Help the future of Los Roques Archipelago learn English!
Campaign Title
Help the future of Los Roques Archipelago learn English!
Program Description
E-ROQ Project Inc. is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization registered in the State of Florida. Aiming to offer educational tools to difficult access communities with high touristic potential in Venezuela, through English education. We teach demographically adapted English with fundamental pillars: tourism, conservation, and civic values, considering the necessities of the people we are trying to help, in this case: Roqueños.
Where do we work?
Los Roques Archipelago is the largest marine park in the Caribbean. This destination qualifies as a natural paradise since its filled with the most amazing marine fauna including green turtles and wild dolphins to name a few, and its an ideal place to practice all kinds of watersports or relax enjoying the paradisiac beach view. Due to such characteristics is the most touristic location in our country, receiving an approximate amount of 70,000 tourists per year, 60% fluent in English. The geographic location of the island (128km away from the mainland) keeps their 2,000 citizens separated from the latest global trends, and sadly potential opportunities, thus inhibiting local economic growth.
Why Los Roques?
There is only one elementary school at Gran Roque, most of its teachers are residents who do not own a bachelor’s degree in education nor any type of professional training, who also, haven’t had the opportunity to learn English. Our purpose is to increase the level of literacy of remote communities in Venezuela, to stimulate their touristic development while always encouraging the preservation of their homeland.
Our project has always been directed towards the future we hope for Venezuela, in which the economy does not depend solely on the oil industry, but on multiple affairs, including sustainable tourism. E-ROQ aims to help locals further develop their communication skills to make this possible, while also creating environmental responsibility. Who are the teachers? Our bilingual volunteers fulfill the role of English instructors, traveling to Los Roques, they were recruited through a strict selection process taking into account their experience in volunteer activities, academic guidance, and professional instruction; English proficiency; and engaging capacities, after which they were capacitated by our team of experts in Education, Child Psychology, Social Work, Local Culture, and Group Management.
How do the logistics work?
Two volunteer teachers travel to Los Roques to impart classes on Saturday and Sunday from 8:00 am to 12 pm. We have divided the children by age into four groups, each of about 15 students, and every weekend, they receive a 90-minute class. We organize our travels with a lot of anticipation, we schedule all our volunteers in pairs according to their personalities and expertise, for each weekend of the trimester. After this, we start to contact local airlines by asking for their availability, and finally, we buy the tickets for the whole month.
¿Why does your organization needs urgent donations?
Our community reception has been extraordinarily positive which led us to create this campaign. Since to continue our work we must ensure their roundtrip to Los Roques every weekend until the population acquires the skills to spread the knowledge by themselves.
Due to our over exceedingly demand, we would like to expand our range of impact to double the number of beneficiaries and include adults.
Costs associated with the travel compound plane tickets, and food expenses.
Plane tickets from CCS-LRV-CCS are $200 per traveler.
Food expenses are around $30 per day.
For a total amount of $460 per weekend (33 weekends per year) = $15,180.
Additional expenses include uniforms for our students and our volunteers, printing the workbooks for their classes, making recycled paper notebooks for our students, and printing flashcards to deliver the classes.
We would very much appreciate every donation that can help us bring knowledge and equal opportunities to Los Roques, to recover our country from the ongoing crisis in the future.
The place you were born should not limit your potential nor your future opportunities.
Leave your drop of water to help us fill this ocean with knowledge!
You can contact and follow our work via:
www.eroqproject.com / Instagram: @eroq_project / Facebook: facebook.com/eroqproject
Request information related to our recruitment process, tax exemption, and other inquiries you might have via our email: eroqproject@gmail.com
