When Gabriella was young, her father abandoned the family. Gabriella and her siblings were placed into a children’s home until their mother took them out again a year later. The family survived on the limited income they earned from recycling bottles found at a South Quito market.

Gabriella was left to play in the market. A fun childhood and education was not considered. When Gabriella was six, a CENIT social worker worked with her mother and encouraged her to send Gabriella to school.

Maria was born to an indigenous single mother and raised by her aunt and uncle in the countryside. School wasn’t an option for her until she moved to live with her mother in south Quito at 11 years old. At 12, she was sent to work as a maid for a wealthy family and was separated from her own family for two years.

She watched the family’s children go to school and decided she wanted to go. Within a year, she saved enough money to cover all her school costs. With her mother’s support, she enrolled in CENIT’s high school and was put on a specialised education track which takes account of the challenges older students face.

After Sabrina’s parents died from AIDS when she was seven years old, she entered the Sor Dominga Bocca hostel with her two sisters. As the oldest, she took on the role of mother to her siblings, in particular a disabled brother.

Diligent, quiet and obedient, Sabrina studied hard at school. She passed her scholarship with excellent grades and went on to study Economics at la Universidad Estatal de Guayaquil. Now she works at Fedex, thanks to a helper at Sor Dominga Bocca who also worked at the firm.