The Guayaquil Mission

With the hundreds, if not thousands, of non-profit organizations currently in existence, it seems unlikely that yet another could make much difference. This is especially true for small non-profits trying to get a start. No matter where you turn, there are always donation requests. Seems an unlikely environment in which to succeed , right?

The Guayaquil Mission, however, begun merely five years ago, has disproven this speculation. Begun by a small, ordinary American family, since its inception, it has changed the outlook for a small town in Ecuador. Guayaquil's standard of living has dramatically increased, giving its inhabitants hope for a better future.

And all it took was a little inspiration from a family trip to Ecuador.

The Shaver family is one of many families in which one of the parents is American, the other, another nationality. Due to Anna’s Ecuadorian background, the family has been traveling to Ecuador fairly often. It was during these many trips that they would notice the inconsistencies between their own life in America and the life of those in Ecuador.

"My wife would come back depressed from seeing all those poor kids on the streets asking for food," said Mike Shaver.

So the couple began seeking ways to begin some kind of project that would aid the people of Guayaquil, Ecuador. Luckily, Mike Shaver was already involved in SEA-El Carmen, an organization already involved in international projects.

Only one key obstacle remained to resolve: how to get funding.

They sought assistance from their church in Houston, St. Vincent de Paul, and soon found it in their fellow members. Together, they came up with the idea of collecting used clothes to raise funds. Having been successful, they took their first trip to Ecuador to benefit the people in Guayaquil where they distributed sandwiches and food packages to the needy.

It was here that they made their first encounter with a priest in Guayaquil: Pedro Riasco. Also passionate about improving the people’s living conditions, he came up with the idea of starting a toy drive that would provide toys during Christmastime for the children. This, too, was a successful venture, and yet they all still were yearning to more for the community.

Thus, they began planning a grand plan that would include a school and clinic. This, however, would take much more money than they had thus far raised, and more help than money as well. They would need land, resources, materials, a staff, and people they could trust to create the school.

Through hard work and persistent dedication, they were able to obtain the deeds to two plots of land in Guayaquil from the government, on the condition that the school was up and running within two years.

They sought the assistance of the administrative coordinator of the church, Sister Virginia. She was hesitant to endorse the program, so Anna and Mike Shaver decided to take her on a trip to Ecuador to see the situation for herself. “She was devastated to see people living in these conditions,” said Mike Shaver.

From then on, they had the full support of the church administration, who helped organize both a charity dinner and set up a donation system for the Guayaquil Mission, as it became known. Just from a direct appeal to the congregations during mass, they managed to fundraise $43,000, and with the other fundraisers, they were able to collect enough money to begin the construction of the school.

After hiring the necessary professionals, buying the materials (as well as having some donated by generous people), they were able to build the first part of the school which featured six classrooms. They had just a bit of money left over to pay select women from the town to become the first-ever teacher staff at the school.

Since then, the program has expanded to include a clinic as well and has inspired more people from St. Vincent de Paul to begin fundraising for their own causes. These days, they still depend entirely on donations from the general population and generate interest by holding Ecuadorian Craft Sales in various places. They recently had their first at St. Edward’s University, where they raised $3,000 over three days, enough to continue paying the teachers at the school.

What’s inspiring about this story is that it was simply a small family dedicated to making a difference in others’ lives. “When we first started and were doing used clothes sales, we had people saying, ‘You can’t do that, you’re only collecting $40 in a day,” said Mike Shaver. However, taking no heed of this negative criticism, they managed to create a highly successful program that has helped many.