This year's task is to create an "adventure trail": You willl build a path with various stops where visitors and kids may try out a task, learn playfully about nature and test out their senses.
Your tasks will include:
The installation of a bare foot path (a path with different grounds, where people are supposed to walk bare foot and feel the wood, stones, grit, etc.), building a sundial, a fence, and different playground equipment. Additionally, there might be similar tasks to complete the adventure trail. You will work mostly with wood, stone and soil. Be prepared to get dirty!
Accomodation & food:
You will be accommodated in a beautiful group house where showers and a kitchen are provided. The house is in the middle of the village.
Location & leisure:
Grafenhausen is a very nice village within a beautiful landscape. The surrounding area is perfect for hiking trips: There are lakes close-by and it is not even half an hour by car to the Feldberg (the highest German mountain outside of the Alps). Also, the famous beer "Tannenzaepfle" is brewed in Grafenhausen and you might be able to visit the brewery. Furthermore, there are regular train connections to Freiburg (a university city with lots of students) and Lake Constance.However, the village is in a very rural area. The community will lend you a bus to make shopping and excursions easier, nevertheless, be prepared for two calming weeks in the forest and far away from big city life.
There is a big outdoor area which needs to be reconstructed. According to the plans you will build a "water and mud area" and a wooden log cabin for the children. Other tasks will be the planting of bushes, repainting of fences and some earth moving. It is quite possible that the local families and children will join you during the work.
Accomodation & food:
You will be accommodated in the dormitory of the "Hort" next to the elementary school. Showers will be available in the gym of the school.
Location & leisure:
Johannesberg is a small village with about 3.000 inhabitants and is situated close to the city of Aschaffenburg in the northern part of Bavaria. Coming from any directions, already from far away, visitors can see the baroque church, which was built in 1769 and is located on the highest point of Johannesberg, 367 meters above sea level. During the free time and on the weekend you will be able to visit the cities nearby like Aschaffenburg, Frankfurt and Wuerzburg.
Age:
18-99
Location:
Adam-fell-straße 5, 63867 johannesberg
Language(s):
English
Airport:
FRA: Frankfurt Main (Frankfurt, Germany)This project is suitable for disabled volunteersVegetarian food will be available
Your task will be the installation of a gravel path in a natural area on mainland. People will have the possibility to walk here, to observe nature and animals. To support this experience, you will also build "activity stops": For example a simple wooden shelter that allows you to watch birds, a boardwalk to discover a pond, etc.
Accomodation & food:
You will be accommodated in the local gym hall, in which lots of space, camp beds, showers and a very well-equipped kitchen are provided. Within the gym, there is also a "youth club room", that is usually used by local youngsters aged 15 to early twenties. During the workcamp, you are welcome to use this room as well, play table tennis, foosball or dart, and meet the locals.
Location & leisure:
Reichenau is partly located on the island "Reichenau", which is the biggest island on Lake Constance. The community has about 5.000 inhabitants and is just a few kilometers away from the university town of Constance, where you will find pubs, clubs, museums and more. Lake Constance is not only the biggest lake in Germany, but also one of the biggest in Central Europe. It invites you to go swimming, take a boat trip, or bike around the lake. Also, Switzerland and Austria are just a stone's throw away.
The island of Norderney is located in the national park of the Lower Saxony mudflat, which is part of the UNESCO World Heritage. The campsite is only about 4 kilometers away from the city centre of Norderney and is surrounded by dunes between mudflat and the open North Sea. The district of Aurich organises school trips, summer camps and has special offers for children and teenagers, which take place here. More than 200 children spend their summer holidays here and take part in free time activities. In preparation for the summer season, the campsite has to be checked and repaired and this gives you the opportunity to show off your skilled craftsmanship, repairing trails and fences. In addition, you will be building a new leisure facility with a barbecue spot. You do not need any previous experience, as you will be instructed by a foreman. What you need though, is a passion for working outdoors on an island, isolated from the busy everyday life of a big city.
Accomodation & food:
You will stay in wooden huts with 6 beds. The huts are close to the general purpose building, where you find bathrooms, washrooms and seminar rooms. Your accommodation is in the middle of the dunes of the island of Norderney. There will be catering at the campsite, but you also have the option of cooking international dishes for yourselves on some of the days.
Location & leisure:
You will find absolute peace and quiet on the island with its unique nature, but there is also a swimming pool, a high rope course, a surfing school and a bike rental. After work, you can spend your time at the beach and we also suggest to take a mudflat hiking tour, which is unique experience. Norderney has 6.000 residents and lots of visiting tourists during the summer months. For more information: www.zeltfreizeit-norderney.de
Requirements:
Norderney is an island, you can only reach it by ferry. The physical work can be demanding.
Your job will be to work on raised-bed gardening spots, plant a strawberry field, refurbish the bakehouse and renew the stone garden. In addition to gardening, you will also help with preparations for the "Day of open Gardens and Health". You will make jam, bake cake and much more – a great opportunity to present a cake recipe from your home country!
Accomodation & food:
You will stay in double bedrooms in Hof Neuling. You can use the communal kitchen and lounge, but also the big garden, where you can play outside or barbecue together. You will cook together – a great opportunity to share and try recipes from around the world!
