Our integrated approach takes into account the whole range of children’s and families’ needs. It includes early child learning and primary and adult education and good health and proper nutrition for the entire community. The Foundation’s interventions in all of these areas work together to support children and their primary caregivers thus creating healthier families and stronger communities.

The level of education offered at the Sierraflor Early Childhood Learning Center and Primary School is unmatched in the Ecuadorian countryside and even by all but the best urban schools. The facilities are ample, clean, and modern and Sierraflor has hired professional educators who are motivated to foster social change.

The education provided by Sierraflor emphasizes self-esteem, self-discovery, self-creation, efficient use and re-use of didactic resources, self-paced learning, ecology, health, and the development of values and positive habits, and the school employs a methodology based on the theories of multiple intelligences and whole languages.

The Foundation encourages parents to get involved in their children’s education because it believes that education does not stop when a child leaves the classroom but that it must be cultivated at home and in the child’s community. To this end, Sierraflor holds personal growth workshops for parents, as well as young people and other adults, covering such themes as family development, parenting, self-esteem, holistic health, and personal hygiene.

Also, Sierraflor is currently developing a Technical and Vocational Education Institute that will provide continuing education for young people and adults that will enable them to improve themselves and thus improve their families’ income and standard of living.