Pay attention girls. In this camp, landscaping and natural science are the main focus. Together with local youth from Hanhofen, you will undertake various gardening and landscaping tasks, including working with wood, stones, and dirt, in order to improve the look of the town. Your creative side will also be needed, since you can bring in your own ideas Your team will also look into the relationship between nature and technology. In a research workshop, you will research bionics under expert leadership, specifically which role nature has in brainstorming new ideas for technology. Bionics link technology and biology and tries to make solutions found in nature and their potential useful in people. Your team will observe, experiment, photograph, draw, research, construct, and invent
Accomodation & food:
You will be staying in a gym. Meals will be prepared as a group.
Location & leisure:
Rhineland Palatinate; Speyer 5 km, Heidelberg and Mannheim 30 km, Karlsruhe 50 km, Strasbourg 100 km.
Your team will be provided with bikes, and there is a good bus connection to Speyer. In and around Hanhofen there are plenty of leisure activities and you can also travel to nearby cities such as Heidelberg, Mannheim, Karlsruhe, a park in Hassloch, and to the Rhine River. At times there will be a minibus available for your group. For more information please see www.vg-dudenhofen.de, where various organizations in the area introduce themselves.
Rangsdorf is located 15 km south of the Berlin city border, and is a town with about 11,000 residents and plenty of nature at the edge of the large Rangsdorf Lake. In order to make this beautiful landscape accessible for visitors and nature lovers, a hiking trail network has been under construction since 2005, and is enlarged every year. Under the expert leadership of a local landscaping organization and in cooperation with the Berlin Brandenburg Airport, your team will help extend the network even more. The tasks will include maintenance, repair, and construction of path sections, removing underbrush, building benches and observation points, creating and installing signs, and maintaining nearby nature areas. Most of the work will be done by hand. The forester and other workers will assist with the more difficult tasks. At the end, there will be a large presentation for the public.
Accomodation & food:
In an elementary school. There is a grill area and volleyball court in the yard. It is a 5 km commute to your work site, which you will do by bike. Meals will be prepared as a group.
Location & leisure:
Brandenburg; 15 km south of Berlin. At the edge of Rangsdorf, you will find the typical Brandenburg landscape with fields, meadows, small lakes and creeks, and forests. You will be provided with bikes that you can use for the whole camp, so you can reach the swimming hole (about 3 km) or the train station (4 km) easily.
The Social Pedagogic Institute in Brandenburg runs the well furnished Pegasus Cultural and Recreational Center in the city of Senftenberg. From here, it is only a short walk to the city center or to the Senftenberg Lake with its countless water sport facilities. Your team s task will be to support and supervise a children s summer camp with excursions, sport, and cooking. The kids will come to the Pegasus during the day and are supervised by teachers. Each participant will introduce traditional games, customs, or meals from their own countries to the children. A different country will be presented each day. Your team can also participate in constructing sport facilities for the children.
Accomodation & food:
In the Pegasus Cultural and Recreational Center, sleeping on mattresses or cots. Meals will be prepared as a group
Location & leisure:
Brandenburg, about 100 km south of Berlin. At the Pegasus there is an internet cafe, a movie theater, and a youth bar as well as a large yard with a multipurpose sports field, table tennis, a trampoline, and a climbing wall. You will also have the opportunity to discover the surrounding lake lands, go ice skating at a nearby ice arena, or travel to Dresden and see all that this historical city has to offer.
The Children’s Forest in Hanover (http://www.kinderwald.de) is a children’s involvement project as well as an Agenda-21 project. Here, children are the boss and decide what will be done on the grounds. During the first week, your team will be supporting the children in expanding the forest. For this task, your team will work in manual labor as well as artistically. During this time, a summer camp for children and youth up to age 12 will be taking place on the forests grounds, and you will be able to have plenty of contact with the locals.
The “Internationale Stadtteilgaerten e.V”, an international district gardening organization, has created community gardens in the area, where families from various nations can plant vegetables, spices, and flowers, at the same time creating communication and contact opportunities. This opportunity for migrant families and German families is expanded through events, celebrations, cultural offerings, and educational seminars. During the second and third week, your group will help the organization with building a new garden and a barefoot path in the Hainholz district of Hanover.
Leisure Time:
Hanover offers many diverse activities (http://www.hannover.de/de/tourismus). Evenings can be spent at the summer camp in the forest and in the international gardens. Also possible is a visit to the Klimahaus, a climate exhibit, in Bremerhaven, or a “Konsumensch”, a human consumption exhibit, in Hanover.
