The Junta de Beneficencia de Guayaquil and Scholas Occurrentes promote an initiative that turns youth concerns into proposals for action. In its first edition, the program managed to reach 1,195 children and adolescents in community activities.
Guayaquil, October 2026. – What worries young people and what do they propose to change their reality? That is the question that brought together 300 students from 20 schools in the second edition of Scholas Ciudadanía, an initiative of the Junta de Beneficencia de Guayaquil and the Scholas Occurrentes International Foundation that promotes youth leadership, their emotional transformation and the search for solutions to problems in their communities.
From October 8 to 16, students from different social contexts in Guayaquil, Samborondón and Salitre participated in days of dialogue, research and collaborative work at the Carlos Pérez Perasso Sports City. Through play, art and thought, they identified the problems that affect them the most, investigated their causes and proposed alternatives to face them.
The initiative already has a concrete result: in 2025, the first edition made it possible to develop community actions that reached 1,195 children and adolescents. Based on the concerns expressed by the students about the lack of family support in school and emotional life, their proposals were taken to a second phase, called Post-Citizenship.
In this new edition, the problem identified by young people during the day was “The lack of their own criteria in young people and adults in decision-making”, attributed according to them to the high influence of content on social networks and artificial intelligence that makes both young people and adults act influenced by their concepts and not by their own
This year, the new proposals may also become community actions, with institutional accompaniment. Thus, the program seeks that young people are not only listened to, but that they actively participate in the construction of solutions, strengthen their leadership capacity and learn to work with people from different realities.
The initiative is in addition to the sports programs of the Junta de Beneficencia, which benefit 15,000 children and young people, through spaces that promote education, inclusion, coexistence and a culture of peace.
Scholas Occurrentes, an international organization founded by Pope Francis, promotes the culture of encounter through educational experiences that connect young people from different contexts. Its alliance with the Junta de Beneficencia promotes spaces in Ecuador where new generations can transform their concerns into proposals with the potential for social impact.