Volunteer with animals in the Amazon, Ecuador
Are you looking for an adventurous trip with a purpose, or on a gap year or career break? If you want to make a difference in some of the world’s most important conservation areas - and in community projects - then volunteer trips are for you! Volunteers tend to have a sense of adventure, and come from a range of different backgrounds and from all over the world.
Edward Abbey said 'sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul'.
How this vacation makes a difference
Environment
With you help, the centre will keep expanding, in order to receive more animals that need to be rescued from people that have kept them as pets. Some of them are in conditions to be rehabilitated and released into the wild. The environment certainly feels the positive effect; the centre creates enclosures as close as they can to the natural habitat of the animals, the purpose is to reattach the connexion between the animals and nature that was lost when kept as pets.
In the mainland in Ecuador, we work with different rehabilitation centres that work on the rehabilitation of injured animals and illegal pets. We also work with conservation projects throughout the Galapagos that focus on restoring native species and conserving the current state of the islands. Through our programs our volunteers are encouraged to participate and in their efforts. They actively participate in the activities of these foundations and a portion of their program fees go directly towards operating finances of these projects.
In our office we try to maintain environmental consciousness by recycling, limiting our water usage and using energy efficient light bulbs. We also try to limit unnecessary waste by using electronic documentation when possible, rather than paper documents.
Community
This program enables you to become a responsible tourist mainly because the revenue you will leave during your trip will go towards helping the centre, since you will be staying there and having meals there, as well as using local guides and facilities. With this, you help the community to develop, and you get a chance to meet them, learn how they live, and understand all the problems they face daily. The Amazon Rescue centre is run by an animal-loving family and you will share your time with them, whilst listening to their stories and caring for the animals.
We employ local staff, all from Quito or Ecuador and most have attended local universities. New staff are trained accordingly. We have partnerships with local hostels and hotels. We work in contact with local producers to try to limit our carbon footprint.
Many of our programs directly involve community members. Whether it may be from teaching football to local youths, to teaching English to indigenous children or helping to build homes for needy families we are always community oriented. We do encourage our participants to take public transportation or walk, most find it refreshing and easy to use. There are three main public transportation systems in Quito: the Ecovia, the trolley and the bus system. We tell all our participants about these services.
When we do not provide food services to our participants and we encourage them to eat at local restaurants. There are many local restaurants that offer incredible varieties of food at affordable prices. Travelers get to experience new cuisine and this money goes directly to the local community. We have information sessions before the travelers begin their program.
1of7
