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Ecuadorian Shelter Provides for Homeless Boys

Diocesan Press Service. December 1, 1968 [71-4]

NEW YORK, N.Y. -- Pepe is ten. Until recently he spent his days wandering the streets of Guayaquil, Ecuador, in search of food to fill his empty stomach and his nights in doorways -- quiet, sheltered doorways if he was lucky.

Today life is different. He eats three meals a day, every day; sleeps in a bed of his own with clean sheets and warm blankets; and has people who care about him. He no longer spends his days in endless wandering, but in learning how to read and write and how to work with his hands.

Along with 32 other boys, he lives at El Albergue de Cristo Rey (The Shelter of Christ the King). They are the lucky ones who have been found by the Rev. Raymond Riebs, an Episcopal missionary, and the founder of El Albergue and its program.

"Padre Raymundo" has been spending his nights in search of Guayaquil's homeless boys since September of 1967. He saw the plight of these boys and decided to do something about it, taking a step no one else had taken.

El Albergue began in a one-room apartment with the first group of boys Padre Raymundo persuaded to leave their doorways. Since that time it has outgrown these inadequate quarters and moved into a three-story house.

This move has doubled the capacity of El Albergue and provided the needed space for an ongoing educational program. El Albergue has its own school during the morning and a manual arts program during the afternoon. The school was be- gun when it became clear that the boys could not immediately adjust to public school. Some of the boys had no previous education. Others had forgotten. None had any idea of how to study.

With the growth in facilities and program has come a corresponding growth in staff. El Albergue's first staff member, the superintendent, has been joined by an assistant. The school is run by a full-time teacher who is assisted by a Peace Corps volunteer, and the newest staff member, a manual arts teacher, is responsible for the afternoon sessions during which the boys learn carpentry, shoe repairing and tailoring.

The government provides a social worker who tries to find out where the boys live and whether they can return to their families. The boys have often run away from their homes or been abandoned. Some have been taken from their homes by truck drivers who promise money for assistance in loading and unloading. Too soon they have found themselves alone in Guayaquil with no money and no way of returning home.

The local community, too, aids El Albergue. A local brewery pays the teacher's salary. Several community groups provide money or equipment from time to time. The local newspaper has brought the project to the attention of all.

Since the shelter has opened, 85 boys have come and gone. Some returned to their homes; others returned to the streets, unable to stand a disciplined life. Thirty three boys remain and are given a home.

Before Padre Raymundo founded El Albergue, the homeless boys of Guayaquil had no hope. Now, even if only for a few, there is hope again.