In December 2024, I returned to Ecuador with my Peruvian wife, Lita, and visited a school for poor children run by the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul, that we have been privately supporting.

This middle income nation has been in a national crisis for more than 12 months. The President’s declaration of a State of Emergency in January 2024, when we first arrived in Quito, was because of soaring violence instigated by cocaine gangs. The insatiable demand for cocaine in western countries like Australia, which is an increasingly attractive destination for traffickers, is causing havoc for Ecuador, Peru and Colombia.

Encountering machine gun-bearing Ecuadorian soldiers on the streets of Quito’s centre, which is a World Heritage area, was a shock. Just as disconcerting was returning to the city in December to find the streets in total darkness because of daily power rationing. Ecuador has been pummelled by an extraordinary drought, exacerbated by global warming, that has engulfed much of South America, drying rivers and reservoirs and putting the country’s power grid on the brink of collapse. Since September, daily energy cuts have lasted as long as 14 hours!

If that isn’t enough, Ecuador, like Peru, has a poverty rate of around 30 per cent (a decade earlier, it was double that), which means around 5.5 million of its population of around 18 million are still earning under USD $90 per capita per month.

It is gratifying to know that the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SSVP) in Ecuador has been doing its best to respond to these challenging circumstances. They have thirteen conferences across Ecuador, although meetings have been suspended because of the State of Emergency, which includes a curfew.

SSVP Ecuador is much smaller and under-resourced compared to Australia. There is insufficient income to maintain a strong administration and they have no retail arm, with their only source of income being donations from local parishes and businesses, with some overseas support, mostly from the USA. The Government doesn’t provide any support.

Nonetheless, in close collaboration with the Daughters of Charity and the Vincentian priests, both very active in Ecuador, the Conferences provide support to the most vulnerable in Ecuador including delivering groceries for low income families and elderly people and volunteering at orphanages.

A highlight of our visit was to be taken to see the Middle of the World complex where the equator runs through Quito. Symbolically, I felt this shows how the Society encompasses both halves of the world, assisting people in need wherever they live. It was a thrill to be photographed with a foot in each hemisphere.