Cuentamelo Todo ...

The Cuentamelo Todo team

Plaza San Francisco is historically Ecuador's market place – already before the Spanish arrived, people from the Pacific coast, the Andes and the Amazons gathered in this part of Quito to trade their goods. Though no official market is currently held here, the plaza continues to be a hub of activity. Every day formal and informal vendors share this space with tourists, shoe shiners and plenty of pigeons under the shadow of the Franciscan complex.

Many of the faces one sees here belong to children. Some polish shoes, busk, sell ice creams and sweets. Others are here because their parents work in the plaza. Some go to school, others don't. Some have a home to go back to and others don't. It is these kids that we, Cuentamelo Todo's team, come to meet every Wednesday and Thursday.

The idea is to engage with them and create new opportunities from the street, their known space. To give them a chance to play together, read and paint but also to talk about their rights as children.

We do so by bringing over books for them to read, by telling and enacting stories with them, and by giving them tools to play.

There is also another key element to our project. Cuentamelo Todo effectively works as a platform, linking the kids and their families with institutions matching their needs – be it shelter, food, education, health care or legal counseling.

We'll be updating this blog weekly after our meetings, so watch this space ...