Embarking on a journey to teach English at the Summer School organized by The Tandana Foundation in Quinchinche was a life-changing experience for me. From the moment I arrived, I knew this adventure would be full of new challenges and rewarding moments.
Twelve students and three accompanying adults from Lakeside School in Seattle, Washington recently wrapped up an exciting and productive four-week volunteer trip organized by The Tandana Foundation in Cambugan, Ecuador. During their trip, the Lakeside students were immersed in the Kichwa Otavalo indigenous community, staying with local host families and participating in cultural events and many fun regional activities.
In 2023, The Tandana Foundation is expecting to host a dozen volunteer groups – from schools, universities, and organizations around the world – in the rural highlands of Ecuador. Each one of these trips immerses volunteers in the Kichwa Otavalo culture and community, providing them with the opportunity to contribute to various projects and make new friends.
I am Lizzy Tessier, one of the students from Saline High School that had the privilege of working with The Tandana Foundation this March. Getting to travel to Ecuador and encounter the beautiful culture of the local indigenous community in Otavalo was an experience I will never forget.
Saline High School (SHS) senior Michael Moore stood by and smiled as a group of enthusiastic kindergarten students painted golden sand dunes on a beach. The children were energetic helpers and worked quickly to depict a young Ecuadorian boy walking by the sea at sunset as a crab, whale, and fisherman look on.
I’ll always look back fondly on the time I spent in the community of Muenala with The Tandana Foundation. It was such an overwhelmingly positive experience that even just thinking about it now brings a smile to my face. From the welcoming members of the community, to the beautiful view of the mountains, to the new cultural experiences my team had, this trip was wonderful and I’m eternally grateful for the community of Muenala for hosting us and The Tandana Foundation for facilitating an engaging week of activities and connections.
Like the rest of the world, The Tandana Foundation moved many of its programs, events, and other offerings to virtual formats during the pandemic. But for a multilingual organization, the pivot to virtual also presented a new opportunity: To organize gatherings where all English-, French-, and Spanish-speaking participants could listen to the proceedings in their native languages, at the same time.
Picture yourself at the El Lechero Viewpoint embraced by volcanoes: Father Imbabura on the one side and Mother Cotacachi on the other, overlooking the city of Otavalo and San Pablo Lake.
I came, I saw, and we planted a lot of plants. I am an Antioch College student who was able to take part in the return of The Tandana Foundation’s first in-person volunteer internship since 2020. I arrived on a sunny day to meet Tandana team members Gaetan, Margarita, and Vero, and my host family. They were more than excited to welcome me to Ecuador. In that first week, I learned a lot about the places I would be staying and working in.
I recently returned from my first visit to Ecuador. I had the opportunity to be a member of The Tandana Foundation Gardening Volunteer Venture. I am thankful I made the trip. The week provided many memorable moments, none of which exceeded the “special visit” arranged by Founding Director Anna for me to visit the community of Gualapuro.
The Tandana Foundation’s Gardening Volunteer Venture team hit the ground running on its first day of engagement with communities around Otavalo, Ecuador. After a thorough orientation (and marvelous Ecuadorian lunch), we began activities with a brisk hike up to the highland village of Panecillo, where we met with the president of the local water board and the project operations technician who have recently completed a crucial phase of a new sanitary system that brings fresh water down from the mountains and into the homes of families in five communities.
After being held virtually for two years, The Tandana Foundation’s Summer School program in Ecuador returned to in-person instruction this year. Among those happiest to be back in-person was Hank Fincken, who has taught a theatre course to students during seven iterations of Tandana’s Summer School.
The Tandana Foundation is shifting to a new format for its health and well-being-focused volunteer and intercultural learning program in Ecuador. The new program, called Public Health Volunteer Venture, will allow participants to support public health initiatives in rural Ecuadorian communities, such as leading health education activities and helping with clean water projects that prevent disease, along with immersing themselves in the local culture.
Rockey Anderson knew he wanted to make a positive difference when he retired; however, building water systems in rural Ecuador had never crossed his mind.
In recognition of The Tandana Foundation’s 15th anniversary, we are creating 15 videos featuring cherished members of the organization’s global family. Published in a series of 15 posts on this blog, these videos will highlight key aspects of Tandana’s philosophy, community partnerships, and impactful work that has been done, along with projects still in progress. The videos will serve as a meaningful way to reflect back on what has been accomplished in 15 years as well as provide insight into the Tandana’s future in the next 15 years.
The remote English as a Second Language (ESL) internship offered by The Tandana Foundation is a way to connect university students in the organization’s scholarship program in Ecuador with interns who want to teach English. Interns and students are paired based on their availability and meet once or twice a week for about an hour. Together, they work together to decide what material they would like to learn and practice and the class is tailored to their shared interests and needs.
After participating in a virtual exchange program organized by The Tandana Foundation, students from Sharon High School in Massachusetts in the United States were motivated to launch a months-long fundraising effort for and with their new friends at the Jaime Roldos Aguilera Intercultural Bilingual school in Urkusiki, Ecuador.
Everyone has their own reasons for volunteering their time to help others and organizations or causes they care about. For me, I volunteer for The Tandana Foundation because supporting the organization fills me with incredible amounts of pride and happiness on a daily basis.
