperative. They also run a radio station giving health advise to the local area and other important community news.
We went with Laura from Just Trade who was visiting artisan workers in one of the surrounding settlements and giving workshops on techniques and styles. We loved seeing all the different mini factories and the massive difference well thought out, community minded business has made to every person in the village and surrounding settlements. Over 50 years they have worked incredibly hard and now sell their cheese and chocolates in one of the large supermarket chains in Ecuador and they export other items around the world. We met some really lovely people and will definitely be back at some point in the future.
We get homework from school so after catching the bus home we get that done and then try and process all we learnt in the mornings lesson. We are both finding learning Spanish ok but there are many difference between it and English and getting to grips with 4 different past tenses and 4 different future ones is taking it's toll! We are, however, getting there slowly but surely and we are managing basic conversations with the aid of hand gestures and Google translate!
Thank you to all who have donated, it really will make a massive difference and we couldn't do this project without you. If you haven't yet donated and want to, please use the button at the bottom of this email marked 'donate here'. Thank You.
We have visited a few other places outside of Quito over the last couple of weeks. We went with the church we are attending here in Quito to a remote village near a volcano called Cayambe. There the church were doing medical and dental checkups, hairdressing, games with the kids and giving out food and clothes. It was great to be part of and opened our eyes the lack of basic amenities in some of the rural parts of Ecuador. The people are incredibly warm, welcoming and generous even with so little.
Our best trip however has been to a village called Salinas de Guaranda which is high in the mountains about 5 hours from Quito. It is an incredible place where they make chocolate, cheese, wool, sausages, sweets, footballs, baskets, clothes and many other things, all as a cooperative. They also run a radio station giving health advise to the local area and other important community news.
We went with Laura from Just Trade who was visiting artisan workers in one of the surrounding settlements and giving workshops on techniques and styles. We loved seeing all the different mini factories and the massive difference well thought out, community minded business has made to every person in the village and surrounding settlements. Over 50 years they have worked incredibly hard and now sell their cheese and chocolates in one of the large supermarket chains in Ecuador and they export other items around the world. We met some really lovely people and will definitely be back at some point in the future.
So that's you caught up with all we've been doing over the last couple of months or so. Overall things are going incredibly well here. We have both settled in so smoothly, we have been, on the whole, perfectly healthy and we have met some wonderful people who have made us feel right at home from the start. The plan is for us to stay for one more week here in Quito and then to move down to Santo Domingo, but more about that next time......
Don't forget to check out the Facebook page and website, we've added Instagram as well...just use the links at the bottom of this email to get connected!
God Bless
Mark and Lydia
Don't forget to check out the Facebook page and website, we've added Instagram as well...just use the links at the bottom of this email to get connected!
God Bless
Mark and Lydia
Ecuador Newsletter - August 2017
At the moment we are living with another English missionary in Santo Domingo called Katie. This is because the house that we will be living in long term is not yet finished so one of the main jobs we've been doing is to help with preparing the house. We have hand sanded all the internal walls (tiring) and have just started to paint them (off-white, if you're interested). Once the painting is finished we just need to fit internal doors, lay a lino floor, put netting up on the windows to keep the flying neighbours out, buy a fridge and cooker and basically all other furniture and then that's about it! Hopefully this will not take too much longer but in Ecuador things do not move all that quickly...
We spent a couple of weeks sorting out our visas and as we speak the paperwork has all been submitted and we are waiting on a email to say all is well and we can go and get our Visas put in our passports. Legal stuff takes a while here, mainly because everything needs signing by many people and then photocopying which the offices don't do themselves so you have to take it to a street side photocopier at 5 cents a pop!
Lydia has been getting on with the real work of designing products that we will make and has been having fun with a few different ideas. Card making will be one of the first things we do, adding traditional Ecuadorian fabric and cutting out shapes using the sizzix machine. She's also been working hard on lino printing designs and made some beautiful ones already.
We spent a couple of weeks sorting out our visas and as we speak the paperwork has all been submitted and we are waiting on a email to say all is well and we can go and get our Visas put in our passports. Legal stuff takes a while here, mainly because everything needs signing by many people and then photocopying which the offices don't do themselves so you have to take it to a street side photocopier at 5 cents a pop!
Lydia has been getting on with the real work of designing products that we will make and has been having fun with a few different ideas. Card making will be one of the first things we do, adding traditional Ecuadorian fabric and cutting out shapes using the sizzix machine. She's also been working hard on lino printing designs and made some beautiful ones already.
At the end of June we went back to Quito to say goodbye to Amy, who we'd been living with in Quito. She's gone home to the states for 7 months and it was very sad to say goodbye because even after only 2 months of knowing each other we'd all grown close. We are really appreciating those friendships you make when people have moved away from their "home" country and it does make for close bonds. We are also building friendships with Ecuadorians and our language skills are definitely on the up!
We've done a bit more travelling and visiting different places. The equator runs through Ecuador (hence the name of the country) just north of Quito and we went and visited the"Mitad del Mundo" which was interesting. One of the displays informs that the difference in hemisphere does make a difference in which way large cyclones move (ocean patterns etc) but makes no difference to the way water goes down a plug, that one's a myth folks!
We have also visited a lake in a volcanic crater called Quilotoa which was a spectacular view and a great days hike. Being at such high altitude (3,900m) the hike back up to the crater rim from the lake is a very slow one, pausing for breath every 10th step or so!
