Long-term (more than 6 months) "work with disabled" projects in Ecuador

Located in the south of Quito, this school for mentally challenged children offers programs to prepare them for their future and to become independent individuals. Volunteers interested in this project will need to stay a minimum of 8 weeks, in order to follow up with the children’s progress.

Work consists in assisting the teachers taking care of the children, to play and teach them new games. Volunteers will also help the children at lunch time, helping them to learn how to eat by themselves.
Volunteers will work from Monday to Friday, afternoons free and weekends off.

Accommodation, breakfast and dinner are provided at Fundación Chiriboga’s house in Quito.

Basic knowledge of Spanish language is required.

280 Euro or US$330.
Fee includes 4 weeks of lodging, breakfast and dinner and administrative assistance in the offices of Fundación Chiriboga. The fee does not include lunch, all types of transportation, bottled water, extra food and drinks, phone calls and internet.

We offer volunteer programmes on the island of San Cristóbal, Galápagos. We have projects available in the following categories: environmental, community work and hypo-therapy, which uses the therapeutic movement of horses to treat numerous conditions.
Our projects are situated on the upper part of the island, and we rely on the co-operation between various organisations.

Our mission is to provide alternative activities and projects which promote participation with the native communities on the island.
Our vision is to create sustainable projects with civic participation to create more opportunities to enjoy the tranquility which exists in the upper part of the island, as much for the volunteers and tourists as for the population of San Cristóbal.

We have a house and 50 hectares of land which are used for the project. We have a tree nursery which is used for the reforestation project, and also use eight horses for the practice of hypo-therapy.

Furthermore, we work in co-operation with families in the communities on projects involving the control and monitoring of harmful plants, as well as cultural exchange. Additionally, we work in co-operation with various other organisations for Inter-cultural interaction with children and teaching of Basic English; technical support at a reforestation project; providing hypo-therapy workshops for children with special needs and to provide fruit for the canteen.

This is an ongoing project. Minimum period of volunteering is of 4 weeks.

For this project we are looking for volunteers who are therapeutic physicists or who have some knowledge or experience of working in this field in the past. Volunteers will work with children with special needs, look after horses, construct their own project with special needs children, and assist with the logistics of bringing the children from INNFA in the port to the estate.

Volunteers will work from Monday to Friday, from 9am-12am and from 3pm-5pm.

US$450, to be paid in Quito at Fundación Chiriboga offices.
It includes 4 weeks of accommodation in the project's house. When there are groups of more than 10 volunteers per project, volunteers will be placed in family homes in the port. Our services rely on help in all areas relating to the needs of the volunteers, in particular help in preparing meals. The volunteers will buy the supplies and will be assisted by a lady in the preparation of meals.

The fees also include a tour on horseback for a day, a day of surfing lessons, 10% discount in the Dive & Surf Club shop and a volunteering certificate signed by the manager and the director of the Charles Darwin Scientific Station. This fee does not include food, flights, any kind of transport, local tours, bottled water, extra drinks, phone calls or Internet.