History:

Since 1990, Esquel has contributed to the formulation of an alternative model of development.  However, our experience has not been based solely on a single model but rather a group of models that have emerged through 438 executed projects, through alliances with 532 effective partners, and through work in all the provinces in the country’s four regions. Across these models, implemented at the social base, and the vast majority under adverse conditions, our operative alliances have created the strength needed to promote sustainable human development, to empower excluded populations (particularly children/youth, women, and indigenous groups), to promote modernization, reform, and democratization of civil society and the State, to integrate the “budding nation” that is Ecuador, and to promote a new citizenry ethic in various spaces of intervention, particularly in urban and rural settings.

A consolidated and quantitative look at our global results reveal that our 438 projects

• have directly benefited 682,559 people, and indirectly benefited an estimated 1,248,099;
• have trained 352,430 people through 11,141 formative events and the release of 433 distributed products;
• have provided 2,027 scholarships to 640 scholars with an investment of $511,893.15;
• have intervened in 1,202 educative bodies and 2,950 organizations, while promoting the creation of 255 new organizations and 51 networks;
• have generated 1,449 jobs;
• have created 43 micro-businesses;
• have created 151 productive ventures (commercial, artisan, tourism ventures); and,
• have created about 1,455 sustainable agricultural ventures (orchards, nurseries, seedbeds, hatcheries).

14,592 credits have been channeled for an amount of $2,017,964 and set aside for risk investment is an additional $792,876.46.

Furthermore, some 32,081 people have been helped in regards to health, and 338 new pieces of infrastructure and homes have been constructed.

During our nearly seventeen years of intervention our work has had major impact and reach which has further been seen in the impact it has had on public policy. If such interventions continue to achieve so much, without a doubt, Ecuador would have the ability to leave behind poverty within a generation, and a democratic culture and institutions could finally be consolidated.

Philosphy of our work 
   
Esquel is a private non-profit civil society organization that deeply believes in the people and their capacity to build their own future.

Our objective is to contribute so that Ecuadorians may build solidarity and construct a responsible, democratic society that reaches sustainable and humane development, and to guarantee a quality life for the poorest people in society.

We believe that there is no development without democracy, nor democracy without development. Because of this, Esquel promotes, supplies, and creates new forms of participation that favor good government, dialog, and the reaching of agreements. Hence when traditional philosophy reaches its limits, Esquel´s proposal begins and donors pay into the ground of solidarity for change. So, we transform the act of philanthropy into a space of responsibility, for social actors that are touched by social inequality.

We have directed our energy at this promotion of democracy and development, taking into consideration the cultural and natural diversity of the areas we work in. We believe that the achievements of our work are sustained because of sustained strategies for constructing capacities and networks, through the formation of human capital and through social responsibility.

We understand that a responsible society is one in which each one of its actors, devoid of their own particular interests, assumes the collective well-being as the superior being. As such, diverse groups have been able to find that those that live in poverty and those with suitable strategies can become the protagonists for development, and those who have had better opportunities can support their group. We believe firmly that everyone is in the same boat. 

Through Esquel´s work experience we have come to understand the potential of dialog as a way to permit the construction of the citizenry; and to construct citizenry is the best way to consolidate democracy and development. For this, the need for an alliance between the State, the private sector, and civil society is recognized as a development option whose priority it is to elevate the quality of life; the most important result of an integral intervention.

To manage development, local and national processes need to be stressed, and projects need to be framed in this idea. It is essential to work with grassroots organizations, government, indigenous persons, mestizos, afro-Ecuadorians, women, and children.  This is to say, with all actors working together, they are the carriers of a wealth of alternatives which can confront the challenges of the country. 

In this perspective Esquel prioritizes its work and impact in four fields:

1. Democracy and citizen formation
2. Local development
3. Local economic development
4. Social responsibility