Ecoteer

A memory from Venezuela

This was written by Eva an ex-volunteer who had participated in a community and conservation volunteering project based in Venezuela.

The 4 weeks I have spent at the project site have been a fantastic experience! I’m back in Denmark now, back to my “normal life”, my nice apartment and comforts, my busy social life… But thinking at the time at the foundation I can’t help smiling! It has been a journey for me.

I had one entire month vacation and I was looking for inspiration on how to spend it: I wanted to do something different, see something new and possibly give a meaning to that experience, so there I found the best project, just browsing the net: the website, the information, the places shown in the pictures: they all looked good, professional, well organized, so after some investigation I thought, why not? And I sent my application. So here I come! First time in South America and first time as volunteer!

When I arrived in Santa Elena (after an incredibly long trip) I was wondering where I was and trying to grasp what that was all about. The place was really beautiful, the nature and the landscape were breath-taking. The project site is really an amazing place for personal development: you can make what you want out of it! There are different options on the way you can contribute and my experience in the teaching and tutoring programs was really rewarding. Working with the kids had been good fun and I loved it when they expressed words of appreciation to our work and the fact that they enjoyed learning English and eager to try new things out. And when meeting them on the streets in Santa Elena and hearing “Hola Profe!!” I must admit that made me feel good!

The cooperative living part was the least easy for me, used to total freedom and independence, the life together in a shared space sometime was pushing my limits a bit. But the people I’ve met have definitely left a trace in me: Sarah, we arrived the same day and we bonded a lot and had great time together. Yunior, fantastic friend, my staying would not have been the same without him. We were the early birds of the project and it was nice starting the day chatting with you in the kitchen while preparing breakfast. And we had really good time playing pool and enjoying a Polar Ice. Kelvis, short but sweet, would have been fun if you could stick around a bit longer. Ruben, todo bello, the man full of resources.

Once we got to know each other better it was really good fun to spend time and have a laugh together. Andrea, it was great meeting you. And very encouraging to see that being a volunteer and working with NGO’s can be a truly professional experience, requiring the right background and motivation that can be closer to the world I know, and it is not only for idealists and visionary people that are trying to save the world before trying to save themselves. I think that the experience of being there and working with Manfred in the NGO management of the project will be brilliant for you and your future career.

Manfred, you are the men! I hope that your ambition of being dispensable at the project site will finally work (a bit at least) so that you will be able to take your well deserved vacation! I hope that the other volunteers will have the chance, as I did, to get to know you better and hear some of your stories. Your passion and dedication to the organisation cause are absolutely admirable and this world needs quite a few of your kind! I’ve been really impressed and inspired by your stories: your life and experiences, working with street children in Caracas, moving to Santa Elena, starting everything again from scratch… I hope you’ll have the chance to travel back to Germany with your gorgeous daughter, and give your mum the pleasure to meet her only grandchild. Manfred, take care, and thanks again for the experience!! A big hug to everybody!

Cheers Eva

Want to know more about this community and conservation project in Venezuela? Find out more at Ecoteer Volunteer Venezuela.

Interested to browse volunteering projects in other parts of the world? Try Volunteer in Malaysia!

Help out in a Uganda Primary School

Moses is a teacher from the a primary school in Bujagali Falls Uganda, is a very dedicated teacher. Besides teaching the kids, he is very much involved in many things related to the community development around the school. Uganda as many people know, is a poor country with high cases of AIDS. Many of the kids who attend the school where Moses taught, are orphans as their parents were victim to AIDS. With that, many of the kids have little or no money at all.

Thus Moses with another 15 teachers form a volunteering project to provide for the children and community needs. Most of the children need books, stationary, uniforms but these are generally quite expensive so most of the children drop out from school not soon after they have joined. However this does not deter the teachers to make a difference.

Moses and his team of teachers form projects to help make their school and community environment a better one. The projects were successful with the help from local and foreign volunteers as well as donations.

Children could not concentrate in class because they have no breakfast and lunch, so porridge are provided to help with the children concentration. Now the school have a new kitchen thanks to the volunteers and more porridge can be prepared to fill up more tummies to make these children feel more energetic! The children now also have a room called ‘Library’. However more books of reading age 7-15 are needed to fill the shelves of the Library. But it is a good progress looking back from how the school started just from a few shacks.

Volunteers who had participated in this projects are touched by the dedication of Moses and his team of teachers put in to the projects. The ex-volunteers donated some money and with that Moses has recently put electricity, running water, showers and flush toilets in the volunteer accommodation so that the volunteers could have the benefit of this.

