What are Expedition Ecuador and the Ghana Project?

What are the service projects available in Ecuador and Ghana?

Expedition Ecuador started off as an Academic Alternative Spring Break experience in 2004. In 2008 it became a full 21 day experience covering all fours of the major ecosystems in Ecuador: Galapagos, Andes, Amazon and the Coast.  2010 will be our 4th journey to this unique ecosystem.  We will again visit Cojimíes on the Coast, explore the Andes and the World Heritage capital city of Quito, venture into the rainforest with the Sani community at Sani Lodge, and discover the wonders of Isabella Island in the Galapagos. The service learning projects have changed over the years based on the community needs including:

• 2004 -  Built Butterfly House for Conservation of Blue Morpho  (Mondaña Amazon community in conjunction with FUNEDESIN and Yachana Lodge)
• 2006  - Repaired and rebuilt unsafe elementary school bathroom and built a community greenhouse for food production (Mondaña Amazon community in conjunction with FUNEDESIN and Yachana Lodge)
• 2008 – Carried out a Beach and Waterway Clean-Up, Environmental Education Lesson Plan, and built 80 two-person desks (Cojimíes community, on the coast of Ecuador and Escuela Manual Maria Sanchez elementary school).
• 2010 – Return to Cojimíes. We will work again with the children in the elementary school. Additionally, due to our success in Ghana the plans include multiple projects including an Engineering project surrounding sustainable energy.

The Ghana Project has been going to Ghana every other year since the first trip in 2001.  2009 will  be our fifth trek to the continent.  Over the years, the projects have evolved but all of them remain focused on issues of development including:

• Health Care: Nursing and pre-med majors work in a local hospital, assisting the nurses and doctors in seeing and caring for patients.
• Democratic Action: Teams work for a local civic union in administering a public opinion survey designed to find out how people view governmental services, how they use governmental services, and to identify issues that citizens believe are important to the community.  The surveys are then analyzed and a report is written and submitted to the civic union for their use in improving grassroots access to government.
• Engineering:  Engineering students apply what they have learned to infrastructure problems at the Tamale Children’s Home.  In 2009, students designed small projects to improve drainage and water storage at the home.  The drainage solutions will eliminate standing water around the home, which is a breeding ground for mosquitoes that infect the children with life-threatening malaria.  Water storage improvements will reduce intestinal infections, which the children get from drinking rain water containing high levels of bacteria.

What do students learn from Expedition Ecuador and/or The Ghana Project?

In addition to the significant things that college students learn in any international study experience, both Expedition Ecuador and the Ghana Project provide the following:

• Many experiences to get to know people from a different culture firsthand and to work with them.
• The environment to develop teamwork
• A variety of opportunities to engage in real world problem-solving.
• The chance to communicate across cultures.
• A better understanding of the challenges facing developing countries.
• An appreciation for the complexity of global issues.
• A chance for students to look closely at their pre-conceived notions about Africa/South America and its people.

An added bonus is that the people in the communities in which we work get a clearer picture of the diversity of the United States and find themselves challenging their preconceived notions about people from the U.S.

UNF students who have participated in Expedition Ecuador and/or The Ghana Project have gone on to become involved in teaching disadvantaged populations, working in community health clinics and international medicine, the Peace Corps and careers in development.