In September, 2008, The Tandana Foundation hosted its fourth round of Health Care Volunteer Vacations. Volunteers from all over the United States joined with Ecuadorian professionals to offer affordable, accessible, and respectful health care to five communties in the Quichinche parish of Ecuador. This time, we added dentistry to our services, and that was a big hit. We were able to fill cavities for 55 patients. Our doctors and P.A.s, meanwhile, saw 427 patients, helping cure them of H. pylori, parasites, infections, and many other problems. It was a wonderful experience for the volunteers, also, who got to experience baptism celebrations, hikes with our scholarship students to beautiful locations, and meetings with fascinating community members.
From June 25 - August 7, 2008, the Tandana Foundation held its first Ecuador Summer Volunteer Program. Volunteers lived with indigenous families in a small community near Otavalo, Ecuador. Work projects included teaching summer school English classes to students in the community, assisting public health workers in administering vaccinations to children and dogs, and translating a book of traditional Quichua legends into English. Volunteers also took part in the indigenous celebration of Inti Raymi, visited a sacred waterfall, hiked around Cuicocha Lake, shopped in the world-famous Otavalo market, and learned how to prepare several traditional indigenous dishes. For the final week of the program, volunteers ventured to the Amazon, where they stayed in a jungle lodge, viewed wildlife, and went hiking and river rafting.
Meanwhile, in
Mali, work began on the new
school garden at Tereli. This is the second school garden that Tandana has funded, and it will allow the students to grow fruits and vegetables, learn about horticulture, and also become more self-sufficient as they sell the produce to earn money for school supplies. A fruit tree nursery was also begun for the
Kori-Maounde school garden, which Tandana helped to start last year. The
well restoration project in Kansongho was completed, and the villagers are thrilled to have a secure, year-round water source.
In February 2008, The Tandana Foundation coordinated a weeklong village stay and service project in highland Ecuador for The Traveling School. Students and teachers lived in the homes of families and shared in daily activities in the village of Agualongo. They taught English to the local children and helped build a new bathroom for the village kindergarten. Meanwhile, they learned to bake bread in a wood-fired oven, hiked to the peak above the village, visited Cuicocha Lake with their hosts, and danced with the village in their going-away ceremony.
Then, in March, Tandana hosted its third and largest round of health care volunteer vacations. Three groups of volunteers, working different weeks, provided health care to almost 600 patients in 14 communities. The volunteers formed powerful teams working together to serve the patients and also found time to enjoy making local friends, Holy Week activities, eating fanesca soup, visiting with a local shaman and intercultural education leaders, and dancing with a local band.
See the Columbus Dispatch article about The Tandana Foundation
Past Projects
In September 2007, a second group of volunteers traveled to Ecuador to provide health care to rural villagers. They saw hundreds of patients in five communities and enjoyed working with local professionals, meeting with community members, and taking in the amazing natural beauty of the Andes. Building on our experience in March, we improved our techniques in this second health care volunteer vacation, creating better patient records and strategies for organizing our pharmacy.
In February 2007, The Tandana Foundation coordinated a weeklong village stay and service project in highland Ecuador for The Traveling School. Students and teachers lived in the homes of families and shared in daily activities in the village of Agualongo. They taught English to the local children and helped the community pave a muddy area next to the community center. Meanwhile, they also learned to peel potatoes, hiked to the peak above the village to take in the amazing Andean landscape, celebrated Carnaval by joining in a huge water fight, and gained new "parents, brothers, and sisters," whom they can't wait to visit again.
Then, later in March, a group of adults traveled to Ecuador to provide healthcare for underserved villagers. They saw hundreds of patients in four communities and also found time to experience the culture and area in amazing depth for a visit of just one week. They met with traditional healers, indigenous leaders, students, and a master weaver and hiked to sacred sites such as the Lechero tree and the Peguche waterfall. Throughout their stay, they reveled in the opportunity to interact as friends rather than tourists and to take in the region's natural beauty.
