Ten Houses, Four Churches and a Loan Fund: Ecuador’s Anglicans Rebuild a Year After the Quake

• A 7.8 earthquake struck Ecuador’s coast on April 16, 2016, killing 661 people
• The Diocese of Ecuador Litoral supported four badly affected churches in Manta
• It helped rebuild 10 houses in Las Pilas and Portoviejo
• The diocese set up a solidarity loan programme for families

A year after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake hit Ecuador’s coast, the Episcopal Diocese of Ecuador Litoral was still helping communities rebuild, Episcopal News Service reported on April 25, 2017, in a report by Clara Villatoro.

The April 16, 2016 earthquake killed 661 people, injured 6,274 and sent 28,678 to shelters. The diocese supported its four most affected churches in Manta, Manabí province, and helped rebuild 10 houses in the communities of Las Pilas and Portoviejo. The government offered up to $10,000 per house, with conditions.

With support from Episcopal Relief & Development, the diocese created a solidarity loan programme, and Rev Jairo Chiran Guillén asked for a further $20,000 to continue it. A new shopping centre, New Tarqui, opened on December 27, 2016, with 1,800 commercial spaces. “It’s still hard; things aren’t back to normal yet. That doesn’t happen overnight,” said Rev Cristóbal León, Archdeacon of Manabí.

The diocese combined church repairs with rebuilding homes and livelihoods.

After hurricanes, Jamaican churches often become centres of recovery. Ecuador’s example shows how a church can go beyond relief to help rebuild homes and set up small loan funds, working alongside government housing grants. Jamaican denominations could plan such programmes in advance, with partners ready to fund them.

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