Playground/Projet 65 has a house in the city of Stavelot. This place will be the main office of the organisation, with a flat for the trainers of the association and a working space to organise workshops in the future. The building will be completely renovated with ecological-construction techniques. The main objective of the year is the building of an adjacent greenhouse behind the house to produce food for people living there. Some insulation work with natural materials will be also done during the workcamp.
Accomodation & food:
Your team will be accommodated in a guest house (with all facilities) located at 15 min by walking from your working place, the house has also a big garden. Most of the time you will have a hot meal at noon on your working place. Food will be provided and the other meals will be prepared on self-catering basis.
Location & leisure:
In the city of Stavelot (7.000 inhabitants). It is located in the French speaking part of Belgium and it is one of the oldest Belgian cities. Stavelot is famous with its "Laetare" carnival and the formula one racing circuit of Spa-Francorchamps. The nearest train station is about 7km, from there. During your free time on the week-end, you could easily reach by train Liège (60km) or, Brussels (150km)
This project is based on a dynamic meeting between the volunteers and the residents of the refugee center. With the help of technical leader, volunteers, young and older residents will work together to achieve several missions within the center: development of the outdoor meeting spaces (construction of benches, outdoor games, garden ...), you will also be asked to organize activities with the residents: sports, crafts, games. To a lesser extent, you will also paint some rooms of the centre.
Accomodation & food:
Volunteers will be sleeping in a common room (dormitory) in a building next to the central one. Showers are accessible in a central building.Meals will be provided by the Centre. Please, be aware that meals are simple. Vegetarian or any other diet should be announced in advance.
Location & leisure:
Sugny is a very small and isolated village in the south of the country (near the French border). By choosing this workcamp, you decide to live in the nature. All around, there are fields, woods and small villages. But there are plenty of opportunities for entertainment: football fields and basketball playgrounds, TV room… During the weekend, it will be possible to organise cultural visits and to travel to the biggest Belgian cities.
Requirements:
This project requests volunteers with a good level of motivation for its theme and who are prepared to integrate the life of a refugee center. We recommend that they have an idea about the policy concerning refugees in their own country.In order to demonstrate this, we ask the candidate volunteers: - to answer our specific questionnaire (if you do not have it yet, please ask it to your sending organisation). We will not confirm any placement request before analysis of the questionnaire.
Workcamp language:
Kids are quite fluent in French thank to school, adults take longer time to learn foreign language. The languages used among the residents are very different – French, Russian, English, German… more than 15 in general and depend on current presence of residents.
The volunteers with the help of a technical leader will be occupied mainly by painting works inside the historical part of the castle: to paint ceiling, walls, doors and baseboard.
Accomodation & food:
Housing inside the castle. The volunteers will share a dormitory all together. Shower, toilets are at the same floor, next to the room.
Still to be confirmed:
self catering or meals provided…. If you follow a special diet, let us know in advance, please.
Location & leisure:
Mozet is situated 12km away from the capital of Wallonie – Namur (100-thousands inhabitants). Nevertheless, the Domain is well hidden in the countryside and surrounded by charming valleys, forest and typical villages. Mozet is also recognized as one of the most beautiful village of Belgium. The closest train station is 5km away from the castle. Be aware that the Domain is very isolated (no market around).
Requirements:
150 € of participation fee; leisure time activities are covered.
Assisted by local technical leaders, volunteer group will realize different manual tasks outside: construction of a shelter for donkeys, construction of wood benches. But also the maintenance of previous construction of the volunteers crew from the past: cut branches, sanding, painting, cur branches…
Accomodation & food:
Accommodation can be compared to a boarding school: a corridor with double bedrooms; toilets and showers are at the same floor. No smoking inside.Self-catering. Bring your recipes to enjoy ‘kitchen life'!
Location & leisure:
Marche-en-Famenne is a city in the countryside and it is also CBB town! One can find everything there: schools, supermarkets, industries… But still, it is surrounded by woods, fields and small villages where the life rhythm remains rural. Liège, Namur, Brussels and Luxembourg can be easily reached by train in about one hour. For more information see http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/sectors/tourism/eden/themes-destinations/countries/belgium/marche-en-famenne/index_fr.htm
The Volunteers crew will work outside, especially to restore the surrounding wall of the Abbey: cleaning the wall, weeding, and pruning, painting benches... Depending on the season of harvest, you'll give a hand to collect fruits of the orchard.
BEWARE:
This workcamp is only based on manual and outdoor tasks and the work might be sometimes hard.
Accomodation & food:
Volunteers will stay in a building with bedrooms for two. Shower and toilets will be available on the same floor. On the ground floor, you'll have your private living room that you can use for the evening and free time. The food will be provided by the community. During summer time, they collect fruits to produce their own fruit juice and marmalade.Thanks to inform us in advance if you have a special diet.
Location & leisure:
Maredret (25km of bigger cities as Dinant and Namur) is a traditional village, most of the houses are built in stones of the country, extracted during decades of the local quarriesMaredret is a small jewel set in the Molignée's Valley. This region is considered for the beauty of its landscapes and its natural resources. It's very close of the touristic place of Maredsous..
With the help of technical leader, the volunteer's crew will create a vegetal roof to embellish and insulate "the kitchen garden's hut" located in the forest. You'll also make 3 wooden bridges to help the hikers of the domain to cross a little brook.
BEWARE:
This workcamp is only about manual and outdoor tasks and the work might be exhausting sometimes.
