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Living and Volunteering In Ecuador

Kathleen Peddicord by Kathleen Peddicord
Feb 18, 2013
in Retirement/Living
0
Iguana sunning itself on a pointy rock in Ecuador
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Giving Back In Ecuador

Overheard during last week’s Live and Invest in Ecuador Conference:

“The reason health care is so affordable and also so personal in Ecuador (doctors will sit and chat with you for an hour or longer) is because there’s no pressure here from the insurance industry…and no pressure from the pharmaceutical industry either…

“As a result, it cost me five times more to be insured in the States than it cost me to be uninsured in Ecuador.”

–Lee Harrison, on his experiences as an expat seeking health care in Ecuador

Living In Ecuador

Since 2004, the Fundacion Bolivar has been helping foreigners, both resident and visiting the country, to share their time, their talents, and their experience with people in Ecuador who can benefit. The non-profit group is active in Quito, Cuenca, the jungle, the Galapagos, and on the coast. Their efforts are focused on education and environmental conservation.

“It’s important to learn at least a little Spanish before you start working in the local community where you decide to volunteer,” explained Pamela Guachamín, representative for the foundation, to the group assembled in Quito last week. “That’s why we start every volunteer experience with language classes.”

The programs are highly customizable. You can volunteer on your own, with your family, or with a group of friends. You could organize a two-week program to include your children or grandchildren over one of their school breaks, for example.

Some programs include home stays with local families, with indigenous families in the north of the country, for example, where you could spend a couple of weeks helping them to manage their farms or other activities related to generating a livelihood. You could volunteer in a woman’s shelter, maybe helping to teach the children of the women staying there while they regroup on where to go and what to do next.

You could volunteer as a teacher’s aid or even a teacher in a village school. “It’s not necessary that you have experience or any special qualifications,” Pamela explained. “It’s very difficult for these remote schools to find teachers. With your backgrounds, you would be very welcome to teach primary-age children.

“And the children will love you. To them, you’ll be like a figure out of a fairy tale.”

The Fundacion Bolivar offers 24/7 support for its volunteers. If you’re visiting to Ecuador specifically to participate in a Fundacion Bolivar program, you’ll be met at the airport and delivered to accommodation for your getting-acquainted/language-study transition period. Then you’ll be transferred to wherever in the country you’ll be contributing your time, either with a local host family or in volunteer housing (maybe an apartment that you share with other volunteers). All of this is included in the program fee, which depends on the location and duration of your volunteer adventure.

Remember, this is a not-for-profit operation. The fee in each case goes to cover the direct costs associated with each volunteer activity.

For more information, get in touch at info@ecuadorvolunteers.org.

Kathleen Peddicord

Continue Reading: Travel Diversity In Ecuador From The Andes To The Amazon

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Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord

Kathleen Peddicord has covered the live, retire, and do business overseas beat for more than 30 years and is considered the world's foremost authority on these subjects. She has traveled to more than 75 countries, invested in real estate in 21, established businesses in 7, renovated historic properties in 6, and educated her children in 4.

Kathleen has moved children, staff, enterprises, household goods, and pets across three continents, from the East Coast of the United States to Waterford, Ireland... then to Paris, France... next to Panama City, where she has based her Live and Invest Overseas business. Most recently, Kathleen and her husband Lief Simon are dividing their time between Panama and Paris.

Kathleen was a partner with Agora Publishing’s International Living group for 23 years. In that capacity, she opened her first office overseas, in Waterford, Ireland, where she managed a staff of up to 30 employees for more than 10 years. Kathleen also opened, staffed, and operated International Living publishing and real estate marketing offices in Panama City, Panama; Granada, Nicaragua; Roatan, Honduras; San Miguel de Allende, Mexico; Quito, Ecuador; and Paris, France.

Kathleen moved on from her role with Agora in 2007 and launched her Live and Invest Overseas group in 2008. In the years since, she has built Live and Invest Overseas into a successful, recognized, and respected multi-million-dollar business that employs a staff of 35 in Panama City and dozens of writers and other resources around the world.

Kathleen has been quoted by The New York Times, Money magazine, MSNBC, Yahoo Finance, the AARP, and beyond. She has appeared often on radio and television (including Bloomberg and CNBC) and speaks regularly on topics to do with living, retiring, investing, and doing business around the world.

In addition to her own daily e-letter, the Overseas Opportunity Letter, with a circulation of more than 300,000 readers, Kathleen writes regularly for U.S. News & World Report and Forbes.

Her newest book, "How to Retire Overseas: Everything You Need to Know to Live Well (for Less) Abroad," published by Penguin Random House, is the culmination of decades of personal experience living and investing around the world.

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