Easter 2022 Newsletter

Bienvenidos

Welcome to this Easter 2022 Newsletter, which keeps you up to date with everything that has been going on lately in the Martin Chambers Ecuador Trust Charity. Without doubt, we live in troubled times because of Covid and because of wars and violence. We pray for peace throughout the world… long-lasting peace. The images of families fleeing war and violence in Ukraine this year has reminded us that many families live without the basic necessities of life.

This reminds us of our friends in Ecuador who also live without the basic necessities of life. As we celebrate the Feast of Easter – a time of new hope – let us pray that our friends in Ecuador and people throughout our world will feel hope rising in their hearts as we reach out to them.

  • Bienvenidos

  • Message from Parish Priest

  • Prison Riots in Guayaquil

  • School Project: Dr Luis Arzube School

  • Hot Meals in Guayaquil

  • School Project: Sagrada Familia School

  • Food Parcels in Portoviejo

  • Monthly Draw

  • And Finally…

Message from Parish Priest

The following message was received from Fr. Luis Palacios, the Parish Priest of Nueva Prosperina Parish:

“I am Luis Palacios, priest from the Archdiocese of Guayaquil. I have been the Parish Priest of “Preciosisima Sangre de Jesucristo” Church and the chaplain of “Sagrada Familia” School for the past 18 months. The place where I live is Nueva Prosperina. It’s a neighbourhood that has many socio-economic issues: poverty, robbery, drugs, broken homes, etc. Because of this, the work done at both the school and the church is very important in order to help our young people avoid any vices that may destroy their lives.  My experience in these past months has been wonderful. The people who surround me have a very good heart and they are always willing to work and help those in need. We know that we cannot drop our guard if we want Christ to rule in all of our hearts and in our community.

Nevertheless, there has been no shortage of sadness. Due to the pandemic almost half of the students have stopped coming to school. Many of our students did not have the internet service which would have allowed them to connect to school for virtual classes. Some others could not afford the school fees because their parents lost their jobs during the pandemic.

However, we carry on with a lot of enthusiasm and hope. We know we are not going to be defeated by the adversities. And we are deeply grateful for the enormous help we get from you, our Scottish friends. We count on your prayers.”

School Project – Dr. Luis Arzube School

For the last couple of years, the Ecuador Trust has been supporting a second school community close by Nueva Prosperina. The school is called ‘Dr. Luis Arzube’ and was established by Fr. Tom Oates, a Boston priest. At the moment, it is run by Sister Flor who sent us this message to give an update about what is happening at the school: Our school was created on 2nd May 2009 by Archbishop Arregui of Guayaquil and Fr. Tom Oates, our beloved founder Parish Priest. At the beginning we only had three teachers and we started with only a primary one, primary two and primary three class. Over the years we have grown and, just before the pandemic, we had primary one to primary seven classes with around 400 pupils.

The motivation to establish the school was because of the great poverty in the area where we live and where the families are desperate to help their children grow in life and in the faith. The local Church of the Archdiocese helped us to build each of the classrooms but the parents have got themselves together over the years with various fundraising activities to make sure that the classrooms are kept in good condition and suitable for the children’s education.

Because of Covid, we faced new challenges. Some families in our area do not have a reliable electricity supply and others cannot afford a computer/laptop. This has meant that our school roll has fallen by half and we have had to lay off several of our teachers. However, we would like to thank our friends in the Ecuador Trust for supporting us through these difficult times. We keep you always in our prayers of thanksgiving. Gracious, muchas gracious!

Read the full Easter 2021 Newsletter here:


A4 Newsletter Easter 2022-compressed