1994-2004
Growth in our health department included a Medical Laboratory and a Health Promotors' educational program for parents.
We organized a “Business School” to complement the education and production services of our shops. Here we taught the relationship between good presentation of products and successful sales. We prepared adults and young people in small business management courses and made loans to graduates of the courses.
In 2002 the WBC received the donation of the building and program “Gota de Leche”, as an initiative of Mrs. Maruja Fernandez Salvador Maynard. The beneficiaries of this program are the children under three years old with denutrition. They receive milk daily, medical attention and a training program for their mothers.
I WAS MOTIVATED TO BECOME A NEW MAN
Carlos Gómez, Working Boys' Center Graduate and now Director of the Working Boys' Center
“I was shining shoes in Quito's main plaza in 1964. A friend invited me to join the Working Boys' Center and there I began primary school; I didn't like studying, was rebellious, constantly escaped back to the plaza with my buddies. With a lot of patience and with a firm, but loving, hand Father John motivated me to want to become a new man.”
In 1980, after completing his grade and high school education, Carlos joined the team of directors of the Working Boys' Center Movement. In 1990 he obtained a Kellogg International Leadership Fellowship as part of the first group in Latin America.
“Feeling affection is the basis for changing attitudes and taking charge of your own life; for me, this is what makes the Working Boys' Center different. The love, the respect and the solidarity along with the discipline and the rules are values that are promoted here every day.”