Starfish Students elected as part of the Guayaquil Student Council!

This week we are featuring a blog post from Luiggi Pluas, a Starfish student from Flor de Bastion, who, along with Itaty Morocho, were 2 of the 12 students elected to represent District 8 in a city-wide student council. The selection of Luiggi and Itaty demonstrates their academic success and leadership abilities, and we are incredibly proud of them. Being chosen as a representative is a great honor and accomplishment. Congratulations, Luiggi and Itaty!

 

The Youth and Adolescents Advisory Council of Guayaquil 

In the first council, the Guayaquil officials had to elect 12 youth representatives from a previously selected group of 24. During this meeting, Itaty and I were fortunate to be elected as 2 of the 12 representatives from District 8 (our district). There are a total of 10 districts, and each district sent 12 youth representatives to the large, city-wide Student Council, which totaled to 120 children that attended the council. 

At the first meeting [that Itaty and I attended], only members of District 8 participated, but at the second meeting, we joined all of the districts representing the entirety of Guayaquil. To accommodate  such a large group of youth representatives, the meeting occurred in the Multifunctional Town Center (Zumar). When we arrived, they gave us purple shirts, the purple signifying that we were representatives of District 8. The other districts had various colors to differentiate themselves.  We began with icebreakers, then we created some small representations (sketches) of the social problems present in Guayaquil, such as drugs, alcohol, human trafficking, and pollution. 

Itaty and I truly enjoyed the activities. After the group discussions and activities, we then went to eat, and once we finished, it was time to choose the 12 representatives of the entire Guayaquil and 12 alternates from the 120 students present at this council. Truthfully, choosing 24 students from 120 proved to be very difficult; therefore, the 120 candidates had to participate in many exercises, such as speaking, socializing, etc., and during these activities, we were evaluated and had to pass certain criteria. As they were determining the 12 representatives and 12 alternates, I was incredibly nervous, since I didn't know what was going to happen, or if I was going to be chosen. When they gave us the final count of the votes and informed me that I didn't qualify, I felt a little sad that I wasn't chosen to represent Guayaquil as part of that small council. However, there will be another opportunity soon, and I have to keep faith that I could be a representative in the future. 

The purpose of this Council of Students is to gather ideas from the adolescentes and present them to the mayor, so that the city government may come to understand what the youth of Guayaquil wants, which is: for our city to become a better, safer place. 

~Luiggi Pluas

Luiggi Pluas 

Itaty Morocho 

(en español)

Consejo Consultivo de la niñez y adolescencia de Guayaquil

Primero nos mandaron a citar en al primer reunión, en la cual se debía escoger a 12 niños entre aproximadamente 24 niños del distrito 8, ya que los demás distritos (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10) ya habían tenido anteriormente otras reuniones en la que también escogido a 12 niños mas, es decir, entre todos los distritos tenía que haber aproximadamente 120 niños escogidos, desde hay ya quedamos como representantes del distrito 8.

Posteriormente a esa reunión, nos citaron a otra, pero esta vez era para concursar ya no solo los que estábamos del distrito 8, si no contra todos los distritos para que representemos a Guayaquil entero, y asi fue, la reunión se realizo en el Centro Municipal Polifuncional Zumar, cuando llegamos nos entregaron una camisa de color morado, el cual nos representaba como distrito 8, los demás distritos tenían otros colores para diferenciarlos, entonces eramos como 100 niños que estábamos concursando, primero hicimos dinámicas, pequeños sketchs sobre problemáticas sociales como las drogas, el alcohol, trata de personas, contaminación ambienta, etc…

Nos divertimos mucho, luego fuimos a comer, una vez que terminamos, ya había llegado la hora de comenzar a escoger 12 representantes de Guayaquil y 12 mas de suplentes, de entre todos los aproximadamente 100 estudiantes, al verdad es que estuvo difícil, y aunque teníamos que dar diferentes criterios, hablar, socializar, etc, pero cuando ya fueron los votaciones yo estaba nervioso ya que no sabía de que iba a pasar, pero cuando ya dieron los votos finales, me dijeron que estaba descalificado, me sentí un poco triste ya que no pude alcanzar a representar a Guayaquil, pero para una próxima oportunidad será, hay que tener fé de que se va a poder.

Este proyecto, tiene el fin de recolectar ideas de los niños, adolescentes para asi los directivos, alcalde, tengan una idea concisa de que es lo piensan los jóvenes y así ser de Guayaquil un lugar mejor. 

Luiggi Pluas