Currently in this project, donations are needed to provide the children with teaching and learning resources, three new classrooms, science equipment and raw materials to conduct basic experiments, cupboards and shelving, metal doors and shutters and second hand digital camera used as teaching resources.

Besides that, the girls are in need of sanitary pads because it is too expensive for the poor communities. Without sanitary pads, it becomes very unsanitary and disallow the girls to go out from their home during during their periods. Most of the time, the girls would be using water from the puddles to clean themselves because they have no access to nearby clean water sources. Thus sanitary pads would help them and reduce the unhygienic conditions.

Volunteers are welcome to join Moses and his team to help out in the projects to make the school and the community surroundings a better place to live in. More stories about this project at Success of Volunteers in Uganda.

Find out more about this project at Teach/ Help a variety of task to help develop a poor Uganda primary school.

Here is a video on the children singing the Busoga tribe national anthem before their school starts.

Want to find for other humanitarian volunteering projects? Find out more at Ecoteer – Humanitarian Projects.

Ecoteer article in The Star newspaper!

The Star newspaper is one of the main daily newspaper read in Malaysia and today on the 17th of January 2012, an article on Ecoteer was published! Of course quite an amount of effort was put in to have this article published in a quite glorious manner.

Our two full paged article appeared in the Star 2 section paged 2 and 3 of this newspaper and hopefully it looks attractive and would inspire local and foreign tourist to opt for a low environmental impact holiday. The article included an introduction on how Ecoteer was found by Daniel Quilter, followed by the concept of Ecoteer and how this concept of volunteering while holidaying is quite foreign to Malaysian tourist.

The article also included some background stories about the community & conservation program and turtle conservation project in the lovely tropical island of Perhentians as well as the English project located in the palm oil estates of Sukau, Sabah.

Read the original article in The Star Online: Ecoteer – Vacation with a difference

Want to know more about green traveling and responsible volunteering? Find out more at Ecoteer: Travel With A Cause or drop us an email to inquire more about our projects at contact@ecoteer.com.

Volunteer: Conservation of Amazon Community

The Ecuador Amazon rainforest is one of the Earth’s treasures, a highly biodiverse place and also the home to the Shiwiar people. The Shiwiar territory is one of the most pristine and isolated places in the Amazon forest and could only be reached by air transportation.

A hardcore nature lover could spend their whole day living in this jungle observing unique, wonderful or even weird creatures roaming around in the forest while enjoying the peace and serenity of this pristine undisturbed forest. Sadly the Ecuadorian government does not value the forest and indigenous people of the Amazon. Lands are being sold off to multinational companies for short term profits, destroying the fragile ecosystem and the negatively affecting the lives of the indigenous people.

With that, a natural instinct to protect ones home came to Pascual Kunchicuy from the Shiwiar tribe. An ecotourism project was set up to invite people to come and have a look at the Shiwiar people way of living. The money will then be used to purchase the forest land with the long term aim of protecting the forest.

Volunteers are welcome to experience their culture but at the same time volunteers would be helping out in tasks such as teaching English to the local tribes, construction, accountancy, floral and fauna studies, hosting tourist and many more.

Volunteers are also needed for the biodiversity research programme working in conjunction with local community projects. The expedition is a biodiversity research expedition working in conjunction with local community projects and research findings will help to more effectively manage and conserve this endangered habitat. Volunteers will be able to study rare and endangered species, hear the sounds of the Dusky Titi and Howler monkeys in the mornings while exploring the Amazon forest and learn a wide range of methods used in biodiversity research. It is the perfect project for nature lovers who are looking for green eco projects during their gap year, career break or just simply for the fun of it!

Interested and want to know more about this volunteer project? Find out more at Volunteer For The Conservation of Amazon Community.

This video shows what drives the Shiwiars to protect their forest and their future.

Welcome to Phil, Alex & Football!

At the start of October, RUDEC welcomed Ecoteer Volunteer Phil Gurney from the UK to the family. He will be initially volunteering until July 2012 and is open minded about joining as a long term volunteer. A Scouts Leader and Senior Mentor at ‘The Challenge’ (The largest provider of the British Government’s National Citizen Service), he is passionate about young people and helping them to unlock their potential as responsible, energised members of the community.

