Schools outside of quito

The school ´ Maria Angelica Idrobo´ is situated outside Otavalo, in a little typical Ecuadorian village named San Pablo. It is about 15 minutes by bus from Otavalo. The school is spacious and the surroundings are very impressive, at the base of the quiet volcano Imbabura and close to the beautiful Laguna de San Pablo.

Señor Alejandro (38 years old) is the very friendly director of the school. He receives each volunteer with a lot of joy and will help you with all the questions that you might have.  The school consists of different buildings, all together 10 classrooms, 1 aula, the directors office and a kitchen. At the school are 282 children in the age of 5-12, divided by 11 classes. At this moment there are 10 teachers at the school. Most of the children come from the surrounding communities and are indigenous people. Usually they will come to school in their traditional clothing.  Most of the children are from poor families, but look happy and smile a lot! During the time of project you’ll be staying with a family in the center of Otavalo.

What can you do as a volunteer at the school?
- Teach English, (there are enough books, brought by former volunteers)
- Help with creative activities
- Help with computer classes
- Help out the teachers in general
- Help with the lunch

Basic information:
Minimum:                    4 weeks
Spanish:                     Reasonable - good
Working hours:           6 hours per day, free in the weekends
Traveling time:            2 hours from Quito

Malinguapamba is a small community in the Andes of Ecuador. It is about a 4 hours drive to get there from Quito. The project is situated in the area of Quilotoa in the province of Cotopaxi and you can do beautiful hikes in the area.

In this small indigenous community you will stay for 4 weeks to help teaching at the primary or secondary school. You can teach English but even better other subjects like math, working with computers, geography, etc, etc. During your time in the community you will stay at the house of the president of the community and you will be taken care of by him, his wife and their sons and families. After classes you can go on hikes and enjoy these beautiful surroundings! Or of course you can help out with other activities in the community like planting seeds, reforestation, or any other things they might need your help with.

There are direct busses to Malingua from Latagunga, but to make the start of your project a bit easier you will first go to the town of Isinlivi. Here you will be met by the volunteer coordinator and being brought by car to your project. The volunteer coordinator will also explain you about the way of life in the community. The village of Isinlivi is about a 3 hours hike from Malingua and in case of problems, or if you just want to get away a day from the intense community life,  you can always come back here to meet other volunteers or tourists.

The people in the village are really nice and will always want to help you with everything. Despite this it will take some time to get used to the life of an Indigenous community, please take this in mind! There is no phone and no internet in the community.

What can you do as a volunteer in Malinguapamba?
- Teaching at one of the schools in the community
- Preparing your next days classes
- Playing with the little kids
- Helping with minga´s (every Tuesday the community comes together and works together on a project, can be planting seeds, making a hut, etc)
- Helping the families and community with anything they might need

Basic information:
Minimum:                    4 weeks
Spanish:                     Reasonable - good
Working hours:           8 hours per day, free in the weekends
Traveling time:            About 4 hours from Quito

Manos Unidas is a foundation located in the main city Esmeraldes in the province of Esmeraldas in the North of Ecuador. The two contact persons (Lucas and Manuel) started this project. They both are coming from the barrios of this city. Together with three others they started the foundation of Manos Unidas in 1990. The situation of the people that are living in this area is very bad. Most of the times they don’t have or see possibilities to leave the situations they’re in for a better future. The children that grow up in this area deal with problems at school, studies or home situations and are at risk to get exposed to drugs, prostitution and violence. With this project they want to give help and support to these children to improve their choices for the future.

What can you do as a volunteer within this project?
- Helping with the different education activities
- Developing education
- Talking and listening to the children and youth in the project
- Help to create manners of making handicrafts

Basic information:
Minimum:                    6 Months
Spanish:                     Good
Working hours:           Monday till Friday
Traveling time:            About 8 hours from Quito

The jungle-town Misahuallí is situated at about 7 hours of traveling south east of Quito. One hour from Misahuallí lays the more known town Tena (capital of the Napo province) that is slightly bigger. A lot of jungle tours start from Misahuallí because it's situated near the river Napo (a branch from the Amazon River) over which you'll go down into the jungle by canoe. The village is very laid back and has, besides the approximate 400 habitants, wild monkeys walking around the town square and along the riverside. People swim or washing themselves in the river is also a common sight.

What can you do as a volunteer at the Butterfly Farm project?
- Teaching at the local school in Misahuallí or in one of the communities around Misahualli.
- Prepare your classes for the next day
- Work at the butterfly garden in the afternoon
- During the high season you can also help out at the hotel: serving breakfast, lunch, dinner, selling drinks behind the bar, selling souvenirs, etc are just a few of the possibilities

The school in Misahualli is two streets away from the hotel where you'll sleep. The other schools are in the communities of Muyuna, Puyuna, and Chiripuna. To Muyuna you will usually go by canoe, a 5 minute trip and to the other 2 communities it is a half hour walk. Teachers, children and parents will be utterly thrilled about receiving (English) classes, especially in the communities. Besides giving classes at the communities you can also help them with other projects like a botanic garden, giving information about hygiene and health, starting small tourism projects to earn some more money, etc, etc.

In general you'll be rotating between the different working places. You can for example work at the schools in the morning and at the butterfly garden in the afternoon. A thing like a work itinerary doesn't exist; you'll decide your workload per day. In any case, discuss the work with Pepe and / or Margarita. Please keep in mind that life in the jungle is going slow!

Basic information:
Minimum:                    4 weeks
Spanish:                     Reasonable - good
Working hours:           About 7 hours per day, free in the weekends
Traveling time:            7 hours from Quito

Isinlivi is a small village in the Ecuadorian Andes, about 4 hours by bus from Quito. From this small village you can do great hikes in the Quilotoa area. In the village live indigenous people, but also mestiezos (mixture of Indigenous and Spanish people). The whole Quilotoa area is getting more and more popular with tourist who come to the area the enjoy one of the many hikes, visit one of the great indigenous markets, and of course Quilotoa crater lake. In Isinlivi there is a small ecological hostel, called Llullu Llama and this hostel will be the base of your volunteer project. The hostel is managed by a Dutch- Ecuadorian couple, Katrien and Jose Luis. Besides helping in the hostel you can help at the local school, primary and secondary and read books to the children in town and from the surrounding communities. During your time in Isinlivi you will stay in the hostel, or it can be possible that during high season your accommodation will be arranged elsewhere in the village. There are direct busses from Latacunga to Isinlivi. There is not internet in the village, but you can be reached by phone.

What can you do as a volunteer in Isinlivi?
- Helping at the hostel
- Teaching at the local school, primary and secondary
- Reading books to the children of the village
- Starting a garbage recycle project in the village
- Help with guiding hikes of the tourist and give information about the possibilities

Basic information:
Minimum:                    4 weeks
Spanish:                     Reasonable
Working hours:           About 6-8 hours per day, free in the weekends
Traveling time:            About 4 hours from Quito