PMGY ECUADOR SCHOOL TRIP

Organise your 2 week school trip to Ecuador today! Teachers travel free and your 14 days in Ecuador will be fully structured, inclusive and led by our experienced team. Quito will be your base of your school trip in Ecuador. However, you will enjoy a range of day tours sandwiched into the volunteer schedule to explore the breadth of Ecuador. You will settle in and get to know your host family before your orientation and Spanish Lesson will follow to initiate yourself into life in Ecuador. Your first few days will have students giving back when they volunteer at San Roque Daycare Centre. Each afternoon/evening we will run cultural and adventure activities such as a traditional cooking lesson and a salsa class. After the first few days of giving back to the Quito community, it will be time to spend a couple days exploring Ecuador as we head to the Equator and Quilotoa Lake.

 

Your second-week volunteering will range across the Quito district and be more varied on a day to day basis. This will include volunteering at an elderly shelter, children's home, horse therapy program and a special needs children project. We will keep the afternoon busy with visits to Guayasamin Museum, Pichincha Volcano and a soccer match. Enjoy a night-time city tour of Quito before we finish our school trip in Ecuador with day tours to Otavalo City and immersing ourselves with the Tsachias Tribe. Everything is included in your 2 week Ecuador expedition from the airport transfers and meals to accommodation, entrance fees and cultural activities.

 

ECUADOR SCHOOL TRIP HIGHLIGHTS WITH PMGY

• A FULLY STRUCTURED, SAFE AND ALL INCLUSIVE EXPERIENCE
• A PERFECT BLEND OF VOLUNTEER, TRAVEL, ADVENTURE & CULTURAL IMMERSION
• TRIP ITINERARY, ACTIVITIES & DURATION EASILY TAILORED TO YOUR NEEDS & WANTS
• THE BEST VALUE & MOST AFFORDABLE TRIP PROVIDER WITH NO SACRIFICIES IN QUALITY
• PMGY WILL ENSURE A TRUE AUTHENTIC SOUTH AMERICAN EXPERIENCE FOR YOUR GROUP

HOW IT WORKS FOR SCHOOLS

Plan My Gap Year has the expertise, experience and networks to make your Ecuador expedition accessible, safe and stress-free. We pride ourselves on safety management and we have risk assessment documentation for all our overseas trips including to Ecuador that outlines how we ensure participants are kept safe while overseas.

 

Organising an overseas trip for your school involves lots of preparation. From flights and insurance to pre-trip training and that’s even before you’ve looked at organising the itinerary! So that’s where PMGY comes in. We really do specialise in the school's overseas expedition area providing exclusive group trips whilst accommodating large groups of students, on full board options, with great community project work and travel opportunities. We can organise:

• FLIGHTS (PMGY ARE ATOL PROTECTED), TRAVEL INSURANCE & FULL VISA GUIDANCE
• ALL-INCLUSIVE TAILORED VOLUNTEER AND/OR TRAVEL-BASED ITINERARIES
• FULL PRE-DEPARTURE PREPARATION AND 24/7 INTERNATIONAL & IN-COUNTRY SUPPORT

As a social initiative, we are able to guarantee affordable prices without sacrificing the quality of our programs. We frequently have groups joining our programs as they are looking for a more affordable alternative to their existing provider. We can tailor a trip around your requirements and work with you to create your personalised school trip itinerary. So why not follow the PMGY ten-step journey below to making your bespoke school trip to Ecuador a reality!

TEN STEP JOURNEY & OUR SUPPORT ROLE

Step 1: Arrange a Call - Should this trip be the one for you, get in touch by email or call and one of our school expedition specialists can discuss and tailor your Ecuador school trip. Alternatively, let us know the best way to reach out to you and we will do so at a time convenient to you.

 

Step 2: Meet & Greet - After initial contact has been made and ideas progressed, our school expedition specialist will travel to meet you and any of your colleagues in person. As a result, a face can then be put to the name, the Ecuador trip planning can be evolved and any initial questions can be answered.

 

Step 3: Information Session - Once the itinerary, duration and dates are in place for your trip to Ecuador, our school trip specialist will come and host an information session with all interested students and parents. We will convey all necessary content and information about the trip and hold a Q&A session after the presentation to ensure all attendees are as informed as possible before signing up.

