The foundation FUNEDESIN was started in 1991. Looking for ways for the foundation to be self-sustaining and meet the needs of the people, its founder, Douglas McMeekin, created a number of entities designed to generate income and help the people living in the Ecuadorian Amazon. All entities use the indigenous Quichua word Yachana in their names, which means “a place for learning”. The various parts of the Yachana Group are Yachana Lodge, Yachana Technical High School, Yachana Gourmet and Yachana Technology. The majority of these activities are located on the Napo River, 2.5 hours by motorized canoe from the nearest city where there is an airport.

Yachana is an integrated approach to development that is working because the foundation FUNEDESIN, and all its entities, are committed to staying in the region and working with the local populace to find innovative ways to address their needs and have invested over 1.3 million dollars in the area in land and infrastructure.

The Yachana Group continues to look for the latest in technology and Base of the Pyramid solutions through innovation. Yachana Lodge and Yachana High School have installed a satellite connected, broad band, high speed, solar powered, wireless Internet system covering a 5 km diameter.

In 1997 the Foundation opened the Mondaña Medical Clinic that serves a population of 8,000 people. Now managed by the Ministry of Health, the Yachana Group has installed a state-of- the art system in Tele Medicine via the Internet to allow the doctors located in this isolated area to communicate with a leading hospital in Quito. Concerned about self-sustainability for the high school, and at the same time providing a meaningful education for the young people, a number of micro enterprises have been developed that are managed by the students. These consist of the assembly and training on the use of a simple, but effective home water filter, an innovative flash light bulb using LED lights for conventional inexpensive flashlights that the locals use, and other projects in hydro-electricity and boat motors. Concerned with the destruction of the rainforest, FUNEDESIN and the Yachana Group have purchased 1,680 hectares of forest which is used by the tourists to learn about the biodiversity of the Amazon and by the students in the high school as a living classroom.

Yachana Lodge is the only Lodge in the region that has made the investment in local indigenous guides to send them to the United States to learn English. All of the staff of the lodge are locals from the Amazon; a major emphasis is placed on their continued training. Yachana Lodge involves young men and women students from the High School in practical, applied skills in all aspects of its operation. Yachana Lodge involves its visitors in all of the activities of the High School, rainforest conservation, fair trade activities with Cacao and its innovations and best practices in operations. This makes Yachana Lodge unique in Eco-tourism in Ecuador, and a leader in eco-tourism in the world.

The Foundation FUNEDESIN stared working in the area in 1992 in elementary education in 27 communities along the Napo River. Access was difficult and only a few communities had canoes with motors. The Napo Province in the Amazon region was, and still is, one of the poorest and most isolated in Ecuador. There was no education available higher than elementary, and that in one-room schools. The level of education and school infrastructure offered by the Ministry of Education was very poor. There was no permanent health services provided. Tourism was not an industry in the region and there were few opportunities for local employment.

Two things motivated the Foundation to start Yachana Lodge. First was the personal commitment of the Foundations founder to stay in the region and work to find solutions to the problems of the people. Second was the desire of finding a way for the Foundation to be self-sufficient.

From the very beginning, there has been active and healthy involvement of the people who live in the region. Through a series of meetings, the population identified three needs in their order of priority: health, income generation and education. Income from the Lodge financed the creation of the only medical facility in the region in 1997. The creation of Yachana Gourmet in 2000 has opened a market for fair trade cacao. This micro enterprise, also originally financed by the Lodge, in conjunction with FUNEDESIN is now a leader in cacao and value added chocolate exports from the Amazon, purchasing 80 tons of cacao this harvest. And finally, the Yachana Technical High School was created in 2005 to address the chronically poor education in the region. The Lodge and Foundation have approximately 1.3 million dollars invested in land and infrastructure. All of the income from the Lodge is reinvested in the region in the many projects of the Foundation. Since 1992, all of the entities combined have invested approximately $6.3 million dollars in three provinces in the Amazon.

Yachana Lodge opened in 1995. It offers a window into the lives, realities and environment of the people who live in the Amazon region of Ecuador. Since that time, 12,600 visitors have come to the lodge and generated $3.5 million dollars in revenue that has been reinvested in the local communities through projects, salaries and investments. FUNEDESIN, the parent foundation, and its affiliates have generated and invested a total of $6.3 million dollars since 1992 in many different projects, many of which are related to the tourism activity in one way or another. Visitors to Yachana Lodge now generate over $150,000 annually in small donations designated for the many different Foundation projects. The Lodge is a training facility for the Yachana Technical High School where the students are earning a degree in Eco-tourism and Sustainable Development, the only degree of its kind in Ecuador. The Lodge and Foundation have generated the funds to purchase and protect 1,680 hectares of mostly primary rainforest. This forest is used by the tourists for their tours and by the Yachana High School students as their living classroom.