Sperber Community Center

a community center helping children and families living in QUITO, ECUADOR

picture of the front of the community center

About the center

The Sperber Community Center in Quito, Ecuador, was inaugurated in February 2020. This center gives more than 3,000 children and youth access to regular medical care and educational support. Just as importantly, encouraging role models will help them grow up healthy, educated and empowered with the skills they need to find good jobs.

As children grow, they have access to age-appropriate development programs at the Sperber Community Center that equip them with the knowledge and confidence they will need to pull themselves out of poverty. From nutrition and health programs ... to tutoring and computer classes ... to social and financial education and youth leadership training ... to job training and career‑readiness workshops or scholarships for higher education, our programs are interconnected and essential to helping children and youth break the cycle of poverty.

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About the community

The community in Quito called La Colmena (“The Hive”) is aptly named. Gazing toward it from the streets below, the tiny, colorful squares you see are homes. But they are so tightly packed — and even atop one another — that the collection of homes resembles a beehive.

Although La Colmena is proof of its residents’ resourcefulness and resilience, it is also evidence of their hardships. With a high crime rate and a violent gang presence, the children and families we serve here have learned to cope as best they can in this marginalized community.

boy sitting on a swing with another boy behind him

We are grateful for the compassionate donors
who made this center possible.

two swings and a slide in the grass

The Sperber Community Center is where young lives blossom and compassion and pride radiate outward — in the hearts of all who both live near our centers and visit from afar. We sincerely thank these kind-hearted donors for their support:

  • Louise Sperber, Ron & Mary Neal, and Ed & Sue Zinni provided the lead investments.
  • Robert Roth funded the library, where young people can attend tutoring sessions and have access to a variety of books that will encourage them to let their imaginations run free.
  • Sylvia Kohn funded the courtyard and playground, a safe area where children have the room to run, play and laugh.

Watch the Sperber Community Center inauguration!

In February 2020, our staff in Quito celebrated the inauguration of the Sperber Community Center. Unfortunately, the children and youth had just a month of enjoying this beautiful new center before the coronavirus emerged in Quito.

Watch the inauguration video below to see how excited and thankful the people in the center’s surrounding neighborhood are about the new center.

Naming opportunities

Make a lifelong impact on children’s futures by naming one of the rooms still available. The very spaces that are changing the lives of kids will honor you or someone you love. We will highlight your investment with a plaque in the available room of your choice, in addition to adding the room name to our website.

For additional information about the recognition associated with naming opportunities, please contact Global Philanthropy at 800‑888‑4089 or philanthropy@children.org.

Sperber Community Center floor plan

Questions? Contact us!

To provide support or learn more, please contact our Global Philanthropy Team at:

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