MISSION SANTA MARIA

Mission Santa Maria is dedicated to helping impoverished, abused, and neglected Ecuadorian children receive high quality education. For over 17 years we have partnered with local organizations to create a santuary for children living in extreme poverty and vulnerability. We believe that alleviating poverty begins with faith and love and continues through education, conmbined with long-term challenge and support into professional and family life. Our programs include Esperanza Home for Children, a residential foster home; Santa Maria del Fiat, a K-12 semiprivate school, and Post High School opportunities. Our goal is that the care and holistic education children receive through these programs will lift them out of poverty and into dignified, sustainable livelihoods. All children placed in Esperanza Home for Children arrive after surviving abuse or neglect and remain there until they can safely return to their families, live with relatives, or are adopted. Children may live at Esperanza until age eighteen. The home is run by missionary sisters who have dedicated their lives to creatiing a safe, loving environment while providing daily meals, clothing, medical care, education, and emotional support. An onsite team of psychologists and social workers further support each childs healing and development. Above all, the consistent love and care provided by the sisters is the most important factor in the childrens recovery and progress. Mission Santa Maria partners with Esperanza Home to cover the full cost of education for every child living at the home, including school tuition, uniforms, and school supplies. Some children arrive having never attended school. To support their education, Mission Santa Maria provides totors and homeschooling support until they are ready to enter Santa Maria del Fiat School. We also fund additional staff and special projects to alleviate caregiver burden and ensure children receive individualized attention. Mission Santa Maria maintains an emergency food fund to guarantee that children always have access to meals and respond to urgent needs as they arise. In 2025, Mission Santa Maria expanded its support at Esperanza Home by funding school tuition, uniforms, and school supplies for 70 children. We supported six staff members serving the home, including tutors and kitchen and laundry staff to ensure childrens daily needs and educational progress were met. Mission Santa Maria continued and strenghthened its emergency food fund, which was expanded in 2024, ensuring food security for the children throughout the year. We also funded extracurricular activities for children at the home, recognizing the critical role that play, movement, and structured activities have in trauma recovery, confidence building and healthy development. Santa Maria del Fiat is a semiprivate preschool through secondary school that has served the surrounding community for 27 years and is widely regarded as one of the best schools in Santa Elena Province. The school educates over 1,200 students, some of whom travel up to 90 minutes one way by bus each day to attend. Mission Santa Maria has been a longtime partner of Santa Maria del Fiat, providing scholarships for children whose families cannot afford the $25 per month tuition. In addition to scholarships, Mission Santa Maria provides general operating support to help the school remain financially viable. As a semiprivate school, the government pays most teacher salaries but also mandates tuition limits, staffing requirements, and minimum salaries. These regulations create a structural deficit, making it impossible for the school to cover operating costs through tuition alone. Mission Santa Maria helps cover this deficit to ensure the school remains open and continues serving vulnerable families. We are also deeply invested in maintaining and improving the quality of education offered at the school. In 2025, Mission Santa Maria significantly expanded support at Santa Maria del Fiat in response to the deterioration of the local economy and its impact on families. The number of students receiving full scholarships increased to 270 students. We funded computer classes and a new computer lab, expanding students access to essential digital skills. Mission Santa Maria supported four English teachers, increasing total English instructional hours during the school day and piloting a new after-school English program to further strengthen language acquisition. The Scholarship PLUS Program was expanded to provide monthly food and bus fare support to 42 families, addressing ongoing food insecurity and the costs of getting children to school. Additionally, Mission Santa Maria equipped 161 students with school supplies, textbooks, and uniforms to ensure students could fully participate in school without added financial strain on their families. Mission Santa Marias Post-High School Opportunities Program is designed to ensure that students not only graduate but sucessfully transition into dignified, stable employment. Through partnerships with universities and industry leaders, we support students pursuing higher education, technical training, and workforce-ready careers. In 2025, Mission Santa Maria celebrated a major milestone; the first graduating class of the two-year Mechatronics Engineering Program. All five graduates were hired immediaately upon completion of the program, demonstrating the strength of the training and the alignment with local labor market needs. We currently support six additional students enrolled in the Mechatronics Engineering Program. In response to workforce demand and the need to expand employment opportunities for young women, Mission Santa Maria also launched a professional driving program in 2025. This pilot program supports six young women as they work toward professional driving licenses, with the goal of securing employment operating heavy equipment at regional shipping ports by the end of 2026. Across all post-secondary initiatives, Mission Santa Maria currently supports 20 university students, including participants in the DP World-supported program and students pursuing traditional university majors. Through academic guidance, financial assistance, and partnerships with employers, these programs are designed to bridge the gap between education and meaningful employment.