Mi Cometa (My Kite)

Mi Cometa is among the best programs in Latin America dedicated to community development to help children. It is a grassroots organization whose members are the inhabitants of Guasmo, a one-time shantytown, and which has made a real impact on the lives of the 15,000 people in the neighborhood.

The program was founded in 1990, when several adults were helping community children with a kite competition. One of the adults remarked that if they formalized this sort of relationship with the kids they could really transform the community, so these adults created Mi Cometa on the spot. Their work began with parties for the kids and their parents, community meetings, and trips to various parts of the city. In 1993, the program rented a house and hosted the first “community assembly,” where neighborhood members could choose leaders.

Soon afterward, Mi Cometa saw that local school buildings were in crisis, so they entered a UNICEF competition and won. They used the contest money to paint the classrooms, to reinforce the roof, and to improve the plumbing and waste systems. They did this work through the “minga,” an Ecuadorian tradition where all the members of the community come together to do important work (rather like an Amish barn raising). From that day on, the minga has been fundamental to Mi Cometa’s methodology.

After reconstructing the school buildings, Mi Cometa continued with a number of other projects: improving the neighborhood environment (by planting 10,000 fruit and shade trees along the streets and in the plazas), forming a “children’s government” in the schools and churches, and building new and better homes. In very little time, the neighborhood had changed dramatically.

In the last 12 years, Mi Cometa has created a dignified and healthy neighborhood. Guasmo is still poor, but it is no longer miserable. One can see that the people who live there, particularly the young people, think of themselves as actors, not victims.

In 2002, the continuing projects of Mi Cometa included:

1. “Building our own houses.” Similarly to Habitat for Humanity, a family that wants to improve its home commits itself to helping to rebuild it. A community minga, organized by Mi Cometa, helps the family to build a good home. In the past, the mingas have built whole houses or added second stories, but the most common work is to improve the kitchen and the bathroom. On visiting, one is impressed with the quality of the construction (with good tiles, modern sinks, and new toilets), but even more by the hygiene and cleanliness of the bathrooms and kitchens. It is obvious that the families are proud of their beautiful new homes, and they want to keep them up.
   
   When a Mi Cometa minga helps with a home, it also gives the family a new blue water tank (since water only comes several hours a day, a family must keep a tank on its roof if it wants water at any hour). Walking through Guasmo, it’s amazing to see how many of the houses have these blue tanks.
   
   From time to time, foreign volunteers come to Guasmo to help with the mingas. They are supported by the program “Adopt a Family.”
   
   
2. Micro-credit. Mi Cometa doesn’t have much capital, but it uses the money it has as a small bank, giving micro-credits to community businesses. In the past, this money has allowed people to expand corner stores or to start producing empanadas or sausages. This business development hasn’t just helped the business owned (almost always women), but also serves the whole community. Today, a student doesn’t need to take the hour long bus ride downtown just to buy a pencil or a notebook; they are available around the corner.
   
   The community bank also promotes saving, and does so in a safe way -- Ecuadorian banks are famous for their regular bankruptcies.
   
   
3. Alternative economy. Mi Cometa connects and advises local businesses to improve the efficiency of the local economy. Sometimes, it promotes barter. In other cases, it helps several producers to share a truck to the market or organizes little shops so that they can buy wholesale. Most importantly, it deconstructs the idea that people are just consumers.
   
   This project also trains community women in arts and crafts, which they can later sell at a profit.
   
   
4. Center of Technological Innovation. Mi Cometa is now (September of 2002) building a communications cybercenter. There will be an internet café for community members, a radio station, and a newspaper.
   
   One floor of the center will be dedicated to “committed tourism,” housing for foreigners who come to Guasmo to work as volunteers or to learn from Mi Cometa.
   
   
5. Lobbying. Because the members of Mi Cometa speak with one voice and can mobilize large numbers of votes, politicians listen to them. When Shine a light visited, they were demanding that the City of Guayaquil extend water and sewer into the Guasmo, but they had not yet succeeded. Mi Cometa also advocates for women’s and children’s rights.
   
   
6. Youth groups. Mi Cometa has opened a space to allow children and youth to become actors in the community. Their activities include community development (through the mingas), sex education for their peers, lobbying, and business development. When Shine a light visited, the youth group had just created its own business, “Chores.com,” which connected youth with people who needed someone to help with errands. They also have a small newspaper and run a tutoring program for neighborhood children.
   
   
7. Community and Culture. Mi Cometa organizes community parties, dances, plays, and concerts. They believe this work builds a sense of community and pride.
   
   
8. Mi Cometa helped to found the Children’s Congress and Liceo Líderes.
   

When asked how Mi Cometa had changed their lives, adults and youth gave the following answers:

1. Improvement of health and hygiene
2. Better schools and improvement in grades
3. More happiness
4. More solidarity and compassion: “We feel like we’re one family.”

One of the founders of Mi Cometa, Julieta Montsalve, wrote an eloquent essay on the experience of living in El Guasmo for the last dozen years. You can read it here.

Mi Cometa
Malecón 208 y Juan Montalvo, 3er. Piso
Guayaquil-Ecuador

Telefax: 593-4-2314438 o 593-2-2901936

Contacto: César Cárdenas <micometa@on.net.ec>

understanding social services for street kids in Latin America