We've done a bit more travelling and visiting different places. The equator runs through Ecuador (hence the name of the country) just north of Quito and we went and visited the"Mitad del Mundo" which was interesting. One of the displays informs that the difference in hemisphere does make a difference in which way large cyclones move (ocean patterns etc) but makes no difference to the way water goes down a plug, that one's a myth folks!
We have also visited a lake in a volcanic crater called Quilotoa which was a spectacular view and a great days hike. Being at such high altitude (3,900m) the hike back up to the crater rim from the lake is a very slow one, pausing for breath every 10th step or so!
The main news is, as promised in the last newsletter and mentioned above, we have moved down to Santo Domingo which will be our home for the next year or so. For those who don't know about this jewel in the crown of Ecuador here are a few quotes from the Lonely Planet Guide about Santo Domingo.
"[A] very uninspiring town...few attractions to encourage you to do anything other than pass through...[it] has a seedy side...visitors should be some what weary". My personal favourite is, "There's not really any reason to stay in Santo Domingo".
Now these observations are, to be fair, very accurate when looked through the lens of a tourist guide as this is not a city geared around that industry. It is situated at the foothills of the Andes and is about 2 hours drive from the coast. The climate is very hot and humid all the year round (day time temperatures are normally 26C-28C, night time 20C-22) and the sun rises at 6ish and sets at 6ish for 365 days of the year. It is a largely agricultural city with a market that attracts farmers from many miles around and there is also a lot of industry as its location makes it a transport hub for everywhere west of the Andes.
It is also a poor city, particularly when compared to the Sierra cities of Quito, Cuenca or Baños where most of the money is. The run down look of the city isn't helped by the climate as the humidity means everything grows moss and mould and buildings look 10 times their actual age, they literally start to rot the moment they are finished.
This city however has much deeper problems than just aesthetics. 9 out of 10 women in Santo Domingo have been abused and teenage pregnancies (often as a result of that abuse) are very common. Unemployment is quite high and wages here are not much. Most people will only just earn enough to get by and there are many shops in town where you can hire things like fridges and washing machines as people don't have the money to pay for it all at once.
All of that to say that this is a city where there is a lot of need and that, in the end, is why we are here. Viewed as a tourist there is nothing here but as a place that needs help this is exactly where we need to be. The people that we have met here are incredibly warm and kind and the foundation we are partnering with are very supportive, we just can't wait to get going!
Thank you to all who have donated, it really will make a massive difference and we couldn't do this project without you. If you haven't yet donated and want to, please use the button at the bottom of this email marked 'donate here'. Thank You.
"[A] very uninspiring town...few attractions to encourage you to do anything other than pass through...[it] has a seedy side...visitors should be some what weary". My personal favourite is, "There's not really any reason to stay in Santo Domingo".
Now these observations are, to be fair, very accurate when looked through the lens of a tourist guide as this is not a city geared around that industry. It is situated at the foothills of the Andes and is about 2 hours drive from the coast. The climate is very hot and humid all the year round (day time temperatures are normally 26C-28C, night time 20C-22) and the sun rises at 6ish and sets at 6ish for 365 days of the year. It is a largely agricultural city with a market that attracts farmers from many miles around and there is also a lot of industry as its location makes it a transport hub for everywhere west of the Andes.
It is also a poor city, particularly when compared to the Sierra cities of Quito, Cuenca or Baños where most of the money is. The run down look of the city isn't helped by the climate as the humidity means everything grows moss and mould and buildings look 10 times their actual age, they literally start to rot the moment they are finished.
This city however has much deeper problems than just aesthetics. 9 out of 10 women in Santo Domingo have been abused and teenage pregnancies (often as a result of that abuse) are very common. Unemployment is quite high and wages here are not much. Most people will only just earn enough to get by and there are many shops in town where you can hire things like fridges and washing machines as people don't have the money to pay for it all at once.
All of that to say that this is a city where there is a lot of need and that, in the end, is why we are here. Viewed as a tourist there is nothing here but as a place that needs help this is exactly where we need to be. The people that we have met here are incredibly warm and kind and the foundation we are partnering with are very supportive, we just can't wait to get going!
Thank you to all who have donated, it really will make a massive difference and we couldn't do this project without you. If you haven't yet donated and want to, please use the button at the bottom of this email marked 'donate here'. Thank You.
Greenfrost is a chain of frozen yogurt stores, perfectfor cooling you down in humid Santo Domingo
So that's what's been going on since our last email. Little by little things are coming together, from the language to the house, and in it all we are both really happy to be here and finding a lot of joy in what we are doing. We have Susie from Craft Aid International coming out to be with us for 2 weeks which will be a great help and hopefully by the time you hear from us again we will have started the project proper and will be living in our lovely new casa in San Pablo...
Don't forget to check out the Facebook page, Instagram and website.
God Bless
Mark and Lydia
So that's what's been going on since our last email. Little by little things are coming together, from the language to the house, and in it all we are both really happy to be here and finding a lot of joy in what we are doing. We have Susie from Craft Aid International coming out to be with us for 2 weeks which will be a great help and hopefully by the time you hear from us again we will have started the project proper and will be living in our lovely new casa in San Pablo...
Don't forget to check out the Facebook page, Instagram and website.
God Bless
Mark and Lydia