Location & leisure:
After a day's work, you can either jump into Arend lake (located in the health resort by the same name (Arendsee), play volleyball in the garden or simply relax. You can also explore the area by bike or take a trip to Hanseatic town of Stendal and Salzwedel (home of the pyramid cake). On the weekends you can take a trip to Berlin, Leipzig or Hamburg.
Requirements:
There is a washing machine, which can be used in case of emergency (once a week). Please bring towels, work clothes and sturdy shoes with you. You have to be able to cycle.
The inclusive instituion for environmental education Interforum e.V. is a place of encounter and activity centre for people from different backgrounds, located in an old brickyard. As participants of the international workcamps you can take part in the following projects: ecological vegetable and herb cultivation in permaculture, composting of organic waste products, construction of raised gardening beds and shelters built in traditional straw and clay construction, cultivating green roofs, planting protective hedges, designing a garden of ruins, harvesting, collecting seeds for cultivation, garden and landscape art (LandArt with natural, retro and recycled material), upgrading camper vans and offering harvest produce for self-catering during the open meetings of the youth work and projects of "die Tafel".
Accomodation & food:
You will sleep in tents and site trailers. You will cook together.
Location & leisure:
During your stay in the camp, you will spend a lot of time outside on the premise, which you will be able to co-design. You are more than welcome to try out what you can do outside: swimming in the lake, cycling, playing football and sitting by the fire in the evenings, looking at the stars. The lake is only a short distance by bike and of course you can also cycle into the small towns of Calau or Gahlen and on the weekends even to Berlin or Dresden.
You will help improve the new outdoors area of the local kindergarten. Support the local construction workers in building a nice playground/garden area for the children to play in! It is possible that local families and children will join you during the work.
Accomodation & food:
You will be accommodated in ‘Naturfreundehaus', a nice Black Forest house 10 minutes walking distance from the center of the village. The house is usually used to accommodate hikers and youth groups, so it has all the equipment you need for your workcamp: Sanitary facilities, a kitchen, different dormitories, a common room, a terrace, a garden and a BBQ place. Bed sheets will be provided.
Location & leisure:
Haeusern is a village of about 1.300 inhabitants located in the middle of the beautiful landscape of the Black Forest. The area is very popular with hikers. Around Haeusern, there are 100 kilometers of marked hiking trails, which invite you to long walks in the forest. The Schluchsee Lake and several smaller lakes are close-by where you can either recover from a hard working day on the beach or you could even try one of the many water sports such as sailing, surfing or diving. You can reach the Feldberg (the highest German mountain outside of the Alps) in only half an hour by car. There are regular train connections to Freiburg (a university city with lots of students) and Lake Constance in the south.
In June and July Open Houses organises Building Weeks and Workcamps in the same period at Lohra Castle. The two working groups are living together and they are one community. The only difference between the two projects are the different topics they are working on. During the project it will be possible, that volunteers join the other working group, because of their skills or their own interests. Therefore please also see the Lohra Castle Workcamps descriptions.Carpentry – Erection of a supportive construction for a historic archway The ensemble of Lohra Castle includes a historical gatehouse from the 15th century which originally had two floors – left and right of the gate entrance there were the old smithy and the former prison and on the upper floor the flat of the clerk had been located. After a big fire at the end of the 18th century the roof construction of the gatehouse was completely damaged. The building had been rebuilt in the early 19th century and became a half floor lower and a got new archway. Unfortunately, this archway was uncorrect constructed and is now statically endangered. Under the professional guidance of an experienced carpenter the participants of B03 will erect a supportive construction in traditional carpentry techniques to avoid the collapse of the archway. This construction will be later used as helping construction to repair the archway, too. 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, granaries and haylofts. Together with a carpenter the volunteers will repair parts of the eaves and the roofing of these buildings. Therefore it is absolutely needed that the volunteers of the project B03 are trained to work at height.
Accomodation & food:
Within the old service buildings of the castle, you will stay in four little houses with 3- and 4- or 6- bedrooms with showers (limited hot water) and toilettes. The equipment is simple but fair. The fully equipped kitchen, which is situated next to the accommodation houses, is a separate building with large tables and benches inside. The atmosphere is rustic and historic.The 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:
Lohra Castle is situated in the heart of Germany in Northern Thuringia. The castle, which is surrounded by a scenic hilly landscape, is located on the edge of a nature reserve area. Being one of the largest castles in Thuringia, the history of the castle Lohra begins in the Middle Age. The castle is more than 1,000 years old. Today, it includes twenty buildings from different times: medieval fortifications, remnants of a tower from the 11th century, a Romanesque chapel, a manor house from the Renaissance period as well as stables and granaries from the 19th and the early 20th centuries. The ensemble is situated in the centre of a beautiful forest. For years Lohra Castle was vacant. In the 1990s Open Houses started to restore the castle and to revive it by cultural activities. Since that time, a large number of Workcamps, Building Weeks, exhibitions, concerts and other activities with international participants took place in the castle.The castle is situated next to a nature protected area. You can explore the landscape by foot; worth seeing is the chapel in Münchenlohra. Excursions to Sondershausen, Mühlhausen or Nordhausen will be discussed once you arrived.
Requirements:
Motivation letter related to the project and CV + photo required
Age:
18-70
Location:
Großlohra
Language(s):
English, German
Airport:
LEJ: Leipzig Halle (Leipzig, Germany)Vegetarian food will be available
« 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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