 

Step 4: Confirm Trip Numbers - Once the internal school deadline for registrations has passed and the trip numbers are known, PMGY will arrange the invoice procedures for the overall group deposit payment to confirm the trip go ahead. For every 10 students, 1 teacher spot will be provided for free! We can also arrange and provide flights and insurance options for all travellers should this be applicable.

 

Step 5: PMGY Pre-departure Support - Throughout the build-up to your Ecuador school trip, we will be on hand to support you whatever way possible. Whether it be through creating your bespoke trip handbook, completing risk assessments, communicating safety management procedures or providing project preparation webinars, we will have all bases covered.

 

Step 6: Pre-departure Session - Around 2 months before your school trip begins in Ecuador, we will come to your school and do a final pre-departure session with staff, students and parents. This will ensure that everything is in place before your school head overseas and the content covered will align with this accordingly. We will also distribute PMGY T-shirts to all travellers at the session!

 

Step 7: Before You Go - In the days before your arrival into Ecuador, we will be in close and regular contact with you to make sure everything is in place for your trip. This will include a range of emails and phone calls ensuring your arrival procedures are all in place, dietary requirements & medical conditions are catered for and that our ground team in Ecuador are well prepared for your school's arrival.

 

Step 8: Enjoy the Trip! - When on the trip, our ground team will become your day to day port of call. We will touch base with them daily to make sure your trip is running smoothly. If required, we will be available 24/7 from afar. We will check in with you across the trip to see how everything is going. We know you will be in safe hands with our trusted, experienced and vetted ground teams!

 

Step 9: Return Home - By the time our team have dropped you safely back at Quito Airport, the travel blues may already be starting to kick in! We hope all the students and staff have had an unforgettable trip! Each trip participant will receive a certificate of completion. Furthermore, we will check in one final time with you in the days after your trip for feedback on your Ecuador experience.

 

Step 10: Future Planning - After a few weeks away from Ecuador and once the travel blues have well and truly settled in, it's now time to be planning your next school trip with PMGY to create more magical memories! Whether it be back to Ecuador or to a new destination, PMGY will be on hand every step of the way again to facilitate your new adventure. Back to Step one we go!

SCHOOL CASE STUDY - GERMAN INT. SCHOOL OF NEW YORK, USA

Who - German International School of New York (GISNY) from USA. 16 students and 2 staff members from GISNY travelled to Ecuador on a group trip expedition with PMGY.

 

What - A 11 day expedition to Ecuador in total. The trip centred on community volunteering in Quito and enjoying an immersive homestay and host family experience throughout. The volunteering was varied with GISNY students supporting at an indigenous daycare centre, an elderly shelter, a horse therapy program and a special needs project for children with cerebral palsy. Cultural and adventure activities were included on each of the volunteer days including a nighttime city tour of Quito, a cable-car ride to Pichincha volcano, enjoying a soccer match and partaking in a salsa class. Weekends provided GISNY students with some downtime as we arranged some adventure travel around Ecuador for the group. This included a culture day with the indigenous Tsachilas tribe, heading to the equator line for some physics experiments, a gentle trek around Quilotoa Lake and day tour to Otavalo city in the Andean highlands. The trip was action-packed throughout as GISNY students gave their time and effort through a wide range of community volunteering. However, there was plenty of adventure and photo opportunities to ensure the volunteering was balanced with a cultural and immersive Ecuador experience.

 

Where - GISNY experienced so much and a range of locations in their 14 days in Ecuador. Arriving into Ecuador's capital city, the main segment of the trip was the community volunteer placement based with homestay families in central Quito. This was the group's base for the trip ensuring they had home comforts throughout and a settled headquarters. Across the trip, the group explored not only the breadth of Ecuador but also the outskirts of Quito. Whether it was the indigenous area of Tsachilas, the Andean highlands of Otavalo, the lagoon of Quilotoa or balancing the north and south hemispheres at the equator line, GISNY experienced a range of locations in their journey through Ecuador.

 

When - GISNY joined PMGY on an overseas group expedition originally for 2 weeks in May 2019. The school enjoyed the trip and cultural experience so much that they teamed together with PMGY to provide another school trip to Ecuador with the second cohort of students 6 months later in November 2019. The collaboration between PMGY and GISNY is so positive and the student experience so fulfilling that the school is now making initial plans towards a third trip back to Ecuador with PMGY in 2020.

