Ecuador is a South American country that in recent years has been the recipient of displaced peoples from Colombia and Venezuela, its northern neighbor.

Between 1989–2022, the country granted refugee status to 73,283 individuals, the vast majority (80%) Colombian. In 2022, Colombian and Venezuelan nationals accounted for 96% of refugee applications (54% and 41%, respectively), while the remaining 5% was composed primarily of Cuban and Peruvian nationals, among others.

RET’s projects in Ecuador have focused on reducing the education gap for refugees, people in flight and exile, and host communities: From accessibility and safety to quality and post-primary education.

In 2005, RET opened its first office in Quito, establishing an on-the-ground presence to assist communities of people in flight and exile with integration and promoting quality education. In the time since, we have provided humanitarian assistance and protection as well as worked in emergency education and improving educational capacity.

Since 2022, we have been implemented the Active Search component of the Multi-Year Resilience Program (MYRP) of Education Cannot Wait (ECW) in collaboration with UNESCO. Education Cannot Wait is the United Nations’ global, billion-dollar fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises.

Our work with ECW has directly impacted students in the provinces of Pichincha, Carchi, Imbabura, Manabí, Guayas, El Oro and Azuay, and it’s allowed us to build up significant experience in innovative educational interventions.

Examples of these programs include:

• Providing opportunities to displaced youth – particularly Colombian refugees – to reduce the education gap addressing accessibility, safety and quality, and post-primary education.

• Co-leading the Education Working Group alongside UNESCO and UNICEF in 2022, as part of the broader Working Group for Migrants and Refugees (GTRM), which is led by UNHCR and IOM.

• Identifying children and adolescents outside the educational system in the provinces of Esmeraldas and Pichincha and working to reintegrate them; this project sought to reduce gaps in access to education by providing educational kits and monetary transfers to support school children and their families as part of the retention strategy.

In 2022, RET deployed an educational integration program for boys, girls and adolescents in mobility situations and host communities in Pichincha and Esmeraldas. As a result of this program:

• Around 350 girls, boys, and adolescents were reintegrated into the educational system through comprehensive services to families;

• Families received educational kits to assist with education;

• School reinforcement and psychosocial support was deployed in target communities;

• Over 450 families in vulnerable situations are now better off: They’re better equipped to ensure their children’s integration and continuation in the educational system; and

• CVA (money transfers) was distributed to 175 families with greater vulnerability to address gaps and protection risks, as a strategy for school retention.

Our regional “Routes for Equality” project focused on educational assistance to children and adolescents affected by the Venezuelan crisis, in consortium with Plan International. Through it, we helped:

• Over 500 girls, boys, and adolescents to access or support them in remaining in school – Through teaching reinforcement and support with educational kits and the accompaniment of their families; and

• Improve the conditions for integration by strengthening the capacities of 495 teachers through the deployment of the RET Methodology “Inclusive Educational Communities” and the Creando Aula (Creating a Classroom) course in alliance with Coschool.

This project targeted educational integration of 350 boys, girls and adolescents, through comprehensive services to families in human mobility, delivery of educational kits, as well as school reinforcement and psychosocial support. Over 450 families in vulnerable situations saw their capacities to improve their children’s integration into- and continuation in the educational system enhanced, and 175 families with greater vulnerability received CVA (monetary transfers) to address gaps and protection risks, as a strategy for school retention.

From 2019–2020, we worked with ECW to focus on educational access for girls, boys, and adolescents in mobility situations and host communities of Quito and Esmeraldas. This project directly impacted 523 girls, boys, and adolescents, and provided a timely response to the critical educational emergency caused by COVID-19. It also sought to reduce the digital divide by providing remedial education, and strengthening teachers’ capacities.

Having worked in Ecuador since 2005, some of our previous projects include:

UNICEF-MINEDUC Earthquake Response (2016–2017)

• We assisted with the recovery of educational actions in 61 schools and the delivery of 350 kits (school in a box).

• We provided capacity building for 400 teachers in education in emergencies (EIE) with the program “Together We Rise.”

• We also impacted the re-entry into school and the acquisition of essential learning of 9,200 girls, boys, and adolescents.

Updating coexistence codes processes with MINEDUC-UNESCO (2016–2017)

• We worked in 30 northern border schools across Esmeraldas and Sucumbíos.

U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (BPRM) (2012–2018)

• With direct funding from BPRM, we implemented one regional, multi-year program and three annual national projects in Pichincha, Esmeraldas and Sucumbíos.

• These projects included humanitarian assistance, protection mechanisms, livelihoods and socio-cultural integration, and processes for the educational inclusion of girls, boys, and adolescents in human mobility and the host community.

In Ecuador, we work in close coordination with:

• UNHCR and IOM, through the Working Group for Migrants and Refugees (GTRM), of which we have been a part since 2018; and
• UNESCO and UNICEF, with whom we co-led the Education Working Group (EWG) in 2022; RET is also part of the Humanitarian Country Team.