Ecuador with Choice Humanitarian

Our TripWe had an incredible opportunity to travel to Ecuador with our spouses for a humanitarian project. We partnered with Choice Humanitarian, an organization working to end global poverty. We joined with villagers in Cotacachi County in building a vocational school, to give access to technical training for the 1,500 families in the region. The work site is situated in the Intacara Valley and is susceptible to generous rainfall. Our teams worked to install a drainage canal by digging trenches, moving rocks, mixing, hauling and pouring cement and bending rebar for the forms. The school is scheduled to be completed in June 2019.

The Reason

In our travels we have seen first-hand many of the challenges facing communities around the globe. We founded Grandeur Peak with a commitment to give back to our local and global community. We worked hard to serve the people in Ecuador. But while we hope we made a difference in their lives, it cannot compare to how our lives were changed because of them. Each of us came home with a new outlook on life, we grew closer and stronger as a team, we experienced a new culture—the list could go on and on. We will never forget our experiences or the bonds we made in Ecuador.

“Being a part of the building of a new vocational school was more than just pouring concrete and digging holes. It was a way to share laughter, hard work, and cultural experiences with one another. Turns out, we are not so different after all. We left behind a group of admirable Ecuadorian people, but went home with a work family bonded together in ways the walls of an office cannot do.”

–Bree Nielson

“Without the distractions of work, cellphones, and other obligations, this trip was the perfect opportunity to tune into what life should truly feel like: light, enjoyable, and filled with genuine connections to the people that surround you.”

–Riley Babbitt

ECUADOR 2018

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