Mission
To partner Stanford students with existing organizations in Quito, Ecuador that work to address the needs and promote the rights of street and working children. To enable Stanford students to actively engage with human rights issues, to apply this first-hand knowledge and experience to their respective disciplines, and to share what they have learned with the Stanford community.
Vision
The members of Volunteers in Latin America envision a world in which all children have access to food, shelter, health care, physical safety, and a caring adult. There are approximately 100 million street and working children in the world, and forty million of them live in Latin America; through facilitating international service opportunities for future change-makers, we strive to turn numbers into faces and apathy into social action.
Guiding Principles
VILA aims to promote sustainable development by working, collaborating, and assisting with local community organizations, value and utilize community knowledge and resources in the implementation of programs, enhance youth leadership and empowerment, build personal relationships, facilitate transparent dialogue and cross-cultural understanding through international volunteer and service-learning opportunities, encourage critical social reflection and personal growth, and provide financially feasible volunteer opportunities.