Footprints is the result of a process that started in the middle of 2010, in which the interSALUD Foundation in cooperation with the Christian Foundation Baptist Missions from USA carried out the first activities with children in the suburban area of the city of Quito, Ecuador.
interSALUD, with this previous experience of being in contact with children who are at risk, hearing their testimonies and seeing the social reality in which they live, added to this the increasing statistics of child and domestic abuse as well as trafficking of minors. These are the main causes that determined the necessity to develop a prevention program starting from a child´s perspective and working towards the family. Family is the nucleus of society, an agent of a transformation and protection under the Christian perspective of development.
The Foundation For Hope and Grace visited and shared in the efforts with interSALUD to eradicate human trafficking. This visit motivated interSALUD to include the child trafficking prevention in to the Footprints project.
In 2012 interSALUD carries out its event with a designed program of “child abuse, trafficking of minors and domestic violence” prevention. Once the developed the interSALUD team designates a name for the projects, and this is how “HUELLAS – FOOTPRINTS” is born.
interSALUD considers that the effectiveness of the FOOTPRINTS project is due to socializing the message of prevention to all the members of the community at risk, in a manner that all can understand the message according to their context. Due to this, FOOTPRINTS directs is talks simultaneously to children, parents, adults, social leaders, teachers and authorities. We seek to have the presents of police authorities form the community during the talk for the adults so that they share what the legal consequences are, create ties, and the people be able to know what support the police can offer to the community in these cases.