Amigos de las Américas: Portland Chapter

Amigos de las Américas: Portland Chapter Amigos de las Américas inspires and builds young leaders through collaborative community development and immersion in cross-cultural experiences.

The Portland Chapter has offered local training and fundraising opportunity for more than 30 years. 2020 marks the 55th anniversary of AMIGOS, and the 36th anniversary of the Portland Chapter. Amigos de las Américas (AMIGOS) inspires and builds leaders through collaborative community development and immersion in cross-cultural experiences. Since 1965, more than 25,000 people have become AMIGOS vol

unteers. Our programs are completely unique in offering comprehensive leadership training and real-life practice. AMIGOS combines this training with the complete immersion experience of living in Latin American communities.

One of our wonderful board members, Kirsten Gwynn, interviewed Portland alumna, Oci, about her time in Ecuador this past...
06/23/2022

One of our wonderful board members, Kirsten Gwynn, interviewed Portland alumna, Oci, about her time in Ecuador this past summer. Here's her story.

Oci is a senior who went to Ecuador last summer for her first Amigos experience. It was so great to sit down with her and hear about how her summer went. As any former Amigos volunteer knows, I started out with the exact wrong question “How was it?!” This question that everyone gets asked when they first get back is so weighted and difficult to summarize in the short form that people are looking for. Oci was gracious in her response-- alluding to how hard it was to respond but ultimately chose the superlative ‘awesome’.

Oci’s heard about the AMIGOS program after her mom came home after a medical education trip with the husband of Portland board president Jenny. Unfortunately, due to Covid-19 she wasn’t able to do a homestay, but her pod of 15 US volunteers and two Ecuadorians stayed at two different farms in Ecuador.

The volunteers both worked on the farm and took classes with a complementary curriculum that focused on indigenous rights and food security. The highlight for Oci was a lot of deep discussions about identity and race.

She especially loved the second farm which was run by 3 indigenous predominantly female families. The women there were working hard to save the farm after the government and mining industry had pushed out the other 50 families who used to live there.

She wishes she could have done a homestay but felt despite the pandemic changes she got to make it the experience she wanted it to be. She came home confident in her ability to thrive in new situations, able to communicate and connect with people who spoke a different language, and excited for a more global future. She hopes to stay connected with Amigos and might even want to do a gap year!

And we're back! We have 14 volunteers heading to Latin America this summer on pod-based programs. We're SO excited to be...
03/05/2022

And we're back! We have 14 volunteers heading to Latin America this summer on pod-based programs. We're SO excited to be training again!

Grant was completing his training for AMIGOS during spring of 2020 when COVID derailed his plans for Latin America. In 2...
03/02/2022

Grant was completing his training for AMIGOS during spring of 2020 when COVID derailed his plans for Latin America. In 2021, however, Grant participated in an AMIGOS program focused on Environmental Science and Biodiversity in Costa Rica. Like all AMIGOS in that cohort, he did not have the opportunity for a home stay. But after almost 15 months of online school, he relished the novelty of Costa Rica during his three-week stay.

In Costa Rica, Grant went on nighttime beach patrols to protect turtles from poachers. He was able to observe baby sea turtles hatching and helped capture small turtles to shelter for several days in a beach nursery.

Like generations of AMIGOS volunteers before him, Grant was taken aback by the differences between the United States and Central America. “We live so differently than other people around the world. Our basic infrastructure is so different--even small things we take for granted like not having hot running water”. But the most profound part of his experience took place at the Monteverde Institute, a remarkable not-for-profit, whose mission is to advance sustainable living at the local and global level through place-based education, applied research and collaborative community programs.

Before traveling to Costa Rica, Grant knew he was interested in some type of career in biological sciences such as marine biology. But with the limitations of COVID, his biology classes were online with few opportunities to understand what a career in biology might look like.

He was thrilled when he was able to participate in a water quality field experience at the Monteverde Institute, spending time taking water specimens, examining bacteria through a microscope, and swabbing petri dishes. “That one day experience opened my mind to the important things a biologist can do in the field.”

Once back in Portland, Grant began exploring the opportunities of an environmental science degree at Oregon State University. Now a high school senior at Ida B. Wells High School he feels more focused about his future.

Grant has been a champion for the Portland Chapter. After this summer experience he prepared and delivered six classroom presentations to recruit the next cohort of AMIGOS volunteers, attended online information sessions to share his experience, and helped with the training of upcoming volunteers. The Portland Chapter is grateful for his generosity and leadership.

11/25/2021

Tomorrow is the LAST DAY to order grapefruit. Run don't walk and order now! Only $27 for a holiday gift everyone will love.

Listen up, folks! This year there will only be ONE delivery of Ruby Red Grapefruit. So get your orders in by NOV 26! Eac...
11/18/2021

Listen up, folks! This year there will only be ONE delivery of Ruby Red Grapefruit. So get your orders in by NOV 26!

