In the Artisan Shop in Ecuador of Renée and Mariana you can work as a volunteer in the arts and crafts, and thereby develop your artistic skills. Working in the shop, you can learn the techniques of Ecuadorian arts and crafts and create your own jewelry! Furthermore you can help creating income for the local people with your volunteer work.
While you learn to make crafts and jewellery, you alsoo will learn about the culture and history of Ecuador. The Taller group began work ten years ago and acted as a catalyst in the community, when they consciously created an environmentally sustainable source of income in the community.
Mariana and Renee now sell modern and traditional jewellery and crafts made from seeds and other materials that they sustainably grow and harvest in the cloud forest.
While you are working as a volunteer in the artisan shop, you also will learn to make crafts and jewellery from seeds and natural materials. During your experience, you will as well learn about the history of reforestation efforts in the community and the indigenous story of the Yumbo people. If you are an artsy, want to help a low-income community and be close to their culture, this is a perfect match for you to do all of this and be immersed in a new culture and language!
Iko Poran offers a wide range of activities for volunteers in the village Last Tolas in the cloud forest of the Ecuadorian Andes. You can choose whether you would rather teach English at the school, work in the vegetable gardens or nurture the herbal garden with medicinal plants. If you want to engage in ecology and environmental protection, you can plant trees as part of the reforestation project, or work in the nursery.
You can even plant coffee trees and pick coffee beans or milk the cows on the farm. For gentle tourism, you can help create footpaths in the cloud forest and much more. Volunteers have a very personal experience with a flexible approach, which guarantees that different volunteering activities can be chosen and tried during their placements.