Our History

Great Aves was formed on the 22nd June 2007 as a non-profit organization in the United Kingdom. The organisation began by founding a teaching project in the Amazon region of Ecuador. It is known as the Arajuno Road Project, and it opened its doors on the 31st of March 2008. The project started working in a rural school called Juan Leon Mera, which is located on km 35, Via Arajuno, Puyo, Pastaza, Ecuador (Ecuadorian Amazon). The main objective of the project is to provide teaching assistance in the classroom. Volunteers, the majority of whom come from the UK and America, mainly concentrate on teaching ESL, but are not limited to just teaching English. The project tries to encourage reading as much as possible and supplies books to the school through the ‘Buy a Book’ campaign. The project also created a summer school to keep the children occupied and active during their summer holidays. In the summer of 2008, the project also took the children of km 35 on a school trip to a nearby town. In March 2009, the project began working in another local school called Angel Manzano, which is located on km 20 Via Arajuno. In June 2009 the project began working at the school and college in El Triunfo and had summer schools at all three schools that year. The following September the project expanded into 3 further schools at (Km.10, Km.16 and Km.40) and runs two adult evening classes

In January 2010 Great Aves was granted charity status by the Charities Commission for England and Wales. In July 2010, the project grew to incorporate a community development program, aimed at educating the local community about the benefits of sustainable agricultural and business practices. The program serves to provide the same benefits to the community as the teacher program does to school children.