Julius's Amazon Volunteer Trip Fund

Julius will live for a week in a riverside jungle town, travelling daily by canoe to work with one of the indigenous Naporuna Quichua communities dwelling along the riverbanks. The Naporuna Quichua people live in an area boasting the highest biodiversity in the world, including coffee, cocoa and exotic fruits. Villagers are subsistence farmers and hunters who gladly share their wealth of knowledge about local medicinal and edible plants with VESA volunteers. Yet, like all indigenous Amazon people, Naporuna Quichua face daily threats to their livelihood in the form of environmental pollution, forest destruction and mining and petroleum exploitation. Already, the VESA project has achieved much to support Amazon communities in protecting their lives and livelihoods while improving futures for forthcoming generations. To date, the efforts of VESA students have: Fully refurbished six primary schools, Built over 100 full toilet blocks with self-composting septic tanks, protecting villager and river health, Delivered 27,000 hours of English education to village children, vastly improving employment prospects. He will embark on a jungle tour packed with night hikes, rafting, canoeing and overnight camps in jungle lodges. Along the way Julius will visit an Amazonian animal sanctuary and meet with a traditional Shaman or ‘witch doctor’, all before heading off to experience Ecuador’s high Andes in a local spa town. Director Tom McDowell explains that the rewards students gain from participating in VESA trump almost any other overseas experience.