Mayra Ramirez stands in front of the garbage cliffs that
surround her home in Eloy Alfaro, Ecuador. Because of high rates
of violence, drug addiction and promiscuity, this rural
community is considered one of the most dangerous in the coastal
province of Manabí¼¯span>. Mayra Ramirez lives with her family
in a cramped house overlooking a garbage dump in Eloy Alfaro,
Ecuador. The breeze that brings a tiny bit of relief to the
stifling house also brings the stench of rotting vegetables and
garbage. But to 15-year-old Mayra, that smell is better than the
odor of the drugs that hold her family captive. Not Another
Statistic In Mayra's community, where three out of four people
are unemployed, drugs and illicit sex have become tools of
survival for young women who have lost all hope. Mayra saw her
sister succumb to the hopelessness of poverty as a teenage
mother and drug addict. Sadly, cases like these are typical in
Ecuador, where one in four pregnancies are unplanned and three
out of 10 teens have their second chi