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The Child Development Center "Guajira" is located in Ecuador in the province of Pichincha near the town of Cayambe. The project is a Center for Infant Stimulation for children from low economic resource sector who are mostly sons and daughter of employees of the Roses Plantation, Florecal..

The Center wants to provide children with quality care for that reason they require volunteers committed with children and volunteers who are willing to give children the opportunity to learn another language and try to open new horizons.

Program Description
The Child Development Center "Guajira" is at 2850 meters above sea level, at the foot of Cayambe volcano. The project attends children from 3 months to 4 years old and has 20 children. There are 5 people working in the project: 3 teachers, a person for cleaning and a coordinator of the project. The volunteer will have the opportunity to practice the Spanish language and the volunteer will have a very pleasant work environment with people committed to education.

Volunteer Work Activities
- Volunteers will work mainly as assistants to teachers during their classes and they will take over the class when the teacher is absent.

- Volunteers will work in the center of premature stimulation with small groups of boys and girls doing different activities during school hours.

- The volunteers like the teachers will assist in monitoring and support to children during activities such as showers, dining, recreation, and so on.

- Volunteers will work with three groups of different children ages and they will have to rotate among them. This work will take place during the morning from 7:00 to 15:30. However, in high season as the month of February, there are three shifts: morning, afternoon and evening in which support is required from the volunteers for childcare, which would rotate as needed to be presented .

Routine work: Children arriving at the center between 6:30 and 7:00 in the morning. An employee will receive them up to 7:00 time in which the rest of the staff including the volunteers have to arrive. The volunteers will help to take a shower to the children, change their clothes and arranges for the breakfast. After having breakfast volunteers will help to the children to brush their teeth, go to the bathroom after that they are ready and able to start their activities. There is a break where kids eat fruit, then continue with their activities until lunchtime. Later they brushed their teeth again and take a small nap to continue activities until the time that their parents withdraw them.


Services Close to the Project:
The area where the project is located has an average temperature of 13 degrees Celsius (55 F) in a microclimate very fertile. It's an hour away from the town of Otavalo and to twenty minutes from the city of Quito.
Internet: The school has wireless Internet. If the volunteer brings his own computer, you can plug it in the evenings to benefit from this service. Cayambe has many places of Internet, telephone services, shops and health centers, volunteers can go to the town walking it will take you 30 minutes or in bus just 5 minutes away.
Any kind of personal hygiene items can be purchased at Cayambe but in the case that the volunteers are accustomed to a kind of special mark we suggest to bring a considerable amount for use during their period of voluntary work.

Accommodation
The accommodation will be in the house where volunteers will have to share with another person who is working at the time, you will have a bedroom with two single beds so it will be shared. The house is located beside the school, it is small, it has a fireplace, and if you want to use it the volunteers will have to look for wood or buy it. The house has all the furniture, including a small refrigerator and a gas oven, there are machines for washing and drying clothes.

The food is inclusive from Monday to Friday, volunteers will receive breakfast, fruit, lunch and a snack in the afternoon. During the weekend the project does not cover food because the center is closed and the majority of volunteers come out for tourism. For this reason, any extra spending on maintenance from Monday through Friday and lunch on weekends must be covered by volunteers.


All people eat at the center, most of the dishes are typical of Ecuador and very nutritious. It’s important that you know that the lunch is the stronger foods during the day.

In the case that there will be vegetarian volunteers, the center can not offer them special diets, the project try to avoid any problems. We advised to the volunteers bring their own sources of protein. Anyway it is important that they know that they are welcome to the project and we ask to the volunteers compression with diet from the center because all personnel and children eat meat.


Volunteer time
The project is open all year. The volunteer can start volunteering immediately after his arrival to Ecuador. The weekly working time is 40 hours, Monday to Friday from 7h00 to 15h30.

Free Time:
The volunteers who come for whole year, can take three weeks vacation separated by periods. The first can be done in the month of November, the second on the month of February and the third in the month of April. For the volunteers who come for a period less a year and they want to take vacations, this requirement should apply directly to the project coordinator.

Requeriments
It’s necessary that the volunteers had had experience with children, for example, in summer camps. Volunteers who apply to this project can be men and women aged between 20 and 40 years of age.
This project requires flexibility on the part of volunteers and is open to anyone who wants to apply, giving preference to those with studies in the area of early childhood and education. The activities that the volunteers realize will depend on their knowledge at the professional area, your skills and especially positions available at that time.

We require an intermediate level of Spanish. If the volunteer does not have this level, Ecuador Volunteer can help you find the best program to improve their skills in Spanish before beginning the project.

Costs:
Inscription Fee: 200 USD
Project Cost: FREE

If you are interested in this volunteer position please contact Francisco Pastor at info@ecuadorvolunteer.org or call ++ 593 2 2557749 or ++593 2 2226544 (Fax). You can also visit our webpage, http://www.ecuadorvolunteer.org.