ASIEH NAMDAR, CNN ANCHOR: Most of Ecuador's 13 million inhabitants live in rural areas. Many are poor and have little or no education. Ecuavisa reports the country's native people are joining together to try to make a difference.</s>ALIA MARIA YCAZA, ECUAVISA (voice-over): For centuries, many natives Ecuadorian natives have only reached the basic education given in their communities in their native language, Itua (ph). Although in Ecuador the official language is Spanish, there are aboriginal groups in the highlands and in the Amazon region, where indigenous people speak in their own language. But today, education for Ecuador's Indians is changing for the better. Some natives have achieved careers in Ecuadorian University, but also more advanced degrees in the United States and European schools. The most outstanding occupied public positions are political leadership. They have been supported by national organizations and foreign universities to be able to create their own indigenous university. This is a university which is based on the Ecuadorian indigenous identities but open to all races. Indeed, among the 300 students there are Swiss, Canadian and Ecuadorian mestizos such as Veronica Vandano (ph), who found what in the center the career that she wanted. Also, the idea has been related with different cultural modifications. For the time being, the university offers three careers: agricultural ecology, indigenous rights and laws and multicultural
Ecuador's Indigenous Population Founds New University