The Story of Los Niños de Mojandita
Each time we visited Ecuador we brought toys and supplies for the children of the staff of Casa Mojanda. On one trip in 2014, we became friendly with an airport driver who shared that he was also a basketball coach at a local high school and desperately needed sneakers for the poor children at his school. He also spoke of his father who was a beloved teacher at an indigenous school in a remote village high up in the Andes Mountains. He told us that anything we could bring for those children would also be greatly appreciated.
So, before our scheduled next trip, we collected donations of sneakers, school supplies, stuffed animals and clothing. We presented the sneakers to the high school students and the other donations were given to the children up in the mountains at their community Christmas holiday celebration. The high school students collectively thanked us and sent letters of gratitude for our contributions. The indigenous community prepared a homemade meal consisting of potatoes, meat, fava beans and oatmeal milk to express their gratitude. Their response fueled us to do more.
In 2015, another driver heard about our interest in helping the indigenous and poor communities and told us that his wife worked at the local elementary school (Guillermo Garzon Ubidia) at the base of Mojanda hills. We were brought there to speak to her and the director. They shared their need for much support because the government provided limited funds and the families of these children were quite poor. They needed a tile floor for 
one of the classrooms which was cracked concrete. In February 2016, we purchased the tiling materials and were assured that the families of the children would lay the floor. Not only did they lay the flooring, but they also painted the walls yellow and were so delighted to have a brightly renovated classroom.
Our next project was to bring donations of over 100 Spanish storybooks for all the classrooms. We asked the director to provide a wish list of other necessary items which included musical instruments, toothpaste, toothbrushes, computer paper, glue, paint, paintbrushes, markers, chalk, calculators, textbooks, and pencils. We returned in the end of August 2016 to provide the school with all the supplies for the upcoming year (many donated from Scholastic book fairs, Crayola, and private contributions). These were distributed amongst all the classrooms and shown to the children when they returned to school in September.
Soon after making the donations it became clear that a critical part of the success of our idea had to include actual instruction for the children and for their teachers.
