Volunteer Environmental Educator – Spectacled Bear / Cloud Forest

The Andean Bear Project needs an experienced environmental educator to design and implement modules of a curriculum for environmental education as part of our community awareness work.  You will develop a collection of learning modules that can be implemented by local teachers and/or future volunteers.  If you can train local teachers to use the materials as well, that would be even better.  The environmental education curriculum should be fun and creative – games, workbooks, activities, music, drama?  There is scope to include simple messages for the children about cleaning your teeth, nutrition, etc. – this is an area of rural poverty, and dental problems and malnutrition are common.

You’ll be based in northern Ecuador in an area of beautiful mountains and cloud forests which are home to the Andean or spectacled bear.  You need to speak at least intermediate Spanish.  Time commitment: 2 - 8 weeks.

Your environmental education program will strengthen relations between the local community and the Andean Bear Conservation Project.  You will be ensuring that the next generation grows up with an appreciation for the environment they live in and the importance of conserving the cloud forest with all its biodiversity, from tiny insects to the large, gentle Andean bears.

For more information and to apply to volunteer, first see www.andeanbear.org to learn more about the project, then write to bearsecuador@yahoo.co.uk, quoting reference SDEnvOct10.