Information
Where does Intag work:
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Intag
Otavalo, Ecuador
Volunteer Abroad Positions Available
waste recycling experts
To assist with an innovative project to deal with the parish's waste by transferring it accross the local river on cables, then recycling the waste.
We'd like help from technicians qualified in the cable transfer part of the project, also in bioconstruction, composting, organic horticulture and tree nurserys.
Farm Assistants
Helping a local family of your choice in their daily tasks to maintain their crops and livestock, and sharing in family life in a remote, rural area of Ecuador. Accomodation and meals provided; minimum stay 1 week.
conservation/environmental assistant
This position involves working with the 2 nature reserve rangers ("guardaparques") who protect the huge nearby nature reserve, carry out patrols to make sure that local people respect laws to conserve the cloud forest and water resources and educate local children on environmental issues. Help with GPS land surveys and map elaboration required by the reserve rangers. Help with english for the rangers gratefully received. The rangers work in approx 100 communities, so covering a wider area than teaching or farm work volunteers. Accomodation and meals provided; minimum stay: 1 week.
teachers
teaching english to children aged 5-12 in any of the 9 primary schools in the parish, and/or teaching english to children aged 12- 18 at the secondary school in Cuellaje village. Teaching other subjects that interest the volunteer, for example art, music, sport, dance, basic computer/internet skills. Minimum length of stay: 1 week. Accomodation: with a local family, all meals provided.
Volunteer Online Positions Available
business and marketing consultant for ecotourism project
to improve the viability of a small ecotourism project in a remote, cloud forest region of Ecuador. To look at and improve the visitor experiences that we currently provide, with the aim of providing a worthwhile source of sustainable income for local people.
This opening would combine with one or more of the other openings (teaching, conservation and farmwork) with the idea that the volunteer could gain a realistic impression of the needs of local people, and of the touristic attractions of the area.
Volunteer Activity
| Ankura Ranade | 10/2011 - 11/2011 |
| Reshma Kulkarni | 05/2011 |
| Sandra Saulnier | 01/2009 - 04/2009 |
| Kirsten McKnight | |
| Ina Codrington |
Cost for Volunteers
The cost for volunteers is currently $30-35 per week, paid direct to the family that is receiving them. see www.intagtour.com for more info.
Volunteer Placement Logistics
Volunteers would require the ability to cope in an isolated, rural community. Most volunteers prefer to stay for their first day or so in a guest house, while they "find their feet", and once ready, stay with a local family, where there is a great chance to learn and make friends with people who live in a way quite different from what most "foreigners" are accustomed to.
a friend of the project, Sra Chari Agea and her husband Felix, meets and welcomes volunteers at quito airport and shows them around the city. see www.intagtour.com for contact details.
We would like to be able to provide continuity of service to local schools throughout the year, and as their are 9 community schools within the parish, we are always short of volunteers. Our minimum length of stay is 1 week.
Volunteer Skills Needed
In order to teach, you need at least basic spanish. This is the main requirement, as we find that most volunteers feel frustrated if they cannot communicate in a basic way with their host family and with the children. We can help in improving your spanish, if you feel you would like to receive classes from a native english speaker, though many volunteers make remarkable progress with spanish simply by "making a nuisance of themselves" with their host family, by which I mean asking lots of questions, not being afraid to insist on the speaker repeating and/or slowing down, and waiting while the volunteer writes in a notebook. Far from being "a nuisance", local people love to help in this way...