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Coach Football Ecuador
Like other South American countries, Ecuador has a passion for football that has the ability to unite people from all different walks of life and provide opportunities to individuals who may never have had them.
Using your football coaching skills, you can share your enthusiasm for football with underprivileged people and really make a difference to their lives. At the same time, you’ll be rewarded with learning all about the Ecuadorian culture, with further opportunities to advance or develop your Spanish skills. What better way is there to spend your gap year or career break?
Project Age Limit
Minimum age 18, maximum decided upon potential participant’s health Project Requirements: Basic to intermediate Spanish (Spanish school add-on for those wanting/needing to learn). Participants should also ensure they feel fit and able to join a project of this nature
Volunteer Programme
This sports project believes that by offering children a structured environment to enjoy, they will not get involved in crime and they will have access to educational experiences that will be an advantage for the future. This project is perfectly suited to volunteers who have a keen interest in sport, and wish to use it as a means to give something back to society.
Volunteer Placement
The project involves 2 football schools located in different parts of Quito, with about 120 boys and girls from 5 to 18 years old. The aim of the school is to provide young children with a place to go and enjoy physical activity, combined with purposeful education and language lessons.
Children attend the football school from all walks of life, with a number of the children attending from local schools and orphanages. Ecuador’s participation at the 2006 World Cup means football is likely to grow even more, making now a great time to experience this programme.
The children are constantly playing games and sometimes have tournaments on weekends that volunteers attend. During the summer they also have a Football camp that runs in the mornings from 9:30 until 12:30, with volunteers being able to participate if they wish.
As a volunteer football coach you will be required to:
• Assist coaches in football classes – through skill development, coordination skills, game preparation and training drills.
• Help in the organization of training sessions and competitions.
• Referee short games.
• Provide English (and/or German if possible) lessons to the students. Only one of the schools provides language lessons, so it is possible to volunteer at both schools to focus purely on football coaching:
• School A runs on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays doing football only.
• School B runs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays for football and Tuesdays and Thursdays for Language lessons. Volunteers are needed to teach for up to 4 hours a day, 5 days a week. Since regular academic schools run in the mornings, the Football School is open in the afternoons from 3:30 to 4:45 for the first group and from 5:00PM till 6:15PM for the older group.
Volunteers will spend a large proportion of their time working with young children, so they must be adaptable, enthusiastic and full of ideas.
Project Support
Throughout your stay in Ecuador you will have the support and guidance of our local project coordinators. They will provide you with competent assistance and help you with any questions or advice you may need during your stay. The school staff will be on hand throughout your placement and the sports coordinator will be with you to offer any other assistance.
In addition, we will provide you with a 24 hour emergency contact number before you depart, so that you can contact one of our UK staff at any time should you need to.
Project Orientation
At the start of your programme you will be given a comprehensive orientation by the project coordinators.
The orientation will include:
• An introduction to Ecuadorian culture
• Information about your Spanish lessons (if applicable)
• Health and Safety information
• City Tour to places of interest and importance
• Workplace ethics before starting your project
• An introduction to the area, school and staff that you will be working with Accommodation and Meals
All accommodation used during the language and volunteer programme is with a local host-family, although in some instances there is a student residence that can be used.
Staying with a local family gives you the opportunity to not only make local friends, but to also experience the Ecuadorian culture from a unique perspective. The families also offer you support, advice and a safe environment to live in during your programme.
The host family will provide you with 2 meals a day, breakfast and dinner. Volunteers will need to purchase their own lunch locally, but this is extremely cheap in Ecuador. Ecuadorians eat a lot of fresh fruit and vegetables, with potatoes, rice and chicken forming the staple part of their diet. If you have any special dietary requirements, these can usually be catered for.
Our Spanish School (Optional)
All participants who are not confident about their Spanish skills are recommended to take classes at our Spanish school in central Quito. Our Spanish school is an institution created to offer personalized instruction in the learning of Spanish as a Second Language.
If you are limited with time, you can arrange to have your language lessons and volunteer project run concurrently, to fit an 8-week programme into 4 weeks. Please contact a Real Travel Adviser for details.
• Classes are held Monday through Friday from 8:00-12:00 and 2:00-6:00, with start dates each Monday.
• Students and teachers work one-on-one, which allows each student to work at his/her individual level. We place particular emphasis on flexibility: students pick the areas they wish to emphasize - conversation, comprehension, writing, etc. All of our teachers are native speakers with a university degree in Spanish and have a minimum of 10 years experience in teaching Spanish as a second language.
• We organize two or three cultural events per week. In the day we organize visits to museums, galleries, cultural centers, cooking lessons etc. In the evenings we go to restaurants, bars, music concerts, the theatre, etc. These trips give participants a chance to learn more about Ecuadorian culture, but also give them the chance to get to know other students and teachers better, and of course, to practice their Spanish.
• We also help participants to organized trips like the ones to the Amazon Jungle or Galapagos Islands. We have very good discounts for our students. If you have any further enquiries, please feel free to contact a Real Sport Experience Travel Adviser at matt.fenton@realgap.co.uk or on 01892 516 164.
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