QUITO – Spain’s Princess Elena on Tuesday in Quito visited a support center for children and teenagers whose parents are among the many Ecuadorians who have emigrated to the Iberian nation.

Some 200 children are benefiting from the programs at the institution, the Alliance for Development, Education and Culture (Aldec), whose new installations the princess visited as the director of Social and Cultural Projects for the Spanish Mapfre foundation.

The center also enjoys the cooperation of the Community of Madrid, the Fundacion Meridional and Cooperacion Internacional.

Aldec’s aim is to “alleviate the negative effects of the migratory processes” of families that attend their programs, the Mapfre foundation said in a communique.

The educational monitoring that Aldec provides has managed to reduce absenteeism and the dropout rate, improve academic performance and the nutritional condition of the children and teens.

Princess Elena, the oldest child of King Juan Carlos and Queen Sofia, said in Quito that she knew of her father’s plans to abdicate before Monday’s public announcement.

“As a relative, of course,” said the princess when asked if she knew about the king’s pending abdication before she arrived in the Andean country although immediately thereafter she refused to say anything more about the matter since it did not constitute part of her day’s activities.

The 76-year-old king is abdicating in favor of Crown Prince Felipe.

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