At the start of November, RUDEC also welcomed Alex Bradley from the UK. Alex will be volunteering until the end of January and brings with him a wealth of experience of working with, and supporting, the most deprived and disadvantaged families in the communities of the UK. During his time in Belo, Alex will be working with Phil to develop and launch a new development project which utilises the power of sport. Football4Action (F4A) aims to empower young people to be leaders of social change. By providing educational workshops which combine football with health/life skills F4A will help young people to develop their personal & social skills, give them a safe environment to express themselves and discuss important community issues, and lay the foundations for a legion of F4A Ambassadors (peer-educators) capable of spreading their message throughout the region. The project start date is January 2012 and Phil and Alex are hard at work laying the necessary foundations to make the project a success. Donations of footballing equipment are essential to make this project possible.

Any donations (financial or equipment) are greatly welcomed and will enable RUDEC to provide young people with rights that are not currently being adequately met: The ‘right to full opportunity for play, recreation & sport’ (principle 7, Declaration on the Rights of the Child) & ‘the right to a voice on matters that affect them and to havetheir views taken seriously’ (UN Convention on the Rights of the Child).

Ecoteer volunteers use their volunteering to start a career

As a small boy Nick Hogervorst(20) from Holland loved to watch wildlife documentaries on the Discovery channel. Especially Africa drew his attention. When he got older he really went for the adventure. A three months trip to south Africa, an amazing experience. Now back in Holland he shakes up the world. Be careful with nature!

“Most of my toys were plastic wild animals or stuffed animals”, is what he remembers. “ and besides my uncle had a dairy farm where I often stayed in the holidays and helped out. I think this is where my passion for animals developed.”

After High school Nick started a study to become a veterinary assistant. the plan was to study further and become a vet. But after a while the study started to bore him so it appeared not to be the right choice. “I needed to get out and do something completely different”

“With my mum I stated to look at travel agencies. I always wanted to experience Africa. After a few weeks we found the perfect organization with amazing projects. After a intensive preparation I went to Hoedspruit, South Africa. Where I had the best 12 weeks of my life! I got the chance to help raising lion cups and rhino baby’s, caring for a cheetah cup. Training vultures and lots more. Also I achieved my FGASA level 1. That is the first level in Field guiding. So now I’m registered as a recognized first level safari guide at the field guide association southern Africa. Witch I’m proud of. I’ve learned, seen and experienced so much. And especially I’ve met incredible people. As a turned just 18 this journey had a big effect on me. I started to get really annoyed by all the things humans where doing to the beautiful nature worldwide. I had to do something, but what could I do?”

After the travel the adventurer started a new study Ecology&Wildlife. While looking for an internship he found the Atlantic whale foundation in Tenerife.

A hit !

Atlantic Whale Foundation
“This organization gives students a chance to observe and study dolphins and whales on the south coast of Tenerife. But the biggest part of the work is spent on problems in the world like whale hunting, poaching in Africa, loss of habitat, marine pollution and many more horrible subjects” Nick says.” The AWF raises awareness thru media and presentations and they also fight these problems where they start. by letting people know who is responsible for these scandals. They are also setting up new projects in counties as Sierra Leone. That is where AWF will help the community after years of war by education and setting up small businesses. They will also make documentaries and provide the opportunity for students to study the fantastic wildlife of Sierra Leone.”

Nick was very impressed by the organization of Ed Bentham, the founder of AWF, a very inspiring man. “I’ve went to Tenerife four times now to help out.”

Volunteer with Cetaceans

AWF Goes Wild
“After this experience I found it very difficult to stay busy with conservation at home. So I decided when I was back in June to set up my own part of AWF. A fundraising mechanism where I can put in all my energy and idea’s. and do completely my own thing an raise money for amazing projects around the world.”

Jake Parsons
Nick: “in the meeting at the house in Tenerife I held a shout out to anyone who would want to help me out with all my idea’s. everyone was enthusiastic and same night we all got together and had a little brainstorm. But there was one person who stood out and stayed up the whole night with me. And that person is Jake Parsons who without I would’ve never been able to do this. After a few days we decided on a name AWF Goes Wild! After that the whole thing took off and we’ve got a beautiful website.” (www.awfgoeswild.com)

Amsterdam Goes Wild
This year Nick and Jake are raising money for Save the rhino trust Namibia. This organization protects the last living wild population of black rhino’s. they raise the money by organizing big party’s around Europe the first party was on the 28^th of Oct in Club Roses Amsterdam and was a big success! And soon they will have a bar crawl in Bournemouth.

