Mein Projekt

Name: Instituto de Educaciòn Especial Ambato
City: Ambato
Region: Tungurahua
Country: Ecuador

Instituto de Educaciòn Especial Ambato was founded in 1975 as a center for disabled children. It is the only such public institution in the province. It has 215 students, who have either had a stroke, are mentally challenged, have Down syndrome or have autism. The kids are divided into classrooms where there are11-12 students. The children get special treatments such as psychological help, physical therapy, language therapy, water therapy, occupational training and horse therapy. All this with the purpose of rehabilitate and integrate them in society. Furthermore, the institute offers many different services:
a). Work with the community (evaluation, diagnostic and orientation for disabled children and adolescents)
b). Early Intervention for children from 0-5 years old
c). Primary Education for children from 6-12 years old
d). Transition into adult life for 13-20 year olds--these are special classes for: wood and metal, artisan goods, and arts and crafts.
e). Center for Job Training for 16-26 year olds--this is a special workshop for getting a job after leaving the institute and focuses on real life job skills, such as cooking, manufacturing, and working in a supermarket
f). Therapies: psychology, physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, horse
therapy and water therapy.
In a regular day kids arrive at 7:30 and leave at 12:30 except for those who work in the Center for Job Training who stay until 1:30.

DESCRIPTION OF THE LOCAL COMMUNITY
Children from the whole region and with various backgrounds, the majority who come from
middle to lower class economic situations.
There are 38 professionals working at the institution.
From this group 3 are part of the administrative staff, 34 are teachers and one person is
responsible for cleaning.
The project is located in Ambato, which is a city of 250,000 people about 2.5 hours from the
capital city of Quito. Around the project there is the Technical University of Ambato and a
middle-class residential neighborhood.

PROPOSED ACTIVITIES FOR VOLUNTEERS
The volunteer will primarily be working with the older children (13-26 years). The main tasks
will be to help and assist them at their occupational training center. There is also a possibility to assist the professional workers with water therapy and horse therapy.
The volunteer could easily participate in activities c, d, e, mentioned above.
The volunteer will be working from 7:30 (kids arrive) to 1:30 (kids leave). The volunteer will help with activities during the day depending on the class that they are in. The institute has break from 9:45-10:15 and all the kids get a snack.
Depending on the volunteer skills and past experiences there are other possibilities/flexibility for tasks.

VOLUNTEER PROFILES
The volunteer is expected to have good communication skills.
He/She must have likes for working with disabled children.
Past experiences working with kids is a plus.
He/She must be an outgoing, caring, motivated person.