EcoSwell

EcoSwell's mission is "To support the development of vulnerable communities in a sustainable way by implementing the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals". Our vision is A Future in Which People and Nature can Thrive in Unison. EcoSwell's strategy focuses on four key areas to implement this: - Positively impacting local natural environments - Positively impacting local communities - Developing sustainability leaders of the future - Building and developing a successful organisation to support the strategy EcoSwell's Volunteer Internship programme is central to the model, operating to drive the creation and implementation of sustai... read more EcoSwell's mission is "To support the development of vulnerable communities in a sustainable way by implementing the United Nations Sustainability Development Goals". Our vision is A Future in Which People and Nature can Thrive in Unison. EcoSwell's strategy focuses on four key areas to implement this: - Positively impacting local natural environments - Positively impacting local communities - Developing sustainability leaders of the future - Building and developing a successful organisation to support the strategy EcoSwell's Volunteer Internship programme is central to the model, operating to drive the creation and implementation of sustainability projects, whilst transforming the Volunteer Interns into agents of change. The Volunteer Internship programme offers opportunities in six different areas: Renewable Energy, Reforestation and Conservation, NGO Management, Research, Public Health and Water and Sanitation. Since 2013, we have directly impacted the lives of over 5,000 people and indirected impacted 24,000 people in Lobitos, Talara, Piedritas and other surrounding villages. We are based in Lobitos, a small town in the Piura Region of Northern Peru. Lobitos, along with Peidritas and other towns where we work, have poor access to services, with frequent energy supply interruptions, very limited availability of clean water and non existent or unmaintained sewage systems that often leak, leading to open sewage pools. Some families have no access to these services at all. There is severe degradation of the dry forest ecosystem, which impacts farming and availability of local food supplies. We run an EcoHouse, where our volunteer interns stay, and our office is based. The location is not an accident. The four founders and directors are lifelong friends who came to Lobitos on a surfing trip in 2013. Loving the surf, but also seeing the poverty and lack of services in the town, they decided to help, and gave up jobs in the private sector to set up EcoSwell. Since then, the Volunteer Intern programme has been established and many projects have been achieved. More detail is set out in the Impact Report which is attached. During COVID, we have been working in partnership with local companies and our Volunteer Interns to deliver food parcels and medical supplies to those most in need. EcoSwell is now keen to expand its impact and is developing a number of projects which align with its strategy which will require funding to make them viable. Working together with Global Giving will enable EcoSwell to reach even more people in this area, and beyond - to deliver its Mission and get closer to its Vision of a Future in Which People and Nature can Thrive in Unison.