Nick is a keen Ecoteer member and is currently helping to promote not only his new ventures but also Ecoteer.com

Volunteer abroad – Ecoteer.com offers volunteer opportunities around the world

Responsible Travel in Asia – Ecoteer Responsible Travel offers green holidays which include an aspect of volunteering in Asia

Volunteerabroadasia.com– directory of low cost volunteer projects in Asia

Turtle conservation – Help Our Penyu a sea turtle conservation project was initiated by Ecoteer

Soapnuts — Mother Nature’s Answer to Wash and Clean

Have you ever realized that to make our household clean and tidy, free from dirt and dust, we used a lot of commercial detergents and cleaners? For example, we have washing detergents for dishes, laundry detergents for washing our clothes, floor cleaners to clean our floors. Imagine the amount of harmful chemicals and other stuff that we are using just to make sure that our house is clean as well as these products are then dumped into the sewerage and environment after used, multiply that amount by the number of people in the world, that is a very scary and alarming thought.

For people who can really afford it and environmentally conscious, there are many so called natural ingredients based cleaners and detergents that are currently available on the market, but the price of these products are usually a bit pricey for the rest of us. But even then, each of these products has its own plastic packaging and manufacturing process to produce it, this would translate to a significant amount of the carbon footprint and waste just to get that natural cleaner and detergents out to consumers. It has since been a quest of sorts for me to search for the ultimate cleaning agent from Nature and finally after so long, I’ve finally been able to come across what I believe is Nature’s best answer to my quest so far and the best part of it is that it grows on trees. ☺

Soapnuts are actually a kind of berries that grow on the soapnut trees which are usually found in the wild in Indonesia, Nepal and India. Once the fruits have ripened, they are gathered by hand, dried in the sun and with its seed taken out. The scientific name for soapnut is Sapindus Rarak or Sapindus Mukorossi (depending on where it is grown) reveals the powerful magic that gives it the ability to clean and wash, this magic ingredient is called saponin. Soapnut releases saponin when it is wetted, it is the saponin that helps to effectively wash and clean a wide range of items, from doing the laundry, doing the dishes to be used as a pesticide for plants. The saponin from the soapnut effectively replaces the current use of chemical detergents and commercial soaps that are currently found in today’s markets.

If we can replace all the commercial detergents and cleaners in the world, just imagine the amount of carbon footprint and environmental related pollution that would be significantly reduced by just using berries that are grown from trees. For those people who want to have live an eco-friendly and green lifestyle, this is really living the concept of coming from nature, going back to nature.

Soapnut Applications and Uses

1. All purpose cleaner
2. Laundry Detergent (Good for High Efficiency washing machine)

3. Great for washing of batik, silk, linen and delicate fabrics

4. Floor Cleaner

5. Jewellery cleaner

6. Window and glass cleaner

7. Dishwasher detergent

8. Hair Shampoo

9. Pet Shampoo

10. Vegetable wash

Online resources on using Soapnuts

1. How to Wash your Clothes Naturally with Soap Nuts

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HUm5S6Svomg

2. Soapnut Recipe 1 Making Liquid Cleaner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CR2SLj7bZFM

3. Soapnuts Recipe 2 Foam Cleaner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ASjw9QYcYFw

http://www.soap-nut.info

1. Bloo Lagoon Village, Bali

2. AIONA Guest House, Bali

3. Balila Guesthouse, Bali

4. Annabel Inn, USA

5. Salon Pacifique, Finland

6. Paskins Townhouse, UK

2010 Volunteers Impacts on Community projects – Kenya

We are proud to have made some positive impacts through our eye-opening volunteer program to local grassroots projects.

As the year 2010 winds up and we look forward to greater achievements, we have significantly changed the lives of both the local communities and volunteers as stated by one of our community project member:

“Volunteers have awakened a new sense of pride to our initiatives in the small forgotten villages of the world, it is a spirit to be upheld” Ann Anam – Uhanga education water and sanitation project, Nyanza Province – Kenya.

Indeed, this is a spirit to be cherished and honoured just like those who have volunteered would testify. There are many other sentiments echoed by volunteers and the communities, such as appreciation, pride, and openness to other cultures… This appreciation and hope calls for the continuation of our programs for the benefit of the local people.

In this Year 2010, we have worked with more than 10 different community projects in Kenya dealing with environmental and wildlife conservation, humanitarian, teaching and healthcare.

In these projects, we have been able to get over 200 international volunteer applicants from all over the world. And this has helped the communities to take the projects to the next level, for the benefit of the whole community, through implementation of ideas shared by the volunteers, skills input and physical labour.

