Volunteer while learning Spanish in Quito, Ecuador

Volunteer with Macipucuna!

The MAQUIPUCUNA FOUNDATION was founded in 1988 as a nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of Ecuador's biodiversity and the sustainable use of natural resources. The foundation promotes the participation of local communities in its programs. Objectives and activities of the foundation include:

Establishment and management of private and governmental nature reserves.

Scientific, social and archaelogical research to achieve ecological restoration and cultural preservation.

Implementation of ecotourism programs for generating local economic opportunities

Environmental education and training of rural communities to promote sustainable use of natural resources.

Development of community-based resource management programs.

Promotion of inter-institutional cooperation

Some of the different volunteer placements for Maquipucuna are:

Orongo "Research Farm"
Orongo is a research farm where you will learn about all process of coffee plantation, banana plantation, citric fruits, native trees, cloud forest. The research started 3 years ago. They are very open to new agricultural studies.
Altitude: 1200m – 1600m
Activities:

Take care coffee plants at nursery

Plant Seedlings

Take care of sugar cane, banana, and coffee plantations area

Collecting data from insect traps (how many, which species are)

Monitoring the plagues from coffee and banana

Collect ripe Coffee fruits (seasonal time)

Accommodation
There is a house with three rooms, with 2 upper and a lower. Two shared bathrooms, and showers. The administrator’s wife is the cook, makes delicious dishes from the area (vegetarian food). The kitchen and the dinning room are shared with everybody.
Communication: internal radio, telephone Chacapata "Sweetie Town"
It’s located at the Northwest from Quito, it takes 3 hours. Chacapata has around 45 families, most of them are farmers, and have sugar cane crops and guadua (bamboo) plantations.
Altitude: 950m
Activities:

Work with women group in organic garden

Help to built a new house for volunteers in ñamparca farm (materials from the area as guadua “ecuadorian bamboo”, wood, palm leaves, etc.)

Learn and cultive sugar cane

Make brown sugar and sweets

Teach English (people who wants to do it, and know how to)

Environmental education program (activities)

Accommodation
There are three host families, who receive you. You will be part of the family, you will help in labor work, and you will practice your Spanish. There’s no hot shower, flush toilets in some houses.
Communication: N/A Santa Marianita Community
It's a community near by the Reserve. Over there live 50 families, they produce yuca (type of root), sugar cane, banana, citric fruits as oranges, lemons, etc, and tropical sweet fruits such as pineapple. Maquipucuna foundation has worked with them in some projects, right now there are five projects which you can be part of.
Activities:

Make handicrafts (women group make with bamboo, tagua, seeds, roots different nice things)

Tend to the organic garden

Help with the sugar cane production

Make marmalades (papaya and banana)

Teach English classes (people who really are interested, more than one month)

Accommodation:
Training center house, it's made of guadua (native plant from bamboo's family) and concrete, this house was made for giving a real value to the guadua and to show local people how beautiful a house can be with this material instead of using wood. Other services are: conference rooms, two rooms with lower and upper beds, three bathrooms, one hot water shower, two laboratories, one for propagation of orchids and the other one to produce marmalade.
Communication: internal radio (office in Quito, reserve, Orongo), and telephone.
Maquipucuna Reserve
It was established as Reserve in 1988, since then the reserve has had a lot of studies and researches, volunteers, tourists and job to many local people. The principal objective of the foundation is conserved in this hot spot.
Activities:

FASA (Self sufficiency Food Farm) Labor work

Trails (maintain, work with local guides)

Painting some signs

Collecting data of researches and studies of cloud forest

Orchid garden, green house transplanting orchids to cloud forest ecosystem.

Working with giant american bamboo (caña guadúa), collecting data of new population, how it’s growing, making furniture, and construction.
Accommodation:
The volunteers stay in Scientific Station, is a house made of wood with 6 rooms with 2 upper and lower beds each room, two hot water showers, four restrooms.
Communication: internal radio (office in Quito, reserve, Orongo)
Yunguilla- Eco Tourism Community
Yunguilla is a community located in the Andes, about one hour away from the capital of Quito (two hours with public transport). The community is situated at 2 800 meters above sea level, with the lower-lying areas descending to 1 400 meters. These lowest parts form part of the forest ‘Protector de la Cuenca Alta del Río Guayllabamba (CARG)’, situated in cloud forest ecosystem. Yunguilla has 50 families, and 45 families have formed an association to produce some products as jellies, cheese, organic products, recycling paper, and Ecoturism.

Staying with a family in the community (one volunteer per family). In general the volunteer has his or her own bedroom in the house, but due to socioeconomic conditions sometimes it is just not possible to give the volunteer his or her own bedroom. In this case the volunteer shares a room with other members of the family. The meals are served with the family and consist mainly of local products (mostly vegetables and grains; meat is hardly eaten) and dishes the families in the community commonly eat. This type of lodging allows a very direct way of integration in the community and a rich cultural exchange, although in the first days it can be hard for the volunteer to adapt to this way of living. In order to establish an equal distribution of the benefits, there is a rotary system in which all the families participate to receive visitors. The volunteer will work from Monday to Friday at different tasks in the community. The weekends are free to spend. Therefore there are two options:

Leave the community in order to visit other parts of Ecuador.

Stay in the community, with the opportunity to participate in social events.
The volunteer has to respect and conform to the community rules, which are designed to avoid problems for both the community and for the visitors/volunteers who are staying in Yunguilla.

Activities
Each volunteer receives a calendar of the activities for the period that the volunteer is going to stay in the community. The following activities might be part of the calendar:

Vegetable garden. Activities are sowing, cleaning, harvesting, and all other tasks which are related to the maintenance of and production in the vegetable garden of the women’s group. In the garden at least two women always work, as well as the promoter of the forestation project.

Marmalades. Assisting in production of jams.

Recycled paper. Assisting in the process of designing and making the paper “eco cards”.

Teaching English. Teaching elementary aged children, guides and high school English. Women from the women’s group perform all activities described above.

Community property ‘Tahuallullo’. Participating in the construction of paths, camping area, recreation area and other work related to the infrastructure of the land, as well as maintenance of the installations. The coordinator of the ecotourism project manages all these activities. Family farms. Farming tasks and tasks related to the forestation project, in the farms of the community members. This work is coordinated by the forestation promoter, with the
Cost

The cost per month for working with Maquipucuna foundation is $450/Mo. This includes food, lodging, and any other assistance that you might need. Part of the cost goes to students with limited resources who wish to volunteer with the foundation, and part also goes to the communities where you will be living. Just let Vida Verde know if you are interested when registering, and we will take care of the rest.

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