After full lockdown in 2020, the community intervention work carried out by the team at JUCONI Ecuador, in both Socio Vivienda 2 and San Francisco, has resumed at different times of the day. Initially, groups of ten, then fifteen children, were able to attend meetings outside that gave them the opportunity to express the emotions that they had experienced during the months of confinement. This feedback also helped staff to identify protection strategies in cases where the children felt that they remained in danger due to COVID-19. 

The children were very happy when they returned to their community ‘safe space’ for these meetings, because until then, it was the only place where they had been allowed to go outside their homes. In total, one hundred and eighty-eight boys and girls attended meetings and activities with their peers, as well as thirty two parents at community level and fifty teachers.

In the past, there were no community safe spaces in Socio Vivienda 2 and San Francisco, so JUCONI staff have had to find and adapt available land. In Socio Vivienda 2 for example, a field has gradually been adapted that now includes a roof to protect the children from the sun and wash basins to promote hand washing hygiene. Post lockdown, parents were also committed to helping to clean up this space and to make small changes so that their children could attend the workshops again.