A local Sparwood teacher is gearing up for an Ecuador, Amazon volunteer expedition, and she’s inviting both students and adults to join her in this charitable journey.
The trip, which will take place in March 2015, is organized through EF Educational Tours, a Canadian based travel company that is in partnership with the Me to We for-profit social enterprise. Me to We offers volunteer trips to developing communities, like Ecuador, that are served by the charity Free the Children. Their primary goal is to free children from poverty and exploitation through a sustainable development program that works to dismantle the idea of simple foreign aid.
The program is called “Adopt a Village,” and consists of five pillars of work including education, clean water/sanitation, health, alternative income/livelihood and agriculture/food security.
“If you don’t educate the people of the community, they won’t be able to keep their water clean or plant the crops. You have to teach them first…so that when they [volunteers] leave, the community is self sustaining,” Elk Valley trip organizer Kerrie Purdy said.
Two years ago, Purdy lead an EF tour trip to Ghana Africa, a trip that she says changed individuals perspectives of the world.
“We found that [by] taking kids out of the classroom, they learned way more than being in the classroom,” Purdy noted. “I’m a teacher and I know the difference [between] teaching in the classroom versus teaching on tours, and also I think that the children now a-days really need to get a grasp on the global situation. The only way they can really understand outside of the Elk Valley is to go there and submerse themselves in another culture.”
Purdy, however said that unlike many other organized trips, this tour does not solely cater to students.
“I want to get the word out to parents too, that they’re welcome,” she added. “It’s a safe way for people to get out into the world and see things and experience things that they’ve maybe always wanted to but never had a chance.”
Purdy will be hosting a trip meeting at the Sparwood Library on October 1 at 7 p.m. For more information on the trip you can contact Purdy at kerriepurdy@shaw.ca or call her at 250-425-5485. Trip details can also be found by entering in tour #148094WH at www.eftours.ca