Each box costs $27 and contains about 20 grapefruit. Looking for a holiday potluck item? We've got you covered. Does grapefruit make an excellent housewarming present? You bet.

Get your orders in now using the link below!

https://www.iatspayments.com/saaura/PA5540B5449D5FA071

Volunteer Spotlight 🔦Aydin had almost finished his AMIGOS training for Summer 2020 when COVID erupted. For almost a year...
10/07/2021

Volunteer Spotlight 🔦

Aydin had almost finished his AMIGOS training for Summer 2020 when COVID erupted. For almost a year he doubted the possibility of an AMIGOS adventure.

But AMIGOS headquarters pivoted and developed new models of COVID-safe travel (without the traditional AMIGOS immersion experience). Aydin was delighted when the opportunity arose to travel to Monteverde, Costa Rica for three weeks in Summer 2021.

Aydin was one of 12 students, divided into two pods, who first quarantined together in San Jose and worked to improve their Spanish. Once out of quarantine, the two pods were combined and spent the remaining time participating in conservation efforts in Costa Rica.

Aydin’s favorite experiences were “Doing things bigger than myself. Some people want to kick back, but I was looking for more meaning and being of service." In Monteverde he thrived on mulching tree seedlings that would be used by the government in mass plantings—Aydin says this effort has resulted in planting over a million trees in Costa Rica. He re-patched trails in the national parks. He even enjoyed a day picking up plastic and Styrofoam on littered beaches.

But the most extraordinary nights were spent patrolling a beach in Parismina from 8:00pm to midnight looking for turtles. The third (and last) night of patrol his group found a critically-endangered leatherback turtle laying eggs in the sand.

Aydin helped the staff from the not-for-profit “Association to Save the Turtles of Parismina (ASTOP)” relocate the eggs to a nursery just up the beach in order to protect them from poachers. The next night Aydin observed a different set of leatherback turtle eggs hatch in the nursery. After the staff were sure the palm sized turtles were ready to swim, each AMIGOS volunteer held a newborn turtle and released it into the surf—an example of the remarkable experiences available only through programs like AMIGOS.

Aydin’s summary of his experience “I learned that our world is an extension of our being, we’re all connected more than we are separate. For us to damage our environment is to damage ourselves”.

Aydin is now energized for his studies at Portland State University. Aydin was a recipient of a Portland Chapter Financial Assistance award. He is grateful for the generous support of AMIGOS donors who made this unique opportunity possible.

Please consider donating to the Financial Aid Fund here: https://www.iatspayments.com/saaura/PAFA2EC98A6645493B

Meet our new Outreach Coordinator, Jessica ⬇️The first time I did Amigos de las Américas was in 1995 when I was in high...
10/06/2021

Meet our new Outreach Coordinator, Jessica ⬇️

The first time I did Amigos de las Américas was in 1995 when I was in high school in the Bay Area. I went to Costa Rica as a volunteer for 8 weeks on a dental hygiene project where I lived with a kind host family and worked with a group of dentists to give lessons about dental hygiene to kids. We also painted a mural, and taught an English class.

Doing Amigos left an indelible mark on my consciousness and heart. My experience in Costa Rica sparked an interest in different cultures and diversity, which is why I chose to attend Occidental College, a diverse liberal arts school, where I majored in Anthropology with a peaked interest in Latin America and improving my Spanish. While at Occidental, I studied abroad in Bolivia for a semester, then returned to Bolivia after I graduated to be a field supervisor on an Amigos project where I had greater leadership responsibilities. Once again I was challenged and fulfilled in so many ways by Amigos.

I continued to live in Bolivia for two years and teach elementary as well as direct high school community service projects. When I returned to California to get my teaching license, I taught in Spanish dual immersion classrooms until I returned to Amigos to become a Project Director in Honduras. This was by far the most exciting, interesting, challenging, and stimulating job I have ever had. We built water storage sheds and laid down cement floors.

After Honduras, I received an Ambassadorial Scholarship to get my masters in Latin American studies in Quito, Ecuador, where I also did community service projects and taught elementary. I then moved to Colombia for six years where I worked as a middle and high school social studies teacher, and was on the board of a vulnerable youth foundation.

When I returned to the States I continued to work as an educator and a Spanish teacher. More than any other organization Amigos has been responsible for the direction my life has taken and the person who I have become in terms of my cultural awareness and knowledge of Latin American contexts

Loving your grapefruit?A big thank you to everyone who purchased this year and to our board members who helped unload mo...
12/13/2020

Loving your grapefruit?

A big thank you to everyone who purchased this year and to our board members who helped unload more than 400 boxes!

Address

Portland, OR

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Amigos de las Américas: Portland Chapter posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to Amigos de las Américas: Portland Chapter:

Shortcuts

Share

Category