LAWRENCE — When Beatriz Almeida Stein noticed a lack of transportation was preventing people from coming to her office in Boston, she decided to go to them.
Stein, consul general of Ecuador for the past five years, now has office hours throughout Massachusetts.
She will come to Lawrence once a month to get to know her compatriots living in the city and to help them with immigration issues, as well as obtaining visas, birth certificates, and other documents.
She will have office hours on Sept. 19, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. at 21 Lawrence St., where the Spanish office of the Greater Lawrence Community Action Council is located.
"It's my duty to help and I'll do whatever I need to support them," she said.
There are an estimated 3,000 Ecuadorians living in the Merrimack Valley, some who emigrated in the 1960s.
According to the U.S. Census, there are about 20,000 Ecuadorians living in Massachusetts.
"All of my life, I've wanted to give back to my community," she said. "Since I can't do that because I don't live in Ecuador, I can do it for the Ecuadorians living here in the U.S."
Stein was born in Ambato, Ecuador. She came to the United States in 1969 to study international relations at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Prior to her appointment as consul by the Ecuadorian government, she worked in the private sector in Washington, D.C.
Stein and her husband, Martin Stein, a transportation consultant, have four children and three grandchildren.
In addition to her duties as consul general, Stein is founder of the Association of Ecuadorians in New England, a nonprofit organization which helps underprivileged children in Ecuador. Serving on the executive committee are Lawrence residents Luis Yepes as president, Ayda Diaz, vice president, and Gisela Yepes, secretary.
Stein also has established a study abroad program between the University of San Francisco in Quito and Boston College, Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
"I'm very proud of my country because of its rich culture, and I want to share that with others."
