Destination: EcuadorBook now!
Organization: Yachana Foundation

Minimum Time Commitment: Any Amount

Over the last 16 years, the Yachana Foundation has generated and invested approximately 5.2 million dollars in the Ecuadorian Amazon. They are truly an integrated development organization involved in many different aspects all designed to improve the lives of the people and protect the environment.  Yachana Lodge is an eco-friendly lodge housing guests and volunteers and Yachana Gourmet is a fair trade chocolate company. The Foundation is involved in geotourism, education, agriculture, health, income generation and technical assistance for the local people in their Amazon region.

Service Opportunities:

Since 1994, Yachana Foundation has acquired over 4,300 acres of primary and secondary Amazon rainforest. The Ecuadorian Ministry of Environment has declared all of their land as protected rainforest.
Travelers wishing to help with conservation may:

• Gather seeds and seedlings for the tree nursery;
• Work in the nursery mixing soil and caring for the seedlings;
• Prepare areas of pasture and secondary forest for reforestation; and
• Reforest these areas with native tree species cultivated in the nursery.

Service travelers may also work together with local Amazon youth studying at the nearby Yachana Technical High School where all learning is focused on three main areas: rainforest conservation, sustainable agriculture, and eco-tourism. The school was opened in 2005 to benefit high school-age indigenous and mestizo students who live in remote rural communities in Ecuador's Amazon region, and is designed to provide access to education that is relevant to their lives.

In 1997, Yachana Foundation and Amanecer Campesino established the Mondaña Medical Clinic in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon. The Clinic was the only full-time, fully staffed medical facility in the remote Upper Napo River Region at the time. In 2005, the Foundation officially handed the title to the Mondaña Clinic over to the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health in an effort to bring long-term sustainability to the Clinic, and to guarantee that sufficient medical supplies and staff will be provided to meet the healthcare needs of the local people.

Yachana has developed a Clinical Rotation Program designed to provide public health and clinical experience to students and health professionals in the fields of medicine, nursing, and public health. Medical volunteers participate in community-based public healthcare activities run by the Ministry of Health in the local communities in the vicinity of the Clinic.