The project
Intag is an exceptionally priveleged area in terms of bio-diversity, and exceptionally under-priveleged in terms of the opportunities available for young people to escape poverty and enjoy the basic level of well-being that all human beings need.
Our program aims to address this situation, and to help residents to gain access to the career of their choice, and from there to begin to see their extraordinary natural surroundings as a privelege and joy rather than as an impediment. The major social issues that we identify here are poverty, gender inequality, and the threat to the environment and human health posed by plans to develop enormous open-cast copper mines.
Volunteer work
As a teaching volunteer with cloudforestadventure, you will take your own class of children aged 5 to 12 years and teach english as a second language in any one of 6 community schools that are found within our parish. Hours are 7.30 am to 1.30 pm monday to Friday. You will work with the permanent school teacher of your chosen school.
For accomodation, volunteers are placed with a suitable local host family, as a way of getting the best out of the cultural experience. With very few exceptions, these families are small-scale farming families, and you are encouraged to take part in this interesting and varied way of life. There's quite a lot of flexibility within the program: volunteers can decide if they would like to work the same days and hours as the children, or if they would prefer a lighter teaching workload, and more emphasis on farmwork and conservation tasks. We ask for a minimum of 5 hours work per day, monday to Friday.
It's also fine to teach other subjects in addition to english, for example mathematics, physical education, music, and if you have skills in these areas and wish to share them, it's great to work with the permanent teacher of your chosen school to incorporate these skills into your teaching routine. Your role is to improve the english language skills of the schoolchildren, and to build up the self-confidence of local people (children and adults) which in many cases occurs naturally, simply by "being there", and remaining open and enthusiastic in your teaching tasks and in accompanying your chosen host family in their simple daily farming tasks.
This can be quite a "full-on" experience, in that contact with other people tends to be close to 100% with locals and teachers, who only speak spanish; and the location is fairly remote and rural. Therefore our program is a good fit for individuals seeking to improve their spanish and knowledge of cultural options beyond the north american/european model. On the other hand, it can be a poor fit for individuals who are not especially self-motivated, and/or would prefer to work with other people of their own cultural background and language.
The location
The setting is spectacular in terms of the landscapes - volcanoes, cloudforest and a picuturesque patchwork of agricultural fruits and vegetables. Finally, Intag is a very safe area in which to live and work. There are no especial health issues for visitors, and instances of theft, assault etc are extremely low (no incidents in Intag over the last 10 years, 2 instances of theft in Quito, which is a major urban area, the capital city of Ecuador)
Who we are looking for
You do not need to bring special equipment, though some volunteers choose to bring teaching aids such as "flash cards" and games, and you do not need to have a TESOL qualification. You do need to have a basic knowledge of spanish (which will inevitably improve rapidly), and the motivation and courage to jump in and give your time and energy to the very rewarding task of teaching english to under-priveleged children.
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