Wednesday JANUARY 24TH AT 10 AM
HEBER CITY OFFICE 475W 910 S
Sign up will be available soon.
The village of Guayacana, several hours by motorized canoe upriver of Quininde, Ecuador, has limited access to clean drinking water. Over the course of three days, Redmond Soar Foundation volunteers will work alongside the local community to install pipes and new filters that will make it possible for medical staff to serve the area’s residents from Guayacana.
Service Project Details
The Redmond Soar Foundation will be partnering with Eagle Condor to sponsor an expedition to Ecuador early next year. We will be leaving Salt Lake City on Friday, February 23 and returning on Monday, March 5, 2018.
The Expedition has room for 15 full-time Redmond associates and about 10 other adult non-associates — family, friends and business partners.
Volunteers will improve access to water for a small community near Quininde, Ecuador. The 3-day service project will require physical activity but will be approachable for most associates. We’ll be using picks and shovels to dig long water line trenches to connect areas of the village.
Full-time Redmond associates interested in the expedition have until August 31 to sign up. If you are selected in the drawing, your non-refundable commitment fee of $500 is due by October 1. (The Redmond Soar Foundation will sponsor the balance of your trip cost — about $3,000 more.) Associates need to use 6 paid days off (combination of vacation, community service, or company activity time) for this trip.
Spouses or other non-associates can join the expedition, but Redmond Soar Foundation sponsorship isn’t available. Non-associates selected for the trip are responsible for the full cost of the trip ($3,500) with a non-refundable commitment fee of $1,000 due October 1st. The remaining $2,500 is due December 1st.
All travelers will need a current passport, but no visas are required. We will have translators help us communicate in the native Chapala language.
Before traveling, each person will need vaccinations for yellow fever and typhoid.
Each person will need to bring a mosquito net, bedding, and tall rubber boots. Bottled water and bathrooms are available at the village; bathing will be in the river.
For decades, there have been service organizations who mean well enough but interact with developing countries in ways that do more harm than good, earning a black eye for “voluntourism” opportunities in general.
The Redmond Soar Foundation partners with Eagle Condor, a service organization that forms longterm partnerships in areas where they can help local residents become self-sufficient in education, nutrition, infrastructure, and career development. Eagle Condor has a reputation of respect and longterm thinking, mitigating much of the criticism leveled at voluntourism.
Even so, the Redmond Soar Foundation recognizes that trips such as this benefit the Redmond associates traveling abroad as much as the local communities we volunteer to help — aligning with our vision to elevate the human experience, starting with our own associates, partners, and customers.
We view our efforts as incremental improvements to the places we visit, not revolutionary acts of sacrifice. We trust our work with Eagle Condor helps local communities continue toward self-sufficiency, and we know Redmond associates making the trip return home changed for the better – hopefully, a win-win situation where often the world expects one side to benefit at the expense of the other.
After arriving in Quito, the group will have a day to spend touring historical sites in the capital city before traveling to Guayacana. After the work is complete, we will spend two days touring one of the Galapagos Islands, including snorkeling and stops at famous landmarks in the area.
If you have questions about the expedition or how Soar Foundation trips work, send an email to expeditions@redmondsoar.org.
All full-time Redmond associates can sign up for the expedition. The Soar Foundation will sponsor $3,000, leaving associates responsible for a non-refundable $500 commitment fee.
Spouses of full-time Redmond associates can sign up for the expedition with their spouse. Soar Foundation sponsorship is not available; a non-refundable $1000 commitment fee is due Oct 1, with the balance due Dec 1.
Friends and business partners can sign up for the expedition. Soar Foundation sponsorship is not available; a non-refundable $1000 commitment fee is due Oct 1, with the balance due Dec 1.
