Become a Global Actor, Leader or Mentor  |
To reserve
your placement, click
here.
5 Reasons to Volunteer in Ecuador:
1) Discover another language and culture
2) Develop your global perspective
3) Challenge yourself to explore the unknown
4) Make new friends from all over the world
and the most important...
5) You want a unique experience, not just another vacation!
AIDE will secure and provide:
- Volunteer projects
- Housing
- Meals
- Personal support from the Ecuador AIDE Country Specialist
- 24/7 emergency toll free number
- Activities and tours
- Airfare booking
- Local transportation
- Airport pick up
- Emergency medical insurance
Eligibility:
* At least 18 years old
* Possess an intermediate level of Spanish
* Eligible to receive a tourist visa to Ecuador
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Locations: Quito, Banos, Rio Verde, Choco Bioregion, Tena
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Length
of program: 1 week or more
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What
you get:
Animal Rescue Center/ Zoo project
The mission of the animal rescue center is to take care of animals that are trafficked in Ecuador. These animals are rescued from the hands of animal traffickers that sell wild animals as pets, and often mistreat them. The center provides the animals with veterinary care, shelter and food since most of the animals will not be able to live in the wild again. The goal of the center is to release any animal that can be rehabilitated and returned to the wild. The center has animals such as bears, ocelots, snakes, pumas, monkeys, macaws, jaguars, fox, turtles, and many others.
Volunteers will help feed the animals, and build, clean and repair cages. Volunteers may also assist in gathering food from the forest for the animals in captivity and monitor their health and progress while consulting with the staff veterinarian. Also, with animals that will be rehabilitated and released, volunteers may work under the supervision of the rescue center coordinator and center staff to teach the animals how to eat, and other behaviors they need to know in the wild.
Volunteers stay at a house located next to the animal rescue center. Located in a valley of waterfalls, Baños has a temperate climate all year round, and offers adventure sports such as trekking, horseback riding, canoeing, mountain climbing, mountain biking, river rafting and canopy tours. Baños has a small-village atmosphere, surrounded by snowcapped volcanoes and thermal springs.
Elementary School project
This project will enable volunteers to assist a small school in Rio Verde that has very limited resources and funding. The volunteer work will mainly consist of helping to paint the classrooms and the outside of one of the school houses, as all are in urgent need of a fix-up. However, volunteers may undertake a variety of projects with the elementary school such as an English teaching activity, planting a garden on the school grounds, arts and crafts activities, engaging the children in a soccer match, teaching them songs in English, or anything else your group of volunteers may be interested in. The children are always very curious about foreign volunteers, and it is very easy to engage them in games and other activities that your group might be interested in preparing before your arrival.
Volunteers will mostly work in the afternoon at the school, as the children have class in the mornings. Your mornings in Rio Verde/ Banos will be spent on other fun activities, such as taking a bike tour through the jungle, repelling down a waterfall, whitewater rafting, or soaking in the hot springs just outside Banos.
Volunteers would stay with host families in Rio Verde.
Conservation project
This project seeks sustainable development through each of its activities in the fields of agriculture, reforestation/ forestry and education. The project lies within the Chocó bioregion, which is one of the ten most biologically important zones in the world. The 90-hectare projects serves to help preserve this region through their tree nursery, where they often have more than 10,000 local plants, and educating the surrounding communities on how to conserve resources and develop sustainable methods of agriculture and farming, as well as forestry practices.
Volunteers will assist in everything from collecting seeds for the tree nursery and helping to conduct research on plants and animals in the area, to helping with reforestation projects in the area, which entail clearing weeds and brush from the land before transplanting plants, and keeping the areas around the newly transplanted plants clear so the plants will survive.
Other activities include assisting in the botanic garden and helping to clear trails around the project, and depending on the volunteer’s knowledge, skills and experience, they may help: develop solid organic agriculture and forestry practices and assist in workshops to educate the community on these practices and how to conserve these resources, as well as responsibly harvest agriculture and forestry products; help with the re-use of waste produced on the reserve; help the project protect the bioregion, and native plants such as Andean Bamboo; and assist in the process of making hand-made paper from native bamboo.
Volunteers will be met by a member of the conservation project in Apuela, and together the group will travel by car to the drop-off outside of the project zone, which is about 30 minutes outside of Apuela. Upon arrival, volunteers will need to be prepared to walk about 30 minutes to reach the houses where the group will live and work during their stay with the project.
Animal Rescue Center in Amazon project
The mission of this center is to take care of animals that have been trafficked in Ecuador. Animals are often terribly abused by people who keep them as pets, and therefore many animals brought to the rescue center have been seriously injured. It is not uncommon to see monkeys with broken wrists due to the chain they are forced to wear as pets, when kept indoors or in a yard, or reptiles such as anacondas and boas that have had aggressive changes in behavior patterns due to captivity.
The center provides the animals with food, shelter, and love. The goal is for the animals to be reintroduced to their native habitat, but many will remain at the center. Animals being rehabilitated at the center include ocelots, snakes (anacondas, boas), monkeys, macaws, sloths, otters and turtles.
Volunteers help the center by gathering food from the forest, feeding the animals, monitoring their progress, consulting with the veterinarian, building new cages, and improving existing facilities to create a more natural environment for the animals. Volunteers also help by talking to visitors, keeping walking trails and informational signs in good condition, and with the reforestation of native species in some areas around the center.
Volunteers will live on-site in a house next to the rescue center, with the local Ecuadorian family that runs the rescue center.
Tena is located in the Amazon about five hours southeast of Quito, and is known throughout the region as a great starting point for jungle hikes, kayaking or rafting adventures.
Activities and Tours
- City tour of the old town area of Quito
- Horseback riding
- Zip-line
- Ride a cable car over the river outside of Banos
-
Hike through the countryside to reach a local community
-
Visit the hot springs
- Enjoy the night life
- Visit the Otavalo market
- Participate in a workshop on how to create cloth, scarves, tapestries, etc.
- Visit the cloud forest
- Visit a butterfly farm
- Do a canopy tour
- Hike to a waterfall
- Go tubing down a nearby river
Price:
AIDE is a non-profit organization. Donations contributed in
excess of the fair market value of services you receive from
AIDE may be tax deductible. Please consult your tax adviser.
Customized projects
and itineraries: please contact 1 866 6ABROAD ext.
137 or stephanie@aideabroad.org
for a personal quote.
Prices are subject to changes. Prices do
not include airfare, visa fees and personal expenses.
Any questions?
* Call our toll free: 1 866 6ABROAD ext. 137
* Chat
with us live
* Request our detailed information packet including itineraries here.
You might also consider
volunteering in: Costa Rica
• Peru • South Africa • Argentina • Guatemala
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