The Trust
Wealthy country but poor population
Oil rich but 70% below the povert line.
Major exporter of bananas but generalised malnutrition.
!
They too want to dream
You might not change the world
but
You can change a person’s life.
Ag obrachadh comhla airson an t’saoghail
Tired hearing of poverty? They are tired of being poor
The Scottish International Solidarity Trust is a tribute to the generosity of the people of the Islands and Highlands of Scotland; a manner of facilitating and channeling donations to poor people in underdeveloped countries and of consolidating and extending social and community development in the parish of St Joseph the Worker in Ecuador.
A Directory of four people has been established, two on mainland Scotland and two on the Western Isles. They are the persons responsible for the Trust. It is hoped that an associate membership of contributors and those who wish to be associated with the cause can be established. A web page is being launched to receive suggestions from and to respond to the questions of the public. We are confident that if we cannot change the whole world we can change the lives of a considerable number of people.
!Adelante, ni un paso atrás! – Forward, not a solitary step back!
In 1985 I first entered a shanty town, my future parish of some 80,000 parishioners. The situation was grim; the poverty and the oppression alarming. With your help the people have been liberated and the shanty town no longer exists.
Towns are formed in Ecuador when, in defiance of the law, large numbers of people move into an area of land on the edge of the big cities and squat there. By 2005 my barrio-parish had been transformed. It was time to move. I am now accompanying another invasion of some 50,000. It is like starting all over again, and as if in a different country.
I am no longer on the andes but on the coastal plane on the border of Guayaquil, the chief seaport of Ecuador. Let us work together to overcome the poverty and deprivation of these poor people.
During the dry season the dust never settles; during the wet season the mud never dries but beyond the dust and the mud there is a kind, gentle and friendly people who want to have you also as part of their family.