Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I love my work and I'd like to tell you more about what I'm doing here. If I'd been told six months ago that I'd be working with street children in Ecuador running an art project, I would never have believed it. But know it makes perfect sense to me and it seems that all of my career over the last twelve years has been leading me to this point. 

As you may know I have long worked in the UK with children and young people from disadvantaged backgrounds. Working with children has always been my passion since a young age. In my work I have always taken a particular interest in finding creative ways for young people to express the realities of their lives, whether through visual art, drama or music, with the intention of increasing confidence, self belief and broadening horizons. Despite this and the fact that since a teenager I had always wanted to work with street children and my love of Spanish and my experiences of working with the Latin American community in London, being an art project leader in Ecuador would have probably never crossed my mind. Ecuador would never have been the first place to spring to mind and art - well, I have never considered myself to be a 'pure' artist.

But actually it makes total sense:

Ecuador - because it is one of the least developed countries in Latin America in which over 1 in 5 children work on the streets for up to 13 hours a day and from as young as four years old. Almost half of the population here lives below the poverty line on less that $2 a day. Guayaquil - because it has a larger population that Quito, suffers acute deprivation and is ringed by urban slums, called sectors here, in which a third of the city's population lives. And Art because I am a creative person who enjoys all the arts and this project ignites that passion and brings that creativity right to the fore in a way that no office job could ever do! So as I say, it makes total sense.

Since being here, I have realised this is definitely where I am meant to be. I am constantly inspired by the children who have so little but yet leap at the chance to spend a few hours of their week doing creative art activities, even if that means the only place to do it in their community is under a tree in the dirt and dust. The pride that they show on completion of an activity is incredible and I find it really moving. Similarly, the dedication with which they engage in activities inspires me immensely.

The ability of these children to deal with the intensity of their daily lives truly awes me. The children that we work with have their human rights violated daily: most live incredibly dangerous lives and are not safe physically or emotionally whether in the home or on the streets where they work; education is a luxury and having the chance to have fun and actually enjoy their childhoods is an even greater luxury, rarely experienced by many. I hope that in the few hours we spend with these children in the five different sectors in which we work, we are able to give them a bit of their childhood back; encourage them to create in a safe space, give them a sense of achievement and perhaps give them a glimpse of a different future.

Whilst I work for CMAP with another Art Club Leader, our work is all done in partnership with Juconi - Junto con Los Ninos which means together with the children. The organisation takes a therapeutic approach to working with the entire family to make long term, systematic change thus breaking the intergenerational cycle of abuse, lack of education and poverty. Our work only exists because of Juconi and in December I returned to the UK for a few weeks to attend a Human Rights conference. Juconi was awarded a Human Rights award and I was given the huge honour of receiving this on behalf of the organisation at a ceremony in York Minster.

My placement here with CMAP is funded until the end of March but to me that is too soon, way too soon! I feel like my work here is only just beginning and therefore I am fundraising in order to stay on. I have ideas coming out of my ears and I would love to be able to act on them but I can only do that if I can support myself.

Therefore, I am fundraising to reach a target of £1250 which should allow me to stay on for at least three more months - hopefully longer. Unfortunately as Ecuador uses the US dollar the cost of living here is not as cheap as one might expect in a less developed Latin American nation - which seems to me to be even more of a reason for me to keep working because the poverty here is so rife and $2 barely buys you anything, it hardly feeds a family.

So, I would love it if you were able to spare me some of your hard earned cash and support me in my mission to continue working with these children in new and creative ways. I would also love to keep you updated on our project. Please feel free to have a look around the CMAP website www.cmap.org.uk and there's a blog there which will keep you informed of our work. Also, you can find out more about Juconi at www.juconi.org.ec and last but by no means least, I would be happy to answer any of your questions or give you more information if you'd like to email me. My address is oliviasixsmith@gmail.com.

I am most grateful that you have taken the time to look over my page and I hope that you decide to contribute to my fundraising efforts.

Kindest regards,

Olivia

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