Volunteer Work in Ecuador, Volunteer Work South America & Latin America, Ecuador Volunteer Work

  Ecuador

• Quito: 
Quito
• All Other Regions of Ecuador: 
Rural Areas

Durations of Program: 2-4 weeks, 5-8 weeks, 9-12 weeks and 3-6 months
Typical Duration of Program: 2-4 weeks
Dates: Ongoing - All year - round

Description: Would you like to travel with a purpose and make a real difference by volunteering? Our Volunteer Work Program in Latin America is an exceptional opportunity for anyone anxious in traveling abroad with a purpose and makes a real difference to the lives of some of Ecuador's needy people. If you are looking for a meaningful and fun trip, ELEP Volunteer Travel Program offers you the opportunity to volunteer in the magical country of Ecuador. Your voluntary experience around the world would never be complete if you don't visit Ecuador

Living and volunteering in Ecuador, you could help enrich the lives of Ecuadorian needy people by sharing your skills, your worth and your time. As an international volunteer overseas you are welcome to participate in our short and long-term voluntary service projects throughout Ecuador working side-by-side with local people and sharing in the goals of a community that warmly welcomes you. Our programs are custom-designed for all ages and backgrounds.

ELEP Volunteer Travel Program offers you unique low-cost volunteer opportunities. Our aim is to provide challenging, rewarding, meaningful, suitable and cheap and affordable quality voluntary work programs to volunteers from all over the world.   

Our voluntary work projects include a variety of environmental and community aid projects such as:

Child Care

This program is dedicated to volunteering in NGOs for children. We can place you in some exciting social and humanitarian programs in collaboration with a large number of orphan, street children centres, children hostels, children worker and centres for infant care in rural or urban communities. You can help children of low economic resources who come from poor homes; some have mothers in prison and many other difficulties in their young lives. In many cases they have been abandoned by their parents. You can help them improve their living conditions through volunteering in one of these institutions. Depending on your own skills and interests, you can teach English, music, dance, maths, computer or collaborate cooking, eating, bathing and personal development, administrative tasks, homework help, activities and general care for the children or any number of activities - or generally just spend quality time with the children. Furthermore, you can participate in the rehabilitation process to their families and society.

HIV/AIDS

Our program is designed to collaborate and participate in health clinics, non-profit organizations or government agencies working with this devastating HIV/AIDS disease. As a volunteer, you can assist in developing sexual health education, promote prevention programs and training seminars for groups like lay health professionals and sex trade workers. In addition, you can assist in the medical and psychological attention and antiretroviral therapy programs. There are also opportunities to provide comfort and support directly to patients, their families and the community. You can make visits to hospices and medical facilities, which really provides you with a sense of the personal side of this disease.

Human Rights

Our host Human Rights organizations seek to promote and protect individual rights. The activities of the organisation include: human rights education to youth and children and teachers in schools, women's rights (emphasis on reproductive and domestic rights) education in rural areas, psychological attention in crisis, legal pursuit of human rights cases, foreign governments abuse of local interests, and more. They are located in different Ecuadorian cities, but we can offer you the opportunity in Quito (capital city of Ecuador) in one of our collaborator organizations in some areas of the human rights.

Teaching

Volunteers have the opportunity to teach in Ecuador and contribute to the development of the minds and futures of the Ecuadorian people. Living and volunteering in Ecuador, volunteers could help enrich the lives of Ecuadorian students by sharing. Volunteers don't have to be a teacher to take part in and enjoy our teaching placements. Open to all volunteers, volunteers really benefit the students they work with, while gaining valuable skills themselves. Placements are available in rural or urban elementary and secondary school to teach subjects such as English, history, math, physical education nature science, etc. Volunteers will help in this process by teaching a class for some hours each day from Monday to Friday.
In short, we believe education is the key to enabling this South American country to rise above its poverty. Volunteers will help in this process by teaching a class for some hours each day from Monday to Friday.

Health Care

Our health/nursing programs welcome anyone thinking of taking up nursing or alternative health. By working on this program, you will make a real contribution in hospitals, clinics and NGO's. Your help is needed throughout Ecuador to help the Ecuadorian population in the poorest urban or rural areas. Our host medical centres and patients welcome medical students, specialist, nurses, etc. The key requirements in our health/nursing volunteer programs are initiative, enthusiasm and readiness to work in unfamiliar circumstances. You will be involved in the day-to-day running of medical centres, observing or directly providing general assistance to the doctors and nurses or you might help maintain the files, help at the reception desk or in the nursery, assist with patient check-ups, etc.

