Advice on Choosing an Intermediary Organization:

Committed intermediary organizations that care make a huge difference to what Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi can achieve. Here are some impartial guidelines.

Ethical Volunteering leaflet: Checklist of things to look for in an intermediary organization.

 

Ethical Volunteering website: Offers a 3 step process to evaluating an intermediary organization. Elaborates on the above leaflet and offers more detail on how intermediary organizations can affect the places they work, for better or worse.

 

Private sites:

 

A photo diary by Per Einarsson, of working with the capuchins in the monkey park and Sonko, the then 7 month old puma. Lots of beautiful photos of the entire experience. The author is getting more and more information from all the ex-volunteers who are still in touch so keep visiting!

 

A web site created by Cedric, a volunteer of the refuge: It contains some more information and photos. Languages: English, Spanish and French.

Partner organizations:

Quest Overseas - Quest Overseas provide safe, rewarding, inspiring gap year expeditions and are Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi's partner for UK gap year schemes.

El Alto fair-trade outdoors clothing: An ethically sourced, socially responsible, high quality outdoor clothing brand which is made in La Paz. The factory is wholly owned by Bolivians and the staff are a group of hugely talented tailors from El Alto itself. 2% of all sales to charity - half to Comunidad Inti Wara Yassi, half to onepercentfortheplanet.org.

Loro Libre - an organization that raises awareness of parrots where they live, as wild animals that should not be kept in cages. In Spanish at www.lorolibre.org or English at www.araproject.org.

 

People helping us meet new people:

 

Volunteer South America: Free, comprehensive listing of grass-roots volunteer opportunities in South America (English)

Volunteer Latin America: Free, comprehensive listing of grass-roots volunteer opportunities in South and Central America (English)

Green Volunteers: Ecological volunteering service (English)

Go Eco: Ecological volunteering service (Hebrew)

Ecoteer: Wide-ranging volunteering listings (English)

Grands Singes: Information about primates and working with them (French)

Recommended reading:

 

Bring Your Own Children: South America! A Family Sabbatical Handbook: describes a family's year-long sabbatical traveling throughout South America, and includes a lengthy description of their time at CIWY, complete with photos of volunteers and animals (including cute ones of Roy), travel tips, resources, and maps. The author's son, who was 7, talks about his experience there, and ends each chapter with the pros and cons of the region from a child's point of view. They'll donate a portion of the proceeds to the park if you mention CIWY when you order the book. Order at www.rumskytravelworks.com or just send an email to robin@rumskytravelworks.com and they'll send you the book and invoice. (English)

 

 

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