The Educational Foundation of Ecuador, (FUNDER), is an NGO based in Quito, Ecuador that is dedicated to offering training and education services to the most vulnerable population located in rural and marginal urban sectors throughout the country. They promote professional training and education processes for people from rural communities, so that they can access employment, boost local economies with the creation and management of competitive companies, and achieve the well-being of their families.
Founded in 2009 by the FEPP Social Group, FUNDER is committed to creating employment opportunities and strengthening labour market participants’ capacities. FUNDER also offers specialised technological proposals that integrate financial, product and service market support in order to strengthen production. This specialised approach enables indigenous communities, Afro-Ecuadorians, women, migrants and especially young people to be more empowered with knowledge of their duties and rights, allowing them to further achieve personal and community well-being.
A staff member shared with us: “Using Aflatoun and Aflateen, FUNDER has provided assistance for over 57,000 people with professional training, with over 60,000 people in a variety of specific training courses, and 20,000 receiving technical assistance for employment. Additionally, around 600 young people have participated in our Youthbuild programme.”
Our partnership
We started partnering with FUNDER in 2017. Together we have developed various training programmes, especially for teachers. In June 2020, FUNDER integrated Aflatoun Network resources and methodology to structure and implement two new virtual training programmes.
The first, ‘Intelligent Management of my Finances,’ is divided into six asynchronous sessions: Financial Intelligence, Resilient Finances, ‘I manage my finances, saving for financial wellbeing’, Financial Obligations, The National Financial System, and Resilient Entrepreneurship. The 7 week long programme is done through the Moodle platform and has had over 500 participants thus far!
The second programme, “Resilient Entrepreneurship in Times of Crisis“ is a four-week course that has over 400 participants. It teaches relevant contemporary themes in order to create awareness and practice of resilient attitudes and enhance the skills that generate self employment through a resilient entrepreneurship. The course also highlights enterprise structure through marketing and sales strategies.