All in all, there is still a lot to be done and many community initiatives to be uplifted. We thus hope that Year 2011 will bring more smiles to volunteer’s faces and thumbs up developmental steps to the community projects we support. We appreciate the efforts that have been put in by our partners, such as Ecoteer, which makes it easier for volunteers to find suitable placements. We also want to thank all the volunteers who have offered their time and energy to community projects. And we welcome any goodwill among the young people around the world, who want to make a difference in development and will thus discover more about themselves.

Thank You for reading,

Please visit our Ecoteer placement page now

Volunteer Kenya

What Ecoteer volunteers get up to in India

In 2009/2010, we had a total of 15 volunteers at our rural development project in
the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, some 120 miles east of Delhi.  They included
three L.S.E. graduates, a nurse from the U.S.A., a computer scientist from Canada, a
language and media teacher from Germany, a high school graduate from Norway, a
mental health nurse from Barbados and a marketing manager from Spain as well as
six others from the U.K. – in other words, a very cosmopolitan mix. They all
enjoyed their stay and four of them, who live in or near London, joined our
executive committee on their return and are now trustees.

These volunteers did a range of activities while in the project. Two of the L.S.E.      graduates undertook a research project into the pollution of the countryside caused by a large paper mill that was set up in the area fifteen years ago. The third looked into the financial viability of running a computer course for local villagers and students.  Anita, whose particular interest is photography, took many excellent photos for us during her stay. She also assisted with the teaching of English in the project primary school.  Teaching English to the primary schools students is an activity that is always available to volunteers and visitors. Our volunteers also worked hard to stimulate the village children whose parents are often illiterate. They organised simple games, songs and art projects which the children loved.

There were also opportunities to teach Conversational English to older students who are studying in the degree college in the village. This is an important part of their education. Without a reasonable knowledge of English, villagers cannot compete for jobs against townspeople. The project’s aim is to bring the modern resources and facilities of the towns and cities to the villages.

During the year, we also had return visits from three people who had volunteered with us several years ago.

To find out more about our project please visit our Ecoteer page at Volunteer in India

Terengganu Eco and Marine Tourism Conference (TEMCO 2010)

On the 1^st November 2010 Azimi and myself went to the first Terengganu marine and ecotourism conference.  One of the highlights of the conference was listening to Anuar McAfee who told us about the birds of Terengganu. He has seen 8 species of hornbill within a square mile near Tasik Kenyir which is more than the whole of Sarawak or even Borneo has.  I was shocked to hear there were even any species of Hornbill as I thought they only lived on the island Borneo. In fact Terengganu has a large variety of birds due to many types of habitats from montane to island.  We also listened to a talk from my good friend and owner of the world renowned Sukau Rainforest Lodge – Albert Teo.  Ecoteer has volunteer opportunities at Sukau Rainforest Lodge.  He told us about his new venture in the northern part of Sabah in an area near Kudat.  He is doing capacity building and soft skills training with the local communities there with the view to opening a new community based tourism product.  I really like the way Albert is so humble even though his lodge has just been named the best accommodation in Asia at the world tourism awards –you definitely cannot say success has gone to his head.

The second day the event turned to the sea with talks on the coastal environment of Terengganu, an ecosystem named BRIS.  The dominating species of the BRIS ecosystem are Melaleuca which includes the species nicknamed the Tea Tree.  Prof Jamilah from UMT told us about how the local people use the trees for medical purposes and handicraft – this could be a possibility for community based tours.  You can get the chance to experience the BRIS environment if you join the Terengganu Turtle conservation expedition.  After the BRIS talk, Rahayu from WWF Malaysia spoke of the potential for turtle tourism in the state and Clement Lee of Borneo Divers told us how Sipadan Island and Borneo Divers have benefitted from them removing their resort off the island.  It is a real credit that Borneo Divers did remove their resort from the island and the recovery of the island just shows how much damage resorts do to marine habitats.

The conference was wrapped up by a tour of the Setiu wetlands, PEWANIS and ended up with us all planting mangrove trees.  The ladies of PEWANIS are very inspirational and are developing their own cottage industries and conservation initiatives like the mangrove replanting.  Ecoteer through their Terengganu Turtle Expedition are supporting PEWANIS.  As an expedition volunteer you will not only get to meet and dine with the ladies but also join in a mangrove tree replanting session and help them make Kerepek Pisang (Banana chips) which they are famed.

All in all the conference was very interesting and a great success.  We hope this is not the last Terengganu Eco and Marine tourism Conference but the first of many.

Well done to the organisers.