Ecuador Project Hope

100%  of your donation goes to feeding & supporting the forgotten Elders in Cotacachi, Ecuador

A Nourishing Meal for Everyone

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Wichana Foundation Alliance

Place of Hope is very pleased to announce a formal alliance with Wichana Foundation, who will serve as our fiscal sponsor organization in the US. Donations made to Place of Hope through Wichana will be tax-deductible for US individuals and corporations, which we hope will expand our donor base and create greater income stability for the program. If tax-deductibility would be a benefit for you, please visit the Wichana website by clicking here, and make your donation via PayPal, debit or credit card.  If you'd like to learn more about the Wichana Foundation and all of their partner programs, please click here.
Our other donation channels will continue to be available: our Ecuadorprojecthope.com website, cash donations through our volunteer network, and at Micky's Place thriftshop at Coocoo's Nest plaza. We also welcome donation of sellable items at Micky's Place.
Thanks to the Wichana Foundation, and its Cotacachi board member, Deborah Urku May, for its vote of confidence to include Place of Hope as one of its sponsored organizations!

Peter Bernstein, President of the Wichana Foundation, and friends

Our Beginnings 

Micky Enright founded Place of Hope in Cotacachi, Ecuador to address the nutritional and health needs of the city’s poor and neglected indigenous elders. Since its founding, the program has provided over 75,000 meals and become an integral part of life for hundreds of local residents who, in many cases, have little or no other source of food or medical attention.


Since August 2019, we have all undergone great challenges to the program and to our personal connections with the program. The health crisis and passing in April 2020 of our dear Founder, Micky Enright, created an emotional and practical vacuum that has been difficult to fill. It has taken many months for the Board to discover and re-assign the many duties that Micky herself managed over the years. The arrival of the global pandemic in 2020 has created additional challenges about whom to serve, and how, and with what resources.

Micky Enright

Our Progress

By providing over 15,000 meals a year, our program has become well-known in Cotacachi for its respectful and affectionate attention to the elders, and is highly appreciated by local organizations, communities and barrios.


Our traditional model of sit-down breakfast had to be suspended in March 2020, in compliance with local municipal prohibitions of social gatherings and under a legal mandate from the Presidents of the local community and Barrio San Jose, out of shared concern that the gatherings would increase risk of viral contagion for the vulnerable elders.


As in most other countries, COVID cases have continued to expand steadily in Ecuador, despite recommended precautions; so for the foreseeable future, we will have to invent new ways of helping our many neighbors who are suffering from simultaneous shortages of jobs, money, and food. With the official ending of the national state of emergency in Ecuador on September 15th, we are now able to resume providing some food assistance at our kitchen site, but on a reduced scale, owing to declines in donations.

How We Have Served the Community

As well as providing nutritious breakfasts Monday through Friday, year-round, Place of Hope has also provided:

  • Take-out sandwiches every Friday, so people will have something to eat on Saturday (donated)
  • Vitamin supplements and non-prescription medications (donated)
  • Assistive devices such as canes, eyeglasses and walkers (donated)
  • Weekly laundry and access to donated clothing
  • Weekly showers

 Photo Courtesy of David Sasaki

In Addition...

We farm a half-acre plot of land year-round, to grow corn, beans and vegetables that are used to supplement the foods we buy at the local market. The elders enjoy doing all the associated work of organic recycling, soil preparation, sowing, weeding, and harvesting.


And...

We receive valuable corporate support from Jet Blue airlines, which donates round-trip airline tickets from Ecuador to anywhere in the United States they fly.


Tickets are raffled as an important additional source of contributions. The airport Staff from Quito also drive to Cotacachi periodically with a van full of other donations (blankets, canes, walkers, etc.) that can be sold or used by our indigenous neighbors. Bravo, Jet Blue!


We receive donations from individual fundraisers organized by our local volunteers and musical ensembles.

 More About US 

Our History

2020 Update – The Year in Review

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2020 Update – The Year in Review

November 2020 Update – Growing Donations Expand Breakfasts to 3 Days a Week!

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November 2020 Update – Growing Donations Expand Breakfasts to 3 Days a Week!

October 2020 Update – Resuming Onsite Breakfast Services!

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October 2020 Update – Resuming Onsite Breakfast Services!
Donate Now

Please help us with your Continuing Donations...

Your generosity is vital to our continued success.  Please consider making a donation today, knowing all proceeds go directly into the operation of the program with NO administration fees.

Thank You!

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