Ecuador NFE [non-formal education] project : literacy's rainbow twenty-five years later

The project heavily involved client populations in developing, testing, and implementing a wide variety of innovative approaches to NFE. Its principles included grounding learning in the daily realities of the learners; using nonprofessionals as local facilitators of learning and action; employing a wide variety of innovative learning materials that were fun to use, involving, and stimulating; and making learners and facilitators the principal source of new ideas for materials. The results of project experimentation with methods and materials were distributed to NFE practitioners around the world, where there is clear evidence of the project's impact. On the human level, the companionship experienced in the NFE project did away with dependence, domination, and abuse; helped people face life; and gave them self-respect and a sense of security and cultural identity. Strengthening of personality has made room for the education of leaders, who serve as endogenous promoters of development, trainers of their fellows, and links to the outside world. Leaders that have been educated now represent their communities in political spheres and were active in overthrowing Bucaram's government. The project's most effective and lasting impact has been to instill in community facilitators a continuing commitment to the challenge of social change. The facilitators kept the ideas of NFE alive. Those who survived the project's abrupt termination committed themselves to the cause of their fellows and found a purpose in their lives. They have also taken advantage of openings in the formal structure. Today, 90% of those from Manabi are adult educators, teachers, supervisors, university professors, and directors of technical schools. In the highlands, the majority of people who currently work at the National Bilingual Intercultural Education Department (DINEIB) of the Ministry of Education and Culture were the NFE facilitators of yesterday. Additionally, the application of NFE strengthened bilingualism in education, now the central concern of grassroots organizations that defend the rights of indigenous people. The learning materials and the pedagogies pioneered by the project have been absorbed by a range of NGOs, and in many cases have been taken over by the adult education section of the Ministry of Education; the spread and persistence of the ideas is part of the project's legacy. On the down side, the materials given to institutions did not fare well: in some cases they were left in storage for a long time, while in other cases it is not known what happened to them. Apparently, counterpart institutions were more interested in project funds than in project materials, preferring to use their own. It is only in Manabi that all of the materials continued to be used through 1988. The photo novel magazines and stories survived, so much so that UNESCO has been interested in producing more of them in Manabi. Radio programs have lasted longest and still have a certain future, particularly in rural areas; although not structured as they used to be, they have followed the same philosophy in which campesinos manage them, produce their materials, and are nourished by the experiences of NFE. The continuation of NFE became evident in the campesino child care centers of FODERUMA (Marginal Rural Development Fund), an Ecuadorian Central Bank program implemented from 1978 to 1992. After the program ended, the government organized the Community Network, which cared for poor children under 6 years of age for the first time. Unfortunately, the next government, antagonistic to its predecessor, terminated the program and created the Organization for Children's Rescue, which has been accused of misappropriation of funds. NFE is also part of the approach followed by COMUNIDEC, an NGO established by Carlos Moreno that has applied the experiences of NFE very effectively.