This is our first volunteer project
Santa Martha Rescue Center is an animal sanctuary located in the Andean mountains of Ecuador. Assisted by volunteers, they are responsible for rescuing a wide variety of wild animals (such as monkeys, cats, bears, reptiles, parrots, etc) from unhealthy and illegal situations, which have been the victims of animal-trafficking or mistreatment. Operating since 2001, the center is locally owned by Johnny and Brenda Córdova and is situated on their 65 hectare dairy farm, 1 hour south of Quito.
Since 2006, there is a new animal rehabilitation and release center in the Amazon jungle of Ecuador, called Santa Martha Flor de la Amazonia. There they work in partnership with an indigenous Indian community and now have over 1,000 private hectares of primary Amazon forest within which they can release the rescued animals.
Santa Martha works closely with the national police organisation UPMA to encourage the development and enforcement of legislation in relation to wildlife found in Ecuador.
Another very important aspect of Santa Martha is that of community awareness. School visits are an important part of our effort to help educate the local community, especially the children.
It has become apparent that the need is far greater than ever imagined, hence over a short period of time, Santa Martha has grown almost overwhelmingly. By attempting to never turn away an animal in need, Santa Martha has become the premier animal rescue center in Ecuador. As a result Santa Martha is continually operating at its limits and it is only with the enthusiastic work of so many volunteers that Santa Martha has been able to help as many animals as it has today.
Despite its incredible growth Santa Martha is solely based on love and respect of the animal kingdom. It is an NGO (non government organisation), which means it is completely reliant on its volunteers and other donations to keep running. Despite working closely with the government, the police, and other orgainsations, we receive no funding from them.
4 comments:
How is this volunteer trip going? I'm thinking of going to Santa Martha and have heard mixed reviews. Tell me all you can!!!
Ashley,
Volunteering at Santa Martha Rescue Center was a very good experience. There are two locations - we volunteered for the location near Quito. The jungle location is now completely separate and I´ve heard that that place isn´t as good. There is a group on facebook, if you´re on there you can get feedback from all of the members. Your profile isn´t public, so there was no way to reply to you; hopefully you get this message.
Is the one near quito this one http://www.santamartharescue.org/en/index.html the one about an hour south of Quito?
what was it like?
thanks David
Hi David. Yes, santamartharescue.org is about 45 minutes south of Quito in a town called Trujillo. There is a group on facebook that you may find useful if you are trying to choose which center to visit (http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=4165194073). There are a lot of amazing animals and great volunteers to work with there. It was a great experience to work there!
Post a Comment