Photo: CFCT fellows met Casa Fidal

Quito, July 22, 2016

Drafting Fidal

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Fidal's house in Quito was the meeting place on the final observation tour of the Tungurahua Training Center. The fellows shared their time with the Foundation's collaborators and received training from Microsoft on new digital tools.

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The Tungurahua Citizen Training Center (CFCT) has been a free public service in the province for 10 years and in 2015 it was awarded the Nôus for Educational Excellence, which FIDAL awards each year to initiatives that significantly contribute to the country's education. For almost 5 years, the CFCT has established itself in the citizenship training of young people from the nine cantons of the province. The scholarship holders are students from Tungurah 16 to 18 years of age, mostly from rural areas.

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Members of cantonal rights protection groups, mayors of those cantons and rectors of schools prospect outstanding young people and invite them to participate in the program, as a form of reward for their efforts.

Its organizers work to provide scholarship recipients with a different opportunity that allows them to see the world with a better panorama, that they are motivated to achieve their dreams and that are promoters of the reduction of social gaps, solidarity commitment and participatory leadership.

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Among other attitudes, young people learn about leadership, democracy, capacity building, business and productive entrepreneurship. Around 40 boys meet once a week and complete three months of experiential workshops. They end with this observation tour, to strengthen other initiatives, meet other young people of their age with other ideas, to have a broader view of the world and break their own barriers.

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María Isabel Peñaherrera and Diego Montalvo, Microsoft collaborators in Ecuador, presented to the young people the tools that could facilitate the way of learning, work and entrepreneurship of the new Tungurahuense leaders. They learned the use of OneDrive, Word, Excel, Powerpoint, OneNote, among other digital applications.

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The vice-prefect of Tungurahua, Cecilia Chacón, thinks that these programs have helped the growth of her province, since several scholarship holders today are part of the parish councils, form new social groups and activate culture in their respective canton.

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“That they are more integrated into community life, without forgetting that they are young, without forgetting their dreams, their commitments and that they transmit to other young people the need to participate in processes of citizenship, awareness of their responsibility and improvement of human quality of the Tungurahuenses ”, said Chacón.

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In 2016, three complete programs were made, however for next year, the vice-prefect aspires to generate four work groups that fill the 2017 calendar, which means reaching approximately 160 young people.