The community of Estero de Platano is situated on the cabo San Francisco in the province of Esmeraldas in north-west Ecuador. The village lies in a beauiful bay in one of the last remaining areas where the original rain forest stretches down to the sea. It is about an 8 hour journey from Quito.

The community lives from small plots of yucca, maize, plantain, cacao and coffee, cultivated in the jungle and fishing. The area offshore has recently been created as a marine reserve, but there is a long way to go before this becomes a reality.

There is a local school with 120 children right beside the sea, and a small health subcenter staffed by a regular doctor and a nurse.

Yanapuma started to work with the Estero de Platano in 2008. Our current projects are:

• Surveying the community to gather baseline data on health, education, income, etc., as a precursor to developing specific projects.
• Sponsoring 7 children in 2009 to study at secondary level, and continuing to seek funding to make this a permanent program, adding two or three new students per year. This program also involves coordinating with the local college to ensure that the education they receive is of the optimum quality, and sending volunteers to the community to help the children with homework and deepen their educational experience.
• The development of crafts production through a group that is learning to produce crafts from local materials.
• Helping to develop tourism, working with a group of families who initially are hosting visitors in their own homes. We aim to help them develop various touristic activities around the ocean, beach and jungle.
• Waste management and recycling: We are working to set up a recycling project in the community and to educate children about these issues. There is some movement in the local municipality to work on waste and recycling. It is relatively easy to set up a project in the community, but if there is no way of removing the collected material the whole project will fail.
• Health promotion: We are in contact with the local doctor and nurse to help with suitably qualified individuals who can work with local families and in the school on health, hygiene, nutrition, etc.
• Spanish classes: In order to encourage tourism in Estero de Platano we have made it a destination for our "traveling classroom" with the option to spend a week or more studying Spanish in this beautiful location.

Volunteering/Cultural Exchange Opportunities

Long-term volunteers are needed to help those attending high school with their learning and homework, to teach English in the school, and those with appropriate experience to help in the medical center with health promotion, screening, etc. As we start to expand our work there we also need researchers to gather basic information about the community and others to help in the areas of agriculture, sanitation, water, etc.

Estero de Plátano is a great place to learn Spanish or take part in our Cultural Exchange program. Visitors are welcome to spend a week or more with the community, experiencing their very laid-back lifestyle, and exploring the beach, jungle and ocean.

Our projects in Estero de Plátano

Scholarship program in Estero de Plátano