Under the expert leadership of an environmental educator and a skilled landscape gardener with the youth center workers in Babenhausen, your group will work on a garden formation that will be close to nature. The main goal of the camp will be to make the two hector large outside area more structured and therefore more diverse for the animal and plant world, but also for visitors. There is plenty to do, as various construction projects need to be done! An old wooden bridge needs to be redone, a bee hotel will be built, the fire pit needs to be renovated, and a barefoot path will be laid, as well as a shelter at the high ropes course. Your team will also get peeks into the pedagogic methods and goals at an environmental station, i.e. how to make complex topics such as sustainability and environmental protection exciting for visitors. Further small construction projects are planned, where you can be creative in enhancing the outside grounds! www.jubi-babenhausen.de.
Accommodation:
Babenhausen Youth Educational Center. Meals will be provided in the educational center.
Where:
BABENHAUSEN 40 km from Lake Constance, Ulm 40 km, Augsburg 65 km, Munich 118 km
Free Time:
Your team can take trips to Lake Constance, Munich, Elm, and Kempten. Hiking is possible in the Alps as well. There is a lake you can swim in nearby, and you will be provided with bikes to better discover the area!
Requirements:
you should be able to ride a bike. The project may be physically challenging and will take place outside no matter the weather.
In this project SEEDS volunteers will get the chance to work with a support fund for skiers. The support fund´s goals are to support young, promising skiers, build good ski trails, help provide great accommodation for skiers, operate a top scale skiing school and much more related to skiing. The main task in this project is to build a 60m2 house for the skiers to stay in during their trainings. A professional carpenter will work with the volunteers at all times, as well as other professional workers who will teach the volunteers how to do what they are supposed to do. The volunteer’s main tasks will be to saw, hammer, carry timber and other tasks related to this. Volunteers might also be asked to help shovel holes for the veranda foundations and other related tasks.
ACCOMMODATION:
SEEDS volunteers will be hosted in a local housing, sleeping in beds. Please bring your own sleeping bag. Food will be provided and volunteers will share the duties of helping in the kitchen, preparing the meals and cleaning up. Do not forget some traditional/typical food from your home country for the international evening.
LOCATION:
The workcamp takes place in a very nice town called Ísafjörður, which is located in the Westfjords at the north-western part of Iceland. The region accounts for 10% of the country’s surface but only about 8000 people live there. This makes the area one of the least populated areas of Europe. Ísafjörður is the largest town in the Westfjords with a population of about 2600. Despite its size, small population, and historical isolation from the rest of the country, the town has a rather urban atmosphere. Ísafjörður has a school of music as well as a hospital. The older former hospital building now accommodates a cultural center with a library and showrooms. The Westfjords are very mountainous; the coastline is made by dozens of fjords surrounded by steep hills. In the area you will be able to explore the whole range of Icelandic flora from the shore and meadows, through birch to mossy moors. On the shore, one can see birds, seals, whales and then an occasional arctic fox around the sheep. Fishing is traditionally the main industry in the region but tourism started to be more and more important as local and foreign visitors are discovering this region in rising numbers. Hiking in this beautiful area is very impressive and an inspection of the coastline by walking or kayaking is an inspiring option, this provides a full variety of opportunities for volunteers and visitors in this area.
LANGUAGE:
English will be the official language in the camp, high proficiency is not required.
TERMINAL:
Closest International Airport: Keflavík/Reykjavík (KEF). Domestic airport is Ísafjörður (IFJ). SEEDS organises the “minibus option”, a shared transport from Reykjavík to the camp site and vice versa. Apart from being cheaper and more convenient, it allows volunteers to meet fellow campers and have a relaxed trip, while stopping on the way for interesting and tourist sites.
EXTRAS / SPECIAL REMARKS:
Participation fee EUR 200 (Euros). Please note that these fees are to be paid to SEEDS on arrival in either Euros or Icelandic krónas.
