The SOS Children's Village Ibarra is located at an altitude of 2,000 metres on the lagoon of Yahuarcocha which gained historical importance because of the Incas. This SOS Children's Village is only eight kilometers from the provincial capital Ibarra and is about 140 km from the capital Quito.
Ecuador's third SOS Children's Village was built on 4.6 hectares of land and has twleve family houses, a village director's house, an administrative building with offices, a room for medical care, and a house for the SOS aunts (SOS Children’s Village mothers in training who assist current SOS mothers in their everyday work and stand in for them if they are ill or on holiday).
A total of 40 preschool children from both the SOS Children's Village and the neighbourhood can be supervised in the two group rooms of the SOS Kindergarten, which opened in 1985. Another 90 children can be supervised in the SOS Social Centre Ibarra. It was opened in May 2004 and is also run as a day-care centre.
Furthermore, the SOS Social Centre also offers preventive health care for children and programmes aimed at strengthening and supporting less fortunate families in order to prevent them from breaking up. Two SOS Youth Facilities (for girls and boys) were opened in urban Ibarra. Young people from the SOS Children's Village can be housed there for the period of their secondary or vocational education, which gradually prepares them for an independent life.