Freedom at the tip of a finger...

With the tip of a thumb appears a fish, a dog, a cyclist,
a house ....an entire new world

This week we invited Miguel Yanez, a local Ecuadorian artist, to come and share his painting technique with the children. He dipped a finger in paint and showed them how easily one can sketch a dog, a fish or a man. The kids listened attentively and all poured together onto a big board, excited about having their own go.

One big theme we are working on is solidarity, and we saw it in action when the kids all painted together on the board under Miguel's guidance – with some of the older ones showing the younger ones how to sketch.

The greatest commotion came when we handed out individual small canvasses we had prepared for them out of cardboard.

Paula drew a house with a tree, Divina small blue flowers, Leo spread a thick layer of paint on the canvas with his whole hand, while Ana used the colours to write down the name of her favourite band – Linkin Park.

The initial plan was to create a story from their drawings based on the first article of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which includes the ideas of equality, freedom and solidarity. But as the sky rumbled on into its winter season and the children kept asking for more canvasses, we decided to take up Miguel's offer to follow up with the stories in a forthcoming session. If you want to find out about Miguel's work, check out his website: http://www.miguelyanez.com

Next week, the Defensoria del Pueblo, a leading Ecuadorian human rights institution, will be introducing the concept of rights to our kids: what is a right, what it represents for a child and the responsibilities that go hand in hand with it.

...Keep on watching this space!

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 ...