History
The Manuel Galecio Asylum, as it was initially called, was founded in the city of Guayaquil. on May 13, 1889, by the Guayaquil philanthropist Manuel Galecio, with the sponsorship of the Honorable Board of Charity.
His love for the poor, orphans, and most needy of his hometown led him to work tirelessly in their favor, hence his decision to create an institution for orphaned girls.
Around the year 1896, on October 5 and 6, the city was struck by a massive fire that ended up devastating the building where this institution operated, among others. The orphaned girls who lived in the asylum at that time were transferred to the Colegio de La Providencia, which was later destroyed by another fire, the Carmen fire, in July 1902. In 1907, a new shelter was built, which by 1910 was already too small for the number of girls being cared for.
Finally, in 1951, it was decided to move and build the new Manuel Galecio Asylum in the town of Alausí, belonging to the province of Chimborazo, on land donated to the Board by the sisters Rosa Emilia Fiallo Fajardo and Carmen Delia Fiallo Fajardo vda. de Naranjo. In addition, the aforementioned ladies contributed a significant sum of money to help with the construction of the new asylum, a project that was completed two years later.
From its beginnings until June 27, 2009, the asylum was administered by the Religious Community of the Sisters of Charity; from that date, the Board decided to put the administration in the hands of lay personnel, and the economist María Eugenia Pilco, a former resident of the Calderón Ayluardo home, took charge and accepted this great responsibility.
Thus, from August 12, 2009, with the collaboration and support of a new religious Congregation, the “Dominican Sisters of Bethany,” whose highest authority generously accepted the invitation to collaborate with the project and wrote:
“Knowing the great social work that the JBG does with these girls, we are interested in being able to help through our teachings and accompany them in the process of human, Christian, and moral formation,” said Sister Bertha Amaya, Superior General of the Dominican Congregation of Bethany. and 3 religious sisters enter the asylum to work together with the lay staff under a single mission: to help in the integral formation of the unprotected and vulnerable children of the country.
In 2015, the institution went from being an “ASYLUM” to a “HOME”.
In 2016, a new Congregation of religious sisters, the “Dominican Sisters of Our Lady of Nazareth,” began to collaborate in the spiritual formation of the scholarship recipients, a contract that ended in 2017.
Facade of the church of the Manuel Galecio Asylum in 1990
From the month of August of the same year, the scholarship recipients of the Manuel Galecio Home began to be cared for by new religious sisters, as a cooperation agreement was signed with the Community of Sisters of the Santa Marianita de Jesús Institute under the same secular administration.
As of September 1, 2019, the secular administration was changed, and Mrs. María del Carmen Naranjo Robinson was hired, coincidentally, granddaughter of the FIALLO FAJARDO sisters who donated the land for the construction of the home and resident to date, in the city of Alausí, with the collaboration and support in the spiritual area of the religious sisters belonging to the Santa Mariana de Jesús Institute – Province of the Holy Trinity, to date.