Accomodation & food:
In a lovely cottage in the middle of the domain with beds, a kitchen and a bathroom with hot shower.Self-catering, enjoy the kitchen life and bring your favourite recipes!Volunteers must notify beforehand about specific diet.
Location & leisure:
Le Domaine de Chevetogne is located in the deep countryside. By choosing this workcamp, the volunteer decides to live in the nature. All around, there are fields, woods and small villages. Wild animals (deer, foxes or wild pigs) are very close. As the domain is also a tourist centre, there are plenty of opportunities for entertainment: outdoor swimming pool, football fields, minigolf, and tennis or basketball playgrounds…During the weekend, it will be possible to organize cultural visits and to travel to the biggest Belgian cities. The town of Ciney is 10 kilometers away from the Domain of Chevetogne. From there, it is very easy to reach bigger urban centres such as Namur (25 km), Brussels (80 km) or Liège (90 km).http://www.domainedechevetogne.be/ - check for nice pictures and general information.
Requirements:
150 € of participation fee; leisure time activities are covered.
The project The Centre d’accueil La Jastrée is an asylum seekers reception center of the Belgian Red Cross. This center is specialized in the welcome of foreigner teenagers who arrived in Belgium without their parents. At a time it could host 40 young people who asked for asylum in Belgium, the maximum capacity is 95 places. As teenagers, they have a special status and are not considered as asylum seekers as such. Centre provides such services as accommodation, food, educational courses, medical and social help, cultural, sport events etc. Each day, they are going in different schools of the region. La Jastrée center welcome an international workcamp for the first time and expect that the young residents and the volunteers crew from all over the world will have great intercultural exchanges thanks to this voluntary project. That is the main purpose of the camp. To learn more about the Centre you can visit the Red-Cross website –http://www.croix-rouge.be/activites/asile-et-migration/nos-centres-d-accueil-pour-demandeurs-d-asile/la-jastree-barvaux/
Work:
Two different tasks are waiting for you. Each morning, with the help of technical leader you will do some manual outdoor tasks: building of a greenhouse, building of wood construction with old pallets: to build benches, to create flowerbeds…Your imagination is welcome to create different stuff. The afternoons will be dedicated to the organisation of activities for the teenagers (40 afghans boys - maybe more in August - in between 14 and 17 y.o.) your fresh ideas are welcome too: sports from your own country, games…
Accommodation:
Accommodation will be provided in the Centre itself – 2 rooms of 4 people, or one dormitory depending on the rooms available.
2 rooms per 4 volunteers each. Every room has its own bathroom and toilet, but still very simple. The rooms are exactly the same as residents’ ones. In case the hosting capacity of the centre is full, the rooms won’t be available (asylum seekers people have priority) and you will have a dormitory for 8 people (7 volunteers and one campleader).
Smoking and alcohol drinking inside is strictly forbidden.
Food will be provided, relax – no cooking! Pork is not cooked in the centre. If you keep a vegetarian or gluten free diet – you are welcome as well, just let us know.
Location:
Barvaux is a small city in the countryside! It’s a quiet touristic place. You can find everything there: schools, supermarkets, industries… But still, it is surrounded by woods, fields and small villages where the life rhythm remains rural. The city of Liège is about 50 minutes.
Meeting Point:
The 7th of August at the Barvaux train station.
Camp language:
English
Specific requirements:
Volunteers will have to send a short motivation letter and fill in a specific questionnaire which will be sent after application.
This project aims at raising awareness among volunteers and local population about UNESCO s values through the Neolithic Mines of Spiennes and allowing volunteers to take part in the scientific study of the site as well as its improvement.The workcamp will consist in several missions:- Archaeological excavations in the mines: volunteers will participate to all the stages and activities of the ongoing excavations- Post-excavation operations in the SPW research laboratory: volunteers will participate in the processing of the artefacts after the excavations.- Restoration of the site: volunteers will have to bring to light some elements used during the 19th century in the pottery work industry (e.g. they will have to cut the vegetation that covers the material used in that industry)- Awareness-raising activities: volunteers will prepare, together with the hosts, several conferences and workshops for the local population in order to raise awareness about UNESCO s values and topics related to the site (for instance, human migrations during Neolithic times), and other World Heritage sites. It will be asked to volunteers to prepare a short presentation (on any kind of support) of a site inscribed as World Heritage in their country for one of the workshops.Volunteers will have the opportunity to visits other World Heritage sites of the area.
Accomodation & food:
Volunteers will sleep in tents on the site of the archaeological research centre in Camp-a-Cayaux (Spiennes) and will have access to sanitary and showers of the centre. The living conditions are rudimentary Please bring a sleeping bag and a mattress. Meals will be prepared by volunteers in a kitchen of the research centre.
Location & leisure:
The Neolithic flint mines of Spiennes are located close to the Walloon village of Spiennes, 6 km south-east of Mons and 50 km north-east of Valenciennes (France), in the French-speaking part of Belgium. This archaeological site is one of the oldest and largest prehistoric centres for the extraction of flint in North-Western Europe and also one of the best known from a scientific point of view.
Requirements:
This workcamp is designed for volunteers who have a real interest for World Heritage and for the specific thematic of this project. Please bring good working shoes (security shoes if possible), working clothes as well as a raincoat in case of rainy weather. Please also bring a sleeping bag and a mattress. Make sure your tetanus vaccination is up to date. Helmets and gloves will be provided.A project-related motivation letter is required.
« I think our work has really opened the eyes of the youth there. I think that, because of our presence, some local youths got the chance to learn about other cultures which they wouldn't have otherwise. »