Volunteering in Ecuador

Alex Arktos Completes Microcredit Program in Ecuador

QUITO, ECUADOR December 18, 2004 -- Alex Arktos recently completed a three-month volunteer program in Ecuador where he worked on micro-credit projects to improve the economic prospects of rural Ecuadorians.

Alex holds a B.A. in International Studies with specialization in Russia from UCLA. He is a US Citizen whose family is from Armenia. He speaks Armenian, Russian, Spanish, and English.

Alex’s program in Ecuador was based in La Esperanza, although he found time to travel widely around Ecuador, including to places like Ibarra in the north, Cuenca in the south, and special places like Banos and Ingapirca in between.

As Alex writes below, his experiences in Ecuador were "unforgettable":

My three months in Ecuador left an unforgettable impression on me. I think a person who travels to another place, especially when not as a tourist, he or she will never look at people and places the same way as before the trip.

When I returned from my trip even the tea kettle appeared differently to me. But it was the same tea kettle which I left three months ago. Indeed, travel changes a person on many levels like emotional, intellectual, spiritual and physical.

After my trip I now view people around me with deeper sense of respect and affection. Even my physical appearance changed because of the Ecuadorian sun and Andean mountains.