ARGENTINAEcuador - Fundación Jesús Divino Preso
The organization is dedicated to rescuing children from prisons, where by different circumstances they are confined with their parents.
They receive the children in a temporary home under the close supervision of an “aunt” and provide them with a warm, nurturing atmosphere
while their parents serve their sentences. Their mission is to provide children who would otherwise live in prison, with love, care, a formal
education, and above all, a window of opportunity to become good, honest contributing members of the society.
The Children
In Ecuador, children often must accompany their parents in prison for lack of another care giver. Although the prison authorities have made efforts
to re-locate the children in other institutions, they have had very little success. This is in part due to the stigmatization to these children as spawns
of criminals and the inability to attend to their particular needs. As an effect, the children tend to escape to live on the streets or they return
to their parents in jail. In prison the conditions of these children’s lives are inadequate for their health and development.
They live in cramped cells, without basic sanitary facilities, they share their mother’s rations and they are constantly exposed to both physical
and psychological abuse. The children suffer al kinds of problems: infections, malnutrition, they have low self esteem, they have below average mental
development and they drop out of school and have aggressive behavior.
For more information, please visit the website at www.jesusdivinopreso.org
