Nidia Lourdes

A few years ago, Mrs. Kite and myself were lucky enough to visit Ecuador. This country of extremes sits on the North West corner of South America looking out at the Galapagos Islands in the Pacific Ocean. Inland the terrain stretches up into The Andes and, then, goes down into the jungle which borders Brazil. In the Andes, there is the opportunity to experience snow on the Equator as well as the site of active volcanoes surrounding the capital, Quito. As if this mixture doesn't present a significant enough challenge, the fault line that affects California runs right down the middle of the country. Mrs. Kite and myself enjoyed living through an earthquake and my good lady also suffered altitude sickness. You could not meet a more dramatic mixture of beauty and inhospitality. Ecuador, that is.
It is a fascinating country. You can get a tourist eye view from The Lonely Planet and the BBC will, of course, give you some facts and figures. Delving back into the history of the country is fascinating with the links from the Inca empire through to the arrival of the Spanish who were overthrown by Sucre. Of course, Simon Bolivar got involved but, then, what South American country didn't see him charging over the hill. Today, the President struggles to get away from the corruption of the local mafia and to help a population struggling with a poor economy and regular natural disasters. You'll see the latest under Yahoo news as well as the thoughts of the EU at their site.

Nidia Lourdes was born in 1991 and is seen here standing between her two cousins. She's a smart girl with ambitions to be a lawyer. At school, her favourite subjects are maths, natural science and reading. Already, she's keen to write to us. She's active, too. If she's not playing street games, football or volleyball, you'll find her looking after the domestic animals owned by the family.
Firewood has to be collected to cook meals on their brazier and the water is around 1 km away. Unfortunately, the water is neither plentiful nor safe. Combined with the absence of an indoor latrine, sanitation becomes a real problem. The only light that they have comes from some small kerosene lamps which means that the day ends quite early for them when the light of the sun has disappeared.

Though she does not know her father, the family at home is large with two grandparents and a great grandmother in their 70s, 80's and 90's respectively. There, you'll also find her mother, uncle and two brothers. For all these people, home is a small adobe house with a tile and slate roof.
The main problem is that a small income makes it difficult to make ends meet. Plan International works to help improve sources of water as well as assisting in the areas of health, education, housing and income. Ultimately, the whole community including Nidia Lourdes will benefit from this work.

Plan International has developed a large, global network of support for children. From this, they were able to introduce us to Nidia Lourdes. The organisation was started in 1937 by a couple of journalists shocked by the orphaned children in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War. Today, the organisation operates at a number of levels in 45 developing countries. They get involved by working with governments, development partners and communities to help to improve specific facilities in deprived areas. They key point is that everyone can buy into the local projects to safeguard the future of the community and, in particular, the children. When a local family is involved in these projects, people like us get the opportunity to sponsor their children for the duration of the community project. These projects are based around five key elements that support the development of the children and, hence, the future of the community. These are health, education, livelihood, habitat and building relationships. Nobody can argue with that and Plan International does a wonderful job across many parts of the world. Pretty obviously, Mr Kite thinks that it would be great if you got involved, too. Read about sponsoring a child here.

The Extended Family

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Nzilani-nduku in Kenya

Omar in Senegal

Sawai in Thailand

Hui in China