 

Why - GISNY reached out to PMGY looking to organise a South America school trip. It quickly became apparent that Ecuador would be a great opportunity to tick many of the boxes that the GISNY staff were looking to achieve from the trip. This included accessibility with direct flights from New York as well as an itinerary that would provide a strong cultural exchange for students, meaningful community volunteering and some memorable travel experiences. As one of the academic staff from GISNY joining the trip had experience living in Quito and PMGY could provide a bespoke and tailored itinerary that matched GISNY's trip objectives then the school trip to Ecuador quickly became a realisation.

 

How - From initial research on the PMGY schools trip webpage, Sigrid from GISNY got in touch with PMGY in late 2018 to make initial enquiries about what school trip services PMGY could provide. After productive and trust-building phone calls took place, it became apparent that Ecuador would be the best South American destination for GISNY's school trip expedition. Philip and Josh both travelled to New York to provide an information session and meet and greet with interested students, parents and teachers. They provided all necessary trip information and logistics and answered and questions or queries that students, parents or teachers had. This process again took place virtually before GISNY's second trip to Ecuador and PMGY continuing positive communications through emails and phone calls with Sigrid in the interim. PMGY also arranged GISNY's flights and insurances on both of the trips to ensure that all logistics were managed throughout the process.

 

Feedback - "We are so grateful to PMGY that they made this great experience come true for us twice in 2019! PMGY have a great team on the ground to make the trip run so smoothly and safely in Ecuador and some wonderful host families to accommodate our students. The trip support before students arrive in Ecuador is fantastic with Josh and Philip flying out to New York to meet and present an information session to teachers, parents and staff before the first trip commenced. This then took place virtually before the second trip with emails and phone calls all exchanged efficiently in the interim. Any amendments or slight changes that we wanted in place from the first trip before the second trip began were all actioned and integrated into the itinerary with no hassles or extra costs. Ecuador is a country of great culture, people and opportunities and I am glad many of our students have got to experience this in an authentic manner whether it be through volunteering, cultural activities or some adventure travel. Parents were full of praise of what their kids have experienced on their stay in Quito and we were overwhelmed with their enthusiastic appreciation of the trip that PMGY put together. It has been such a joy for us to come to Quito with students for a second time and we are sure that there will be a third time with our new eleventh graders next year! We look forward to continuing with the Quito project in the future and chaperoning our students again."

SCHOOL VOLUNTEER PROJECT SUMMARIES

The core of the sample overseas school trip with PMGY to Ecuador will be centred around the volunteering schedule and making a positive impact in the local community. The core projects within the sample itinerary that students will be completing volunteer work in is childcare. Students will also support other volunteer projects when in Quito such as spending a day volunteering at an elderly shelter and on a horse therapy project.

 

It is also important to note that we also have English Teaching and Medical volunteer opportunities in Ecuador. As a result, your volunteer schedule can be tailored to include these aspects. Consequently, the sample itinerary and volunteer options included within can be amended to a bespoke Ecuador expedition for your school.

 

Childcare - Ecuador is home to over 200,000 neglected children due to abandonment, death and alcoholism. Many children are forced into homes and living on the streets due to dysfunctional settings or abuse within their own families.

 

A major reason for neglected children is the cultural acceptance of child marriage. This results in an increased rate of births to mothers 10-14 years of age. The lower aged mothers result in a decreased level of familiarity on proper health and nutrition for infants. In the indigenous population, over 50% of children have a high level of chronic malnutrition. As a result, they are removed from their homes due to neglect.

 

Along with forms of neglect, there is the prevalence of abuse at high levels in countries of South America. Major areas of abuse are domestic violence and corporal punishment to women and children in the rural/indigenous communities. Therefore, please note that as international volunteers you may be working with children from vulnerable backgrounds.

 

San Roque Indigenous Daycare Centre is a community-based project that will be a core volunteer placement setting during your school trip in Ecuador. The origins behind the project are to provide a safe fun learning environment for young children. These children would previously spend time out at the markets with their working mothers. Consequently, they would be stuck in the sizzling heat with no daily structure or wellbeing.

 

Beginning as a small project with only one small room, the project has expanded quickly. As a result, the daycare centre has three large classroom formats home to 90 children in total. Consequently, students will split across each room so they can provide as many hands as possible and support the local staff to the maximum. These children range from 1-3 years and the project runs across the day. Students will volunteer for a 4 hour period before the children take their afternoon nap.

 

At the project, volunteers will teach about hygiene, read stories, play music and sing songs. Volunteers will also be expected to lead arts and crafts activities and help local staff with snacks and breakfast time. There are usually 1-2 local staff members in each classroom for volunteer support.