Micro - Enterprise Projects

These projects consist in the preparation of different groups of people, with little or no economic resources, to help them create small one-person businesses. This activity will allow them to obtain a small self-earned income to better provide for their families. The volunteer will assist small enterprises to produce handicrafts, etc. or collaborate in administrative tasks. We provide opportunities in the following areas:

- Processing recycled paper
- Create ecological post cards with floral and Ecuadorian topics, taking advantage of the limited resources at hand
- Creation of ornamental candles
- Porcelain figures
- Clothes, etc.

General Conservation

Work in the midst of the most spectacular Ecuadorian biodiversities where projects range from maintaining to research. Your help is needed in the preservation, investigation, environmental education and management of the Ecuadorian flora, fauna and landscapes. We work in collaboration with a big number of private and public reserves, National parks and NGOs throughout Ecuador (Andes, Coastal, Amazonia and Galapagos Islands). Environmental projects such as reforestation, agroforestry, organic and sustainable farming practices, permaculture, tree nursery, biological research, environmental education (focused to promote the protection and conservation), recuperation and regeneration of the ecosystem are available. Ecuadorian dry, cloud, rain and mangrove forest wait for you. Live in a world of plenty nature and enjoy it while volunteering.

Organic Farm

All these projects are oriented to preserve the nature and the ecosystem. On the farms volunteers will find a lot of degraded areas, caused by overgrazing and inappropriate cultivation. Objective of the projects is the protection against soil erosion and nutrient loss. The Agroforestry is a combination of agriculture and forestry and it can be seen as the most sustainable land form used in the conservation. Today there is a need of organic farms or family plots. Generally, the plots are small, next to the house and contain vegetables, fruits, herbs, medicinal plants and ornamental among other but the agroforestry is used in the reserves, national parks, etc.

Animal Care

The goal of this program is to rescue, rehabilitate and relocate confiscated animals to their natural habitat. You as volunteers will feed animals and clean and repair cages. In addition, you will help to build new cages and improve existing facilities to provide more natural environment for the birds and animals. Volunteers are needed to gather food from the forest for animals in captivity, introduce the food to the animals, monitor progress, consult with the biologist, and under supervision of the biologist and centre staff, teach the animals how to eat and other behaviours they need to know in the wild. The Rescue Centre's aim is to save wild animals and their habitat from destruction. The project focuses on rehabilitating captive or domesticated animals, and in some cases preparing them for a reintroduction to their natural habitats.

Veterinary Medicine

You can combine a veterinary placement with an animal care placement, working in a zoo, animal rehabilitation centre or animal clinic. You may be able to spend some time concentrating on the veterinary practice. Working as a veterinary volunteer, you will be involved in vaccinations, operations, laboratory work, post-mortems, meat inspections and the routine treatment of domestic farm animals and pets. These programs are available to you in Amazon Region, Machalilla National Park, Galapagos Islands, Baños, Guayabamba and many other places throughout Ecuador.

Infrastructure and Construction Work

If you are looking for a rewarding experience to provide decent housing for a family in need, join our Volunteer Programs in Ecuador which offers a vibrant cultural and humanitarian experience. Many Ecuadorian families live in substandard, overcrowded and unhealthy conditions. With your help, more deserving families can have decent places to call home. Help repairing fences, roofs or cabins, assistance and supporting with construction of water pipes, houses, etc. Our objectives are to help Ecuadorian families benefit from available and existent housing programs. Other volunteer descriptions are available upon request.

Highlights:
- Inside Perspective on Ecuador
- Wide Variety of Programs & Projects
- Support to Local rural and urban Communities
- Emphasis on Quality not Quantity
- Maximum Cultural Exposure
- Personal Attention & Care
- Low-Range Fee Structure
- Short and long term volunteer programs (2 weeks to 6 months)
- The opportunity to meet a lot of local residents and become friends for their whole life
- The opportunity to apply lessons learned in the classroom to life outside
- Unique experience that you will never forget
- Intensive practical language training

Qualifications: You do not need any formal qualification to participate in our volunteer projects, only a willingness to share your time and work with Ecuadorian communities. Nevertheless, we would like to recommend traveling with an open mindedness, flexibility, a basic knowledge of Spanish, dynamism, enthusiastic and committed and passionate about making a difference.

Experience Required: no

This Program is open to American, Australian, Canadian and European Participants. This Program is also open to Families, Couples and Individuals

Participants Travel to Ecuador Independently Or in Groups

Typically Participants Work Independently Or in Groups

Application Process Involves:

• Resume
• Written Application

ELEP - Experiential Learning Ecuadorian Programs's Mission Statement: Our mission is to promote international understanding through educational and cultural exchange between Ecuador (Latin-American) and the rest of the world, to help people to gain hands-on practical experience, acquire knowledge and develop skills for living in a globally interdependent and culturally diverse world, accomplishing these goals through our Volunteer, Internship and Spanish Study Programs. Therefore, ELEPs commitment is to contribute to intercultural and learning experience opportunities and development of the people, companies, organizations and communities through our programs

Year Founded: 1999