Tel. +44 (0)1273 600030 (UK)
The Indigenous in Ecuador make up 40% of the population, many living off just $1 a day or less. This project works with the full support of indigenous leaders, to encourage and improve levels of education and literacy in three communities around Otavalo, a busy market town set in the Andes two hours north of the capital, Quito. Each community has a population of between 150-200, whose dwellings are scattered around the mountainside. Their first language is Kichwa (or Quichua) but they do speak Spanish as a second language.
One of the most immediate problems facing the Indigenous in these areas is the lack of money for education to buy even the basic school supplies and the distances each child has to travel (by foot) to reach the school. Many children have experienced little formal education. Due to lack of educational attention, plus financial constraints, illiteracy rates are high in the region for both adults and children.
Volunteers will be teaching alongside the local teacher and on their own, we can group the children by age and grade, thus paying closer attention to the children. Coupled with paying for the school supplies, it is hoped that more children will attend and will receive the attention needed for their standard of education to improve.
The owner of this company did a gap year trip in the early 90s which involved building a bandstand for a small village in Patagonia. While he was there, he realised the project was only helpful in developing the Western traveller as the village didn’t want a bandstand and only argued about who owned it. And so he set up a volunteer organisation which is useful to communities and provides them with resources and help with funding. Today, his projects offer travellers an opportunity to fully integrate into communities and to make a real long-term difference to the local people’s lifestyles.
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