Every Share Helps!

ORPHANAGE PROJECT

A family can exist without children, but a child cannot exist without family. In the last two decades the population of Ecuador has doubled with growing incidences of abandoned children and teenage mothers in the streets or hospitals.
The orphanage volunteer program is located in a safe area on the outskirts of Quito, more or less 30 minutes by bus from the capital’s old town or new town. Children end up at the orphanage because they come from drug-addicted families or parents who are in jail, or because they are orphans, street children or other children in a difficult situation.
The orphanage provides foster children a home house run by a very small staff. The house has a children’s home, an elementary school, a bakery, a small carpentry area, a sewing room and a small farm land. With the exception of the school, all the activities had to be stopped during the crisis of 2001.
For this critical project, there is a need for volunteers who are willing to share their efforts and love for children, and perhaps help these underprivileged children by teaching basic English or Spanish. (Depending on the school’s needs, other subjects such as computers and physical education may be taught.)
Volunteers can also help by feeding, caring for, and simply playing with these very young children. Without this affordable orphanage project, many of these children would be abandoned and homeless. Volunteers also help in developing creative programs in art, music, dance, sports, etc. On some days, additional help with homework, sanitation, cooking, and administration might be requested.
This project offers you a most wonderful and important volunteer opportunity: the chance to work in an orphanage and share your love, skills and efforts with poor children.

YOUNG MOTHERS PROJECT

Volunteers may help by caring for the children, as well as assisting with educational workshops for the young mothers, teaching English, and/or participating in recreational activities. Past workshop themes included gender communication, self-esteem and sex education. Volunteers are encouraged to teach workshops. This is a great opportunity to bring the required materials and show off your skills.Teen mothers come to the shelter for a place to stay and to receive food to eat. The purpose of the shelter is to give the mothers hope by teaching them about childcare and the realities of motherhood. The shelter also has a small workshop area where the mothers produce artisan products. The skills learned in the workshop help them to build skills for when they leave the shelter and the products created are sold to raise money for the upkeep and running of the home. This outstanding project focuses on a shelter that provides a home for as many of these girls and their unborn children as possible. In this shelter, these adolescents are shown a different life path; one that could lead to a more productive life than they would have ever known possible without this opportunity. It is not uncommon for such desperate girls to drift into the sex trade industry or the world of drug use; further blighting their lives and potential to contribute meaningfully to society. Many teen mothers abandon their babies due to lack of support, or simply because they are overwhelmed and under-prepared for the experience of motherhood.These abandoned pregnant, adolescent rape victims (adolescents), often only thirteen or fourteen years old, face a dismal future. They are without money, support, homes or any job prospects. Most worrying of all, these adolescents are carrying for an unborn baby, who will enter a world where education will not be available to them and their options for a self-sustainable life non-existent. One expects a reaction from the mother, but not the sort of reaction that is so common here in Ecuador. As a result of the rape, the mother feels shamed and often times jealous. It is likely that the mother will abandon her own daughter who is then shunned from the family. This leaves the daughter without the comfort of additional family members for should be there proving support.In Ecuador, it is not uncommon for women to raise 5 or more children, each with different biological fathers. A sad reality is that it is also common for the mother’s latest companion to rape the eldest daughter, often resulting in pregnancy.

CHILD CARE PROJECT

Other activities will also be required, such as organizing the classroom or any other special needs. The volunteers will also get involved with the children in various games and learning exercises to better allow them to develop their own physical health and attain their growth potential. Your work will be so much appreciated!Do you have a special skill? The children would be delighted if you would share your and knowledge and experience in music, dance, painting or any different activities that would help with their stimulation. Your volunteer work can help resolve some daily necessities. For example, you will take care of them with their first steps, and by playing, feeding, watching their social abilities and making handcrafts. Basically, you will help with your heart and your open arms.Other activities will also be required, such as organizing the classroom or any other special needs. The volunteers will also get involved with the children in various games and learning exercises to better allow them to develop their own physical health and attain their growth potential. Your work will be so much appreciated!Do you have a special skill? The children would be delighted if you would share your and knowledge and experience in music, dance, painting or any different activities that would help with their stimulation. Your volunteer work can help resolve some daily necessities. For example, you will take care of them with their first steps, and by playing, feeding, watching their social abilities and making handcrafts. Basically, you will help with your heart and your open arms.The child care is often equipped with minimal resources and is underfunded, understaffed, and poorly managed. As a result, the community loses confidence in child care centers, failing to make use of its resources. Mothers and children receiving services are provided with little or no attention and care.The child care school has been designed for children with lower economic resources, typically range in age from 1 year old to five years old. Many of the children come from very modest backgrounds where their family members are largely illiterate; the school is the only place they can be while their mothers work during the day, and also it is their only source of reliable nutrition throughout the day.This volunteer project is located in a child care school started primarily to serve single working mothers in a rural area. Here, mothers have been working together for their own benefit and for all the mothers who don't have a place where their children can stay while they are working.

CHILDREN WITH SPECIAL NEEDS

Eco Volunteer UP welcomes any volunteer that has skills suitable for such a project or wants to learn. But the skills need not be very advanced. For example, some experience in yoga would be very helpful. We are really looking for those with an interest in working with these kids. Volunteers interested in this project must especially have affection for being with these children. Although it is very upsetting to see the way these illnesses have affected such young lives, it is immensely rewarding to offer them care and attention and to see them respond to assistance and love. Volunteers will help the therapist in many areas. Additional work includes caring for the children through feeding, washing, playing and teaching.The school has around 30 children with 5 therapists. The children practice motor skills, receive physical, language, musical and psychological therapy, and one time per month hippo-therapy. The children also receive a snack and lunch. The voluntary project aims to help the children by offering them physical therapy, stimulation and care.This volunteer project is a school for children with few economic resources who are affected by cerebral palsy, or reduced motor or speech skills. Some of the children are not capable of controlling their bowels. The school is the only place where they can learn to adapt on their own because they are often kept at home without adequate care or attention, and in some cases they are even locked in their homes while their parents go to work.You love spending time with children...and would thoroughly enjoy giving disadvantaged children something back through your time and efforts. Put a smile on their faces.

ELDERLY VOLUNTEER PROJECT

If you would like to turn this volunteer experience into an internship, there are opportunities to work with doctors or nurses in fields such as occupational therapy or rehabilitation. Volunteers will help by reading, cooking and playing with them, doing exercises, taking a walk with them, massaging, helping to feed, teaching bakery, doing handcrafts, and more. Volunteers can also assist through their own research in areas like health and human science. The elderly come to the center to receive medical attention or occupational therapy, or simply to have a good time with other people and to make friends. The Elderly project is a center that gives care to elderly people, who have been abandoned, and are otherwise living and begging on the streets, often selling cigarettes and snacks. It is also for those who have special needs including mental problems. This volunteer project was created out of the need to assist the many poor elderly people who have become sick and abandoned by their own families who have neither the time nor the money to take care of them.