Our local hosts will organise some free time activities and sightseeing to some of the interesting attraction spots in the area. There are countless opportunities to discover the area by foot or to hike in the surroundings. Weather in Iceland is unpredictable and hats and gloves can be needed. Please bring warm clothes, warm sleeping bag and good working shoes.
After several successful workcamps in the last years, the local host invites again an international group! They are very happy to be supported by a workcamp at different renovation tasks for the local kindergarden called “Villa Filou”.
WORK:
Your main task will be to renew the fences all around the yard. This work includes building of new fences, painting, cleaning tasks and other such work. The international group will also be responsible for constructing a small garden house with a carport which will be used for parking strollers.
ACCOMMODATION:
Volunteers will be accommodated in a building of the fire brigade with all sanitary facilities provided. Kitchen and camp beds are in place as well.
LOCATION:
The community of Willstaett contains several villages with, all in all, around 9000 inhabitants. It is situated in the beautiful southern part of Germany close to the border of France. It is characterised by its beautiful architectural style. With its spectacular waterfalls, castle, and nature, there is also plenty to see and discover in the landscape close to the Black Forest. Nearby bigger cities like Freiburg or Strasbourg offer a wide range of cultural events.
The volunteers will continue the clearing works started by volunteers last year at the old sheepfold in the outer yard of the castle. The sheepfold will be used as Open Houses main storeroom for historical building materials to be used later for restoration issues. In order to be prepared to contain piled big boxes and containers being in the future accessible for lift trucks it will be necessary to excavate the ground and to level the earth as later the floor will be concreted in the framework of Building Weeks. Furthermore the volunteers will cultivate the outdoor area of the castle. There are many meadows where grass and weeds need to be cut.
Accomodation & food:
shared rooms with 2 - 5 beds in 3 guest houses, warm shower (limited hot water), WC inside, camp kitchen (cold water), coal-burning stoveThe meals will be prepared together as they are part of the community life, what means that everybody will be responsible for the meal at least once during its stay. So it would be very nice if you could bring typical recipes from home in order to introduce each other to the preparation of food from all over the world.
Location & leisure:
Our houses are mostly situated in rural countrysides and small villages, so you should not expect busy places and normal city activities for the leisure time during the working days. Small trips in walking distance are possible in the afternoon.On the weekends it is possible to organise excursion to nearby cities or have other leisure activities.
Kell am See is a touristic village not far from Trier, the oldest German city. The regional youth department runs an educational centre in this village, which offers different environmental educational activities for youth groups and school classes. Also school classes or youth associations can come here for several days and run own seminars or trainings. The centre was just renovated last year and different new outdoor and training facilities were installed.
WORK:
You mainly work in green area around the centre. Concrete tasks will be constructing and setting up new wooden benches, improving the paths, some gardening work and maybe maintenance work of the sports field. Depending on the weather conditions there might be some indoor renovation work as well.
ACCOMMODATION:
You will stay in several wooden tepees for five persons each. Mats are provided. In the centre you will have your own kitchen and living room and sanitary facilities. For the free time you will find perfect conditions: an indoor climbing wall, billiard, plenty of outdoor facilities (basketball, a rope course, football, volleyball…). The public swimming pool is just nearby.
LOCATION:
Kell am See is a village 30 km from Trier in a beautiful landscape. The area is well known for cycling, walking and other ways of outdoor activities. The local holiday resort offers more than 200 holiday bungalows next to a lake (close to the educational centre). But also people from the area come here for cycling (there is a 45 km cycling path on a former railway roadbed) or to spend a nice day outside. The region also offers plenty of historic sites (castles, museums….) and you will do a hiking trip to the Grimburg Castle where you can spend the night. You will also get the opportunity to come in contact with local associations as e.g. the local voluntary fire brigade. But public transport is poor during the weekend, so the number of excursions will be limited. But for sure Trier with the famous Roman sites, with the cathedral and birth place of Karl-Marx can be visited.