The Tandana Foundation is immensely grateful to the many individuals who support its efforts in a myriad of ways. The following post tells the story of Dr. Ash B. Varma, M.D., one of Tandana’s earliest supporters, who has given his time, ideas, and financial resources to assist the organization in achieving its goals in Ecuador and Mali. Education is a topic Ash is passionate about. His contributions include supporting the creation of a new scholarship program to help more students pursue educational opportunities and setting up an endowment to help fund an existing scholarship program.
As a public health professional, I have always been interested in health care systems in Latin America, specifically with a focus on health disparities.
I have volunteered most of my life, while working full-time. I enjoy volunteering and have done so for many years. I had stopped for a while to reflect on my next opportunity, what I wanted to do next. Recently I came across The Tandana Foundation website and read about what they do and their mission. When I talked with Maria Jose, (the Ecuador Program Manager) I thought this was perfect for me as I would get a first-hand view of health care in Otavalo, the available resources, and types of care that the community receives.
On April 10, The Tandana Foundation will be hosting a virtual venture exploring Dogon dancing and drumming in the Bandiagara district of Mali. Carol Peddie, Kelly McCosh, and Marilyn and Jack Krueger had the chance to experience the warm embrace of Dogon culture firsthand during Tandana’s 2012 trip to visit the villages of Kansongo and Sal-Dimi in Mali. Here we share remembrances of that trip from both our volunteers and local residents Moussa Tembiné of Kansongo, Housseyni Pamateck of Sal-Dimi, and Ada Kanambaye of Sal-Dimi.
In 2019, Emily Piwowarski participated in a volunteer trip to Ecuador organized by The Tandana Foundation with her high school classmates from Arendell Parrott Academy. Now a sophomore studying chemistry and marine science at North Carolina State University, she took time to reflect on her memorable experience with Tandana in Ecuador.
All program coordinators dedicated to social justice and civic engagement are faced with the challenges of community engagement and community building due to the pandemic’s social distancing requirements. How do you connect with others and make substantive change in your community without being able to interact with others or physically enter into a community? My response: we must expand our definition of community.
As part of her master’s in international education, Nicole Melendez, one of The Tandana Foundation’s program coordinators in Ecuador, completed a research project called “Supporting Latinx College Students Study Abroad.” Melendez specifically looked at U.S. students who identify as Latinx who are studying at post-secondary institutions across America.
There is a special network behind each story that is published on this blog. Since each blog is published in English, French, and Spanish, every story needs to be translated from its original language into the other languages. To do that, The Tandana Foundation is thankful for the help of many dedicated individuals from around the world who volunteer their time and skills in translation. Continue reading “The translators behind the Tandana blog”
It’s no secret that the life of a college student is hectic. This year, especially, I have become caught up in the hamster wheel of success and looking towards what is next. It seems like there are always essay deadlines and group project meetings. My Google calendar is filled with notifications and obligations. I have found myself asking, does my full schedule reflect how full my life is? Continue reading “A reminder that our power as humans lies in our relationships”
The highlight of any Tandana volunteer venture is the community project. This is a project proposed by community members and then paired with an upcoming volunteer group that will best be able to contribute. As a Program Coordinator for The Tandana Foundation, it is one of my responsibilities to facilitate and organize the logistics of working on a project with community members and volunteers. We like to be upfront about what the expectations are for what a group can realistically accomplish during their stay. Continue reading “A look at the multiple phases of the community projects volunteers work on”
During a Tandana Foundation volunteer trip with the Ohio Masters Gardener group last year, Ed Gasbarre kept a journal chronicling what he did each day. From helping out on a farm to visiting with school children, and sampling the local cuisine, Ed creatively documented each experience with photos and drawings alongside his written description. Read excerpts from his journal below.Continue reading “A creative chronicle of a volunteer’s trip to Ecuador”
A group a students from ARCC, an organization that designs and operates programs exclusively for students, recently participated in a cultural learning and service trip with The Tandana Foundation in Motilón Chupa, Ecuador. During the week-long trip, the students were engaged with local community members through living, working, and playing alongside them via such activities as building a water tank, preparing pizza, and visiting with school children. As the group wrote in the following blog post, first posted on ARCC’s website, this engagement led to the creation of lasting bonds between themselves and the community members.Continue reading “Forming bonds of friendship while working, playing together in Motilón Chupa”
Traditional food and drink are important aspects of a community’s culture. When volunteers travel to Ecuador and Mali with The Tandana Foundation, they are immersed in the local cultures of the communities they stay in, and often have the opportunity to not only sample the local cuisine, but also learn how to make it. In the following, Sarah Rothschild, Tandana’s Program Leader Fellow in Ecuador, shares the history and recipe behind a special holiday treat, called colada morada, prepared by her host mother, Mercedes Perugachi. Continue reading “Making colada morada with my family!”
The Tandana Foundation will be holding its 26th Health Care Volunteer Venture (HCVV) in rural highland Ecuador from October 5-12, 2019. Since 2007, when Tandana began partnering with the indigenous communities in the region to host mobile health clinics, volunteering medical professionals and their local counterparts have provided for 11,968 patient visits. This includes providing needed medical, dental, and vision care to at least 6,614 unique patients and conducting 5,709 pediatric checkups. Continue reading “The significance of Health Care Volunteer Ventures – by the numbers”