Fundación Cielo Azul (ECU-107)

Type: Human Rights: Indigenous Rights - Country: Ecuador

Brief description and main aims

Fundación “Cielo Azul” works in different communities around Otavalo (30.000 people) with indigenous people in their rural schools.

At the moment, there are 11 schools cooperating with "Cielo Azul”. Our aim isto provide education to the communities.

Main Activities

Cielo Azul’s schools are located on the outskirts of the city of Otavalo, where classes are given to children and young people from the communities. Activities include agriculture, environmental care, sports, computers, and arts and crafts. As they are community schools, the family of each student is very involved in order to promote development. The mothers prepare the food for the school children and promote the consumption of the products they grow and take care of.

Volunteer tasks

The volunteer should:

help at school in the areas of: English, Sports and Arts or in other areas where help is needed
help in the school garden harvesting vegetables for lunch (this depends on the school the volunteer works at)
prepare/offer workshops or free-time activities for the children

Many families live from agriculture and expect the volunteers to help in this task and in their daily activities (e.g. help with the homework).

Volunteer requirements / Skills

It’s an advantage to speak good Spanish because the local people often speak Kichwa and you don’t learn a lot of Spanish in the family. They have to be very flexible and adaptable because the schools generally suffer from poor management and so things are always changing a lot. Volunteers have to communicate with people and integrate themselves within their community.