Aim

The main aim of the Baha'i Community of Ecuador is to work systematically to build a community where everybody has a voice and action: children are nurtured with spiritual education, pre-youth are empowered in the positive transformation of the reality of their neighborhoods; young people called to the forefront of social change; adults, to guide and support. The purpose is to be mobilized by a conviction: that humanity has reached the period of maturity and that the application of the Baha'i teachings will achieve the long-awaited desire to unite humanity in a common faith. The Baha'I Community of Ecuador leads activities such as the educational processes promoted by the Bah�'� community (spiritual education classes for children, junior youth groups and study circles), talking and consulting organically on the importance of making significant contributions to the improvement of their neighborhoods, workplaces or university.

History

Baha'I missionaries first arrived in Latin America in the 1940s and were the first people to bring Bah�'u'll�h's message to Ecuador. As a result of the efforts of the new Ecuadorian believers, the first two Local Spiritual Assemblies were formed: in Guayaquil in 1945 and Quito in 1947. During the 1940s, the growth of the community was supported by teachers from other countries. In 1946, one of the visiting teachers was received in the audience by the then President of the Republic, Jos� Mar�a Velasco Ibarra, who attended a presentation on the objectives and principles of the Bah�'� Faith. In the 1950s, the Baha'I faith had an important deployment of teachers throughout the world and which allowed Ecuador to play a role in community building. As a result, communities were established in Quito, Guayaquil, Cuenca, and Otavalo. Then, the first National Spiritual Assembly of Ecuador was formed in 1961 and in that same decade, the country experienced the expansion of the Baha'i faith in most of the country's provinces and welcomed large numbers of believers in Imbabura and Esmeraldas. Today, Bah�'�s in Ecuador are a growing community of thousands of friends who are actively working in their neighborhoods and communities to promote programs for the spiritual education of children, the empowerment of junior youth, and to train youth and young adults to contribute to the advancement of their communities through study circles.