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ABOUT USCommunity Ventures International (CVI) began as a US non-profit (with 501c3 status) organization in April 2007 with its Headquarters in Houston, Texas. It began initially as an exclusive representative for the Ecuadorian non-profit organization, Fundacion Amor y Esperanza (A&E), which began in 2000 providing community transformation solutions to the community of Carmen Bajo on the Northeast Outskirts of Quito, Ecuador. Francisco Sola (Pancho) and his wife Clemencia (Pity) began to feed the poor children of Carmen Bajo in late 1999 through a singles program at their church in Quito - El Batan, a CMA church - that reaches the middle and upper income classes of Quito. This quickly turned into much more for Pancho and Pity - it became a vision from God that He wanted them involved in more than 'a 1 night a week feeding program'. Pancho and Pity began to use their own resources - time and money - to do more. This began with a nursery in 2001 and has grown to a solid Christian private school that works with over 400 kids and 200 families in Carmen Bajo.
In mid-2004, Whitefield Academy from Atlanta, Georgia got involved and have been bringing in 10-15 juniors and seniors on an annual summer trip. During 2007, as the A&E committed members from both Ecuador and the USA began to think about what we were doing that was unique and sustainable, we began to read articles from Peter Tooley and Opportunity International that began to show that ‘Schools for the Poor’ outperform public schools in the developing world. Up until then though, our group had really only seen large NGOs providing assistance to children through Child Sponsorship that worked "behind the Public Schools in Developing Countries" though after school programs. Our conviction though was that accessible, affordable and quality education solutions were required if we were serious about long lasting and sustainable Community Transformation. We knew we had the affordable and accessible components of this solution but we knew the quality aspect and thus the sustainable and replicable aspect would be very difficult. So in November 2007, Pancho Sola and Dirk Cameron were introduced to David and Lois Wells, directors of the Alliance Academy International ( www.alliance.k12.ec ) in Quito, Ecuador, an ACSI school ( www.acsi.org ). Since that first meeting, The Alliance Academy has formally partnered with the A&E School and will provide ongoing teacher mentoring and assist the school in any way possible. As such, CVI uncovered its strategic way to provide ongoing educational quality for its school - a partnership with a local ACSI school serving the middle and upper income classes of a city. In August 2008, the A&E School became an ACSI school - 1 of only 7 ACSI schools in all of Ecuador. |
In June 2003, A&E received their first mission team from the USA - Brenham Bible Church out of Brenham, Texas. This was a team of 20 out of church of 100 led by both the assistant and head pastors so it was an important event for Brenham. During this trip, Dirk and Raquel Cameron from Bethel Church in Houston, Texas were able to participate alongside Brenham. It was clear that Pancho & Pity Sola were the kinds of leaders that needed to be established not only for the Carmen Bajo community but for the entire country of Ecuador. Shortly thereafter, Hope Presbyterian (Memphis, TN) and University Baptist Church (Miami, FL) decided to send a team down and the Sola’s vision began to take off - a group of individuals from these churches began to commit. In 2004, A&E experienced tremendous growth and purchased a small plot of land in May 2004 and began building a new school building in June of 2004. In early 2006, A&E opened its new school building which is currently providing education to the 305 students in K-6th grade.