About Yanapuma Foundation

  • A demonstration plot of cacao in a Tsa'chila community for Yanapuma Foundation in Ecuador
  • The village of Estero de Plátano on the Pacific coast where Yanapuma supports students to study at high school
  • The Tsa'chila of Santo Domingo are one of the original indigenous cultures of Ecuador
  • Learning about the culture and history of Ecuador through a global citizenship program

Yanapuma Foundation - Sustainable Community Development in Ecuador


Yanapuma Foundation is an Ecuadorian and UK registered non-governmental organization working together with local and international partners to bring about lasting change for the marginalized and indigenous people of Ecuador. By clicking on each section below you can learn more about what we stand for and what we do.

Our Principles: We are guided by 6 principles - Sustainability, Social Justice, Respect (for the actors), Freedom, Transparency, and Professionalism. We are partly self-funding through our own Spanish School and volunteer activities.

Our History: Yanapuma Foundation was created in August of 2006 to be an independent, and partly self-funding NGO, motivated by a collective sense of social and environemntal responsibility. The foundation is dedicated to improving the social and ecological conditions of marginalized sectors of the Ecuadorian population.

Our Methodology: We take an integrated and participatory approach to sustainable community development that relies on collaboration over the long-term, encouraging members to be the drivers of their own development.

Our Strategies: As a relatively small organization we recognize that we must collaborate with other Non-Governmental Organizations, community groups, Universities, volunteer groups and government agencies. Our strategy is to work in a participatory manner together with these groups to realize integrated sustainable projects

Our 4 axes: We identify 4 principal areas of involvment: Agriculture and the Environment, Health, Education and Sustainable Economies.

Yanapuma UK - a registered scottish charity
Yanapuma Foundation was registered in Scotland in 2008 as a non-profit NGO (SC040519) with the mission of channeling resources, both financial and human to the work of Yanapuma Foundation in Ecuador, as well as to promote cultural exchange between youth and adults of developed and developing countries for the mutual benefit of both.. You can check out our registration status here.

Our approach is part of the ongoing dialogue between various actors in the sustainable development environment.

Click here to read about the core problems facing indigenous and marginalized communities in Ecuador