We are the oldest female institution of volunteers in Guayaquil, because 127 years ago, in 1878, a group of Guayaquilean ladies, moved by the pain and misery left by the civil war to many orphans and widows, decided to take the challenge of helping  those innocent victims. They were immerse in an unjust pain, and resigned to have no future because all they could do was just to calm their children’s hunger. Strongly determined, these heroic ladies counted with the providential help and the impulse of the bishop Jose Maria del Pozo, who was the principal of the Jesuits at that time. He encouraged them to fund what today is the Society of Charity of Guayaquil Ladies (SBS –initials in Spanish) with the principal mission of assisting poor people.

I would like to start by setting the Chilean experience in context, since this experience is peculiar in some aspects. The first of them is the last president elections in Chile which the Parties for Democracy Union won for the fourth time. In that period, the annual average economic growth has been 6%, and maybe the most important part is that the poverty has dropped from 47% to 16% during the year 2004, and there are expectations for a lower rate: 12% or 14% for the next year. What is behind all this?  There is a coalition with a strategy that, being respectful with the way the markets work and trying to make them competitive, has shown a great macroeconomic discipline, specially a fiscal one. This coalition has privileged the institutional and political stability, and it has also shown a new trait in the region: a bet for international insertion. Chileans are not deluded, and we don’t ignore the threatens and dangers  that the globalization has; but  we also understand that there are opportunities that this dynamic world brings, and we should take advantage of them.

This is a unique and unforgettable land cruise vacation to a part of the world that is so close but yet so far to many! This is a trip that is “off the beaten track” and takes you into the exotic, the unexpected, and into a world where you will meet extraordinary people and experience fabulous sights, sounds, events and places. These are adventures to which no one would normally have access. More information: www.exoticlandcruise.com

Ecuador is a country fourteen times bigger than El Salvador, the Ecuadorian coast is nine times bigger than ours, and finally, Ecuador has a lot of natural resources different from El Salvador that does not have any natural resource such as oil, gas or any other to help in its economy. However, we also have some similarities, such as:  The American dollar is also Salvador’s currency, the same as Ecuador; Ecuador has a high level risk to natural disasters as well as Salvador (in 2001 Salvador was destroyed by two earthquakes within two months), we have very similar strategy interests regarding to bilateral relationship with USA. El Salvador is the third most important point to fight drug dealing, and the same as Manta we have a North American military head quarter to monitor this system.