Volunteer in the Amazon in 2017

 

                               

Volunteer Programme

Introduction

   

For volunteers we expect to have regular Skype meetings to explain the operation of our work, to prepare candidates for the trip and to put them in touch with the projects that are being worked out during the meetings.

The Volunteer team will stay in the communities for 4 weeks or more.

Volunteers should arrive 5 days before the departure to the communities to receive a condensed training and be prepared for the initiative in the communities, and if possible stay together with their Bolivi felanlows for the whole period.

They should fly to La Paz, Bolivia, from there our team will depart by bus and boat to the communities on the route to Rurrenbaque on the river Beni. The coordination team will pick up the international participants from La Paz Airport.

Initial accommodation will be in Rurrenbaque, then stay with the Moseten, the Tsimane from Pilón Lajas, the Uchupiamona from San Jose and the Tacana from San Miguel del Bala, seeing first hand their challenges and planning how we can help empower these communities.

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      All are basic and simple but we always make it clean and decent. We usually sleep in hammocks with mosquito nets. The temperature is usually warm (around 28°C) but might be low as low at night as 15°C during the Amazonian cold season. We travel by boat during the stay in the communities. We also buy fresh fish from the community fisherman. The volunteers organize themselves to run the kitchen and the other activities of the lodge, and will be separated into teams with different tasks every day, from household chores to preparing breakfast or cooking the dinner.

  

What participants will gain from the experience:

They will come to understand deeply the present Amazonian situation and the traditional Amazonian community reality. They will be introduced to the search for the kind of development that helps to leave the forest standing, based on sustainable livelihoods, with traditional community lifestyles as one of the key elements.

They will work with the teams involved in projects related to health, income generation and education, and related issues. They will have the opportunity add their own specific skills to the teams’ work and support the communities in this way. Participating in the multidisciplinary teams coordinated by a veteran member of our NGO, working on initiatives in an absolutely collaborative environment is inevitably a very rich life experience.

We hope that this deep understanding and engagement with what is going on in the Amazon will make participants into multipliers in their homelands of field-based information concerning the rainforest situation. We will do our utmost to open up future possibilities for participants where they might be inspired to engage in social and environmental related development work in the Amazon region, or at least become supporters of this work.

             

There is no fee for this placement in this project, only voluntary contribution: All proceeds go to DPA to finance initiatives. All DPA personnel are volunteers.

24 Hours with DPA

7.00 wake up

7.30 breakfast

8.00-11.00 field activity

11.00- 12.00 lodge tasks

12.00 13.00 lunch

13.00 15.00 break (siesta)

15.00 18.00 field activity

18.00-19.00 lodge tasks
19.00 dinner

Field activities

These vary depending on the project to be executed during the training period. For example, dentists would do their own work; participants working with the brazil nut collectors might also sometimes make family visits. On other days manual physical work could be needed to help establish the small scale factory; other days might concern coordinating the first days of non-timber forest product production. Virtually all participant skills are useful and welcome, to be put to use with the communities. As DPA depends on volunteers, most of whom are PhD students from international universities, each project will depend to some extent on who is volunteering in each period.

Health advice

There is a danger of malaria in the area. Yellow fever vaccination is recommended, malaria tablets optional. Mosquito nets are necessary. Each community usually a clinic for immediate medical attention. Sometimes warm clothing is needed (trousers and sweater) as temperature can be cool in the high Amazon.

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the organization, people of any professional areas, identifying with the mission of DPA, our principles and objectives can participate from multidisciplinary areas of knowledge such as:biology, education, forestry engineering, communication, social sciences, social work, psychology, medicine, dentistry, nursing, physical therapy, production engineering, environmental education and management, and the arts, among many others. 

 Our aim is for participants undergoing training to be sensitised to act in a positive manner in the Amazon region or to become multipliers of the Amazon environmental causes and integrate in their personal and professional lives the learnings obtained.

About DAM PEOPLES AMAZON

It is a non-profit organisation working in the Bolivian and Brazilian Amazon region since with a mission to support and strengthen traditional communities situated in isolated areas of the Amazon forest, generally in protected areas where sustainable development is allowed. These populations are generally excluded from basic public services. DPA's activities in the region include helping to generate income derived from the standing forest and non-timber forest products, empowerment workshop to educate communities about their rights related to their traditional knowledge, habitats and livelihoods. 

 We are working to promote a new ‘development’ model that considers the welfare of forest and its inhabitants.  Often politicians and other decision makers take decisions based on the old paradigm of ‘progress’ that bring huge impact on the forest and its population, without realizing what the decision means. The Information we help to diffuse and the campagins and initiatives we undertake are gradually helping to change this scenario. 

DPA has a fixed base lodge on the Beni River, a branch of the Amazon River in the São Carlos do Jamari community. The organisation is currently composed of 7 professionals, various partners and participants. Student volunteers involved in NAPRA’s work learn about the needs of the local communities and have the opportunity to apply their knowledge and skills in real-life situations. DPA’s main activities are in the areas of indigenous rightsm education, health services and sustainable income generation.

DPA helps traditional communities to develop alternative sources of income based on sustainable forestry management, now helping to develop a mini-factory to manufacture non-timber forest products in an isolated community, with the objective of providing a stable annual income for the surrounding communities. 

The traditional communities along the rivers in the Amazon are vital for the preservation of the adjacent forest. DPA fully believes that support for the livelihoods of the target communities will in turn foster the preservation of their environment and natural habitats. In addition, strengthening and empowering traditional communities by helping them to develop their livelihoods in a sustainable manner is the primary way of deterring the strong migrate to urban areas, adding to social problems in Bolivia and Brazil.

DPA's interventions is based on the following principles:

•                     engaging in dialogue with communities about their needs
•                     establishing long lasting relationships of trust with the communities
•                     encouraging and valuing traditional culture
•                     participating in setting short and long term objectives and
•                     promoting the facilitation of multi-sector projects based on community needs.

In following these principles, DPA spurs sustainable development decisions led from within communities themselves.

Alliances and participatory networks

In the area of participatory governance, DPA carried out a socio-economic diagnostic of the target areas. mediator for the establishment of the councils conducting discussions among different stakeholders, such as government, civil society and companies.

To apply email Ian Lee: dampeoplesamazon@gmail.com, Dam Peoples Amazon, 6 White Rd, Oxford OX42JJ, England.

PARTNERS