AIRPORTS:
Hahn (HHN), Luxembourg (LUX), Frankfurt (FRA)
TRAIN STATION:
Trier, you have to arrive before 7 p.m. in Trier to catch the last bus to the campsite.
Since parts of Lohra Castle had been more than 350 years used for agricultural purposes, the ensemble includes two impressive agricultural buildings erected in the 19th and early 20th century to be used as barns, granary and haylofts. Under the professional guidance of a carpenter the volunteers will repair parts of the roof construction, the eaves and the roofing of theses buildings. Therefore it is absolutely needed that the volunteers of the project B02 are trained to work at height.
Accomodation & food:
shared rooms with 2 - 5 beds in 3 guest houses, warm shower (limited hot water), WC inside, camp kitchen (cold water), coal-burning stoveThe meals will be prepared together as they are part of the community life, what means that everybody will be responsible for the meal at least once during its stay. So it would be very nice if you could bring typical recipes from home in order to introduce each other to the preparation of food from all over the world.
Location & leisure:
Our houses are mostly situated in rural countrysides and small villages, so you should not expect busy places and normal city activities for the leisure time during the working days. Small trips in walking distance are possible in the afternoon.On the weekends it is possible to organise excursion to nearby cities or have other leisure activities.
The volunteers will continue the clearing works started by volunteers last year at the old sheepfold in the outer yard of the castle. The sheepfold will be used as Open Houses main storeroom for historical building materials to be used later for restoration issues. In order to be prepared to contain piled big boxes and containers being in the future accessible for lift trucks it will be necessary to excavate the ground and to level the earth as later the floor will be concreted in the framework of Building Weeks. Furthermore the volunteers will cultivate the outdoor area of the castle. There are many meadows where grass and weeds need to be cut.
Accomodation & food:
shared rooms with 2 - 5 beds in 3 guest houses, warm shower (limited hot water), WC inside, camp kitchen (cold water), coal-burning stoveThe meals will be prepared together as they are part of the community life, what means that everybody will be responsible for the meal at least once during its stay. So it would be very nice if you could bring typical recipes from home in order to introduce each other to the preparation of food from all over the world.
Location & leisure:
Our houses are mostly situated in rural countrysides and small villages, so you should not expect busy places and normal city activities for the leisure time during the working days. Small trips in walking distance are possible in the afternoon.On the weekends it is possible to organise excursion to nearby cities or have other leisure activities.
Each year in June, the mountain city of Loessnitz celebrates its traditional Salt Festival. Here, the whole city gets involved Before it begins, there are a few tasks that need to be done, such as beautifying and decorating the city, and setting up benches. At the festival itself, your team will also run one of the historic stands. Help is also needed with the parade and cleaning up after the festival. You will also be a guest for a day in a school, where you can introduce your home country. Your home will be an open child and youth center, where you will have plenty of opportunities to meet local kids and youth. You can also play games and do sports with them, or just have a chat. However, alcohol and smoking are not allowed in the center, because we seek to provide youth an environment free of addictive substances. For more information please see ww.oaseloessnitz.de or on Facebook.
Accomodation & food:
Accommodation: In the OASE Youth CenterCatering: Meals will be prepared as a group. Lunch packets will be used when not near your accommodation
Location & leisure:
Where: Western Saxony; about 30 km southwest of ChemnitzFree Time: There are plenty of ways for you to spend your leisure time, whether it be in the OASE, traveling through the region, or discovering nature, mines, city centers, and nearby cities such as Dresden, Leipzig, etc.
« I can say that the best things about the workcamp and this whole experience were the chance of making a real difference to the lives of very needy children. This is an extremely valuable project where volunteers can have a massive impact. Also the possibility of learning a huge amount about a country so different from our own. I learnt ten times as much by carrying out a workcamp than I would ever do backpacking. »
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