We have begun work in Mali, where we have funded the creation of a school garden and the reconstruction of a well. We hope to offer volunteer vacations and service projects there in the future. Correspondence programs and sister city or school relationships are also available, and we are working on a Malian folktale book project that will benefit the village of those who shared the stories with us.
In 2004, The Tandana Foundation was begun with the goal of promoting cross-cultural learning opportunities and service projects. Operating under the auspices of the
Deer Hill Foundation, in July 2005 we were able to include two Ecuadorian participants in the Deer Hill Expeditions
Expedicion Ecuador program, allowing them to travel around their country with North American students and then host these new friends in their village as they all worked together on community projects. It was an experience that still resonates in their hearts; Claudia, one of the local scholarship recipients, recently sent an email saying, "I wrote like a book about the trip and this year I reread it, saying last year I was there and there.... this is something unforgettable that I have experienced and I will never experience it again. Thank you so much again for everything." We were also able to provide partial scholarships to several North American students, enabling them to participate in this exciting program and experience Ecuadorian culture as few visitors are able.
In the summer of 2006, we offered two Ecuadorian students the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to the United States and participate in Deer Hill's Canyon Country program. Cristina and Elsa, who had never dreamed they would travel on an airplane, flew from Quito to Houston, Denver, and then Cortez, Colorado. Smiling in the sun in their traditional Otavelena dress, they awaited my pickup and the adventure of their lives. Joining their North American and French groupmates, they set off on a week-long raft trip on the Green River. They loved running the rapids in inflatable kayaks, cooking strange new American foods when it was their turn in the kitchen, and making friends with the young people in their group. After hiking in the La Sal Mountains and taking in an alpine beauty different from that of their Andean home, they journeyed to the village of Lower Moencopi on the Hopi Nation, where they encountered the highlight of their trip. Both they and the Hopi hosts were thrilled with the opportunity to share customs, traditions, and techniques with people of another indigenous American culture. Corn is central to the lifestyles of both, and they traded beliefs, processing techniques, and favorite dishes related to that crop. During our stay there, Lower Moencopi was also visited by Native Youth Cultural Exchange, a group of Native Hawaiian, Californian, and Hopi youth. Cristina and Elsa were able to join the young people from each of those cultures in presenting songs, dances, and traditions from their homeland at a cultural exchange potluck.
Their experience in the United States not only gave them a chance to learn about other cultures and make new friends, it also helped them value their own culture more, enlarged their perspective on the world, and gave them experience that will help in their future careers in the tourism industry in Ecuador. After the trip, Cristina wrote, "I am so happy and grateful to all of those who made possible my dream. I had many wonderful experiences, I learned to converse in English, and I also got to know the Hopi culture, in which they have conserved many of their ancestral traditions. I learned to value my culture... I know that this experience will serve me in my professional and personal life, because my dream is to become a professional tourism guide. This experience was a great practical and observation trip and I learned much more than I have in the classroom." The other members of their group also enjoyed and benefited from the opportunity their presence offered to form cross-cultural friendships and learn about a different perspective.
In addition to making possible these amazing experiences for Cristina and Elsa, we were also able to coordinate a week-long village stay and service project for The Traveling School and a month-long volunteer vacation for a family from Montana. The Traveling School students and teachers stayed with host families in the village of Agualongo, taught English to the local children, helped the village paint their community center, played soccer with the mothers, and were amazed by the appreciation feast they were offered. The week there was a highlight of their three-month journey through the Andes because of the unique opportunity it offered for real cultural experience, friendship, and the chance to make a difference. Then, in June, a family of four from Montana journeyed to Ecuador and stayed with a family in the community of Rey Loma. They joined in festival activities with their hosts, supported the community soccer team, helped a school replace a badly-damaged roof, prepared Elsa and Cristina for their trip to the United States, and experienced so much that a typical visitor would never see.
--Anna Taft, founder
