Medical Volunteer

Mondaña Medical Clinic

In 1997, Yachana and Amanecer Campesino* established the Mondaña Medical Clinic in the heart of the Ecuadorian Amazon. At the time, the Clinic was the only full-time, fully-staffed medical facility in the remote Upper Napo River Region. In 2005, The Yachana Foundation officially handed the title of the Mondaña Clinic over to the Ecuadorian Ministry of Health in an effort to bring long-term sustainability to the Clinic, guarantee that sufficient medical supplies and staff will be available, and to meet the healthcare needs of the local people. The Clinic is now known as the "Sub-Centro de Salud de Mondaña" and is maintained fully by the Ministry of Health.  All services are provided free of charge.

Yachana has developed a Clinical Rotation Program designed to provide public health and clinical experience to students and health professionals in the fields of medicine, nursing, and public health. Medical volunteers participate in community-based public health care activities run by the Ministry of Health in the vicinity of the Clinic.

In addition to rotations at the Mondaña Clinic, we are involved in an urban rotation at the Hospital San Jose Obrero, a public hospital in Quito that serves the city's marginalized populations. Many volunteers choose to complement their work at the rainforest clinic with a rotation at the city hospital. The clinic was constructed as part of a community-based health care program and the hospital is a stand-alone institution that treats patients as they come in. Both experiences are very different, but give great insight into the lives of all the people of Ecuador.

Basic requirements:

• Students must be in at least the third year of medical or nursing school
• Proficiency in Spanish (advanced conversational level) is a MUST

Click here to download a document containing detailed information.  In the Download section on this page, you will find the application form for Yachana Foundation's Clinical Rotation Program.  For more information, email: volunteer@yachana.org.ec.



* Amanecer Campesino is an organization that the Yachana Foundation helped form and it represents 35 communities located along the Upper Napo River. It has recently shifted its activities in the region from providing healthcare training to offering technical assistance and providing improved methods of raising cacao, coffee and corn to local farmers.