Recycling Project in Quito

The FUNGERES office is located on the corner of los Shyris y Gaspar de Villaroel. But the specific recycling projects take place in the Centro historico of Quito.

FUNGERES is an organization established about 10 years ago to improve the recycling options in Ecuador and integrate recycling into everyday life by working with municipios, organizations, businesses and communities. They have various projects in cities outside Quito that work to newly establish and implement successful recycling systems, as well as educate people about its importance. The specific project in Quito is working in the historical district to raise awareness about recycling and improve the lives of those who collect the recycling by teaching about health effects, better forms of organization and skills for starting recycling businesses (microempresas).

Volunteers are welcome to get involved in these projects.

• People with experience in social fields (so an education background in social sciences and/or past jobs in social work), who have experience working with communities and organizations. A project would include giving workshops to people who collect the recycling around Quito in themes of organization, leadership and working together more effectively.
• People with backgrounds in health to give workshops about health, and taking care of oneself (this is mainly because many of the people they work with deal with garbage and recycling on a daily basis, and often don’t know much about the health risks or effects of this work).
• People with experience and knowledge in the environment to teach about the importance of recycling and most effective ways to do so.
• Lastly, they are looking for someone who can come twice a week to the office to send emails to their database of contacts about updates and activities. This would be someone with some experience with computers and internet to update their database and compile emails (because of the low time commitment, this could be combined with other projects above).

2 months is a minimum for teaching workshops, and even longer is often preferred to make good connections with people and learn about the recycling situation in Ecuador.

High intermediate to advanced, especially for teaching workshops and presenting ideas to a large group in Spanish

Willingness to learn and enthusiastic to dedicate time and energy to this organization. As stated above, they would prefer people with some knowledge and experience in either health, environmental studies, or social work.

Afternoons are better for teaching workshops, and weekends are even preferred more.