We want you to feel safe and secure when volunteering with us, from the moment you book until you finish your placement.

It can often be hard to know who to trust, especially when far from home and with smaller organisations. To put you at ease we have listed our credentials below, with links to government and 3rd party webites, so you don't need to just take our word for it.

• We're a UK registered Charity

YouVolunteer is part of the Great Aves registered Charity. Great Aves is registered in the UK (charity registration number 1133399), and we are registered as a non-profit company (registration number 06289633). All our organisation information can be found, checked and validated at the Companies House website. Companies House is the central registary for all UK for-profit and non-profit companies.

• What is a non-profit organisation?

A non-profit organisation is a company limited by guarantee. This means that all profit must be re-invested back into the organisation and no part of the company can be used for personal gain. Non-profit organisations cannot have owners and are run by a board of trustees.

• What are the responsibilities of the Charity?

Great Aves vision is to improve education in rural areas to match what is found in urban schools. Our work is currently focused on schools based in Ecuador, and our mision is to provide materials, teaching staff and facilities to achieve this vision. We currently do this through donations and the hard work of our volunteers. Our responsibilities at the schools are to provide English teachers and basic materials, which are essential for teaching such as paper, notebooks, pens, pencils and board markers.

• Your information is secure

Great Aves has a comprehensive Privacy Policy, which can be viewed here. We will never pass on your personal information to 3rd parties. Any information you submit on the website is done on secure pages, which posess the padlock symbol in the direction bar, and have the web pages starting https://.

• You payments are secure

Your credit card/debit card details are not kept by Great Aves / YouVolunteer and are processed by WorldPay financial services. Payments are done through a web-secure system which is one of most secure ways to pay online. Payments made over the phone follow the same guidelines.

• Feel safe on your placement

The Amazon Teaching Project (The Arajuno Road Project) started on the 31st March 2008, although Great Aves has had a presence in the area before then. Since then the project has had a continued presence at the schools with over 100 volunteers having had an amazing experience. Don't just take our word for it, visit our facebook group (You Volunteer and the Arajuno Road Project) or ask us to speak to past volunteers. The location of the project is a very low crime area, especially when compared to other areas in Ecuador like Quito or Guayaquil.

• Feel confident with us

We are 100% for the project and our aims are to give the children the best education possible and the volunteers the best experience we can. We can answer your questions as we know what is happening each day on the project. You can be safe in the knowledge that your volunteer placement will make a difference to the children you teach. We are the host project, not a travel agency, when booking with YouVolunteer you go to a Great Aves operated project with Great Aves staff. The vast majority of volunteer websites are agencies or directories. A good way to check if you are signing up with the host project is to search for the location and type of project on google (in our case Puyo Volunteer teaching). Agencies have very little control over what happens during your placement.

• Don't just take our word for it

It's easy to put up any kind of information on the website, so check what we say through searching independently. You'll find we are run with all the safety, convenience and security of a for-profit company, without the cost.