Location:
Lower Saxony; Bremen 130 km, Hamburg 150 km
Age:
16-26
Accommodation:
To be announced. Meals will be prepared as a group
The World Stage in Heckenbeck, a small town with only 450 residents, is a cultural center with a large theater in a former guest house. The town has an interesting mixture of traditional and experimental rural life, of long established traditions and introduced ones. There is an organic shop, an organic vegetable garden, craftsmen, a free school, and many organizations. Here you will be a guest for three weeks, where you will get to know the village society and spend two weeks creating an international theater piece, under expert direction of a theater instructor. Together, you will experiment with role playing, speech training, figure work, interaction, and improvisation. The theater will also be available for rehearsals. During the third week, you will be presenting your piece. www.heckenbeck-online.de, www.weltbuehne.info
Accomodation & food:
Catering: Meals will be prepared as a group.Accommodation: At the Weltbuehne Heckenbeck Cultural Center.
Location & leisure:
Lower Saxony; Hildesheim and Gottingen 45 km, Hanover 60 km
Heckenbeck is very rural. For excursions (and grocery shopping), you will be provided with bikes. The city of Bad Gandersheim is 4 kilometers away and easily reached by bike. Alfeld, home to the Fagus-Gropius-Exhibit, and the Harz region, home to mining museums, are easily reached by train. www.bad-gandersheim.de, www.alfeld.de, www.fagus-gropius.de The town will help you transport your groceries from the city. You will have the opportunity to help in the vegetable gardens in exchange for fresh vegetables. This is a project for those that love life in the country
Requirements:
Good knowledge of English for the theater workshop; you should be able to ride a bike.
Create your own animation films This and more is possible in this international media camp. Learning by doing is the theme, and in small groups your team will brainstorm and experiment. You will learn to use TrickBoXX, make your self made clay figures into heroes, or animate everyday objects. Your fantasies will have no boundaries here Along with learning how to work the camera and various software programs, you will learn how to edit the films on the computer and add sound. - I had a lot of fun making the cartoons and I found it very interesting. I am also very happy for making new friends - (Participant in an earlier media camp in Bremen). Your results will be put on an internet blog for all to see. A few examples from previous camps can be found at www.mediencampbremen.blogspot.com.
Accomodation & food:
In a simply furnished youth center. Meals will be prepared as a group.
Location & leisure:
Bremen; Hamburg 120 km. The 1200 year old Hanseatic city of Bremen offers lots to see, cultural offerings, nightlife, and shopping. On the weekends you can travel to the North Sea coast, to Hamburg, and to other nearby cities.
Discover the unique Wattenmeer habitat and do your part in maintaining its domestic flora and fauna. In summer 2010, an IJGD group began nature preservation projects in the coastal bogs, which your team will be continuing. With a spade and hoe in hand, your team will help with caring for a small freshwater biotope and save the domestic vegetation from crowding from foreign, fast growing species. Through this project you will learn about the nature on the island and about the Wattenmeer World Natural Heritage Site. Your team will be lead by expert nature preservation personnel.
Accomodation & food:
Meals will be provided, but you will help out in the kitchen. You will be sharing rooms in a youth center (www.oje-wangerooge.de).
Location & leisure:
Lower Saxony; East Frisian Islands. Wangerooge is part of the Lower Saxony Wattenmeer National Park, and houses unique flora and fauna species. The island is car free. In your free time, you can swim, explore the island by bike, hike, and enjoy the vacation flair the island offers. www.wangerooge.de, www.waddensea-worldheritage.org
Requirements:
Work may be physically challenging at times; you should be able to ride a bike.
Hamburg-Wilhelmsburg is the largest river island in Europe and is also an evolving multicultural district. Here, a world quarter will be created. Together with the International Building Exhibit and the International Garden Show, countless ambitious projects are already underway. Your team s job will be to depict on film how the people in this district experience the change in their district. You will be led by expert media educators, who will help you develop interview ideas, learn how to use the camera, learn how to edit scenes, and at the end create a self-made contribution, which will be shown on Hamburg s public television station. Through the interviews with various people and interest groups, you will experience great encounters with the locals in the area.
Accomodation & food:
Meals will be prepared as a group. You will be staying in a cozy group house, with shared sleeping areas.
Location & leisure:
Hamburg. You will be living near the Elbe River, in a green area in Hamburg-Bergedorf. On the grounds you can chill, play soccer, sit at the fire, and relax from the big city. Hamburg is the second largest city in Germany and offers many tourist attractions. Your group will be provided with tickets for the local public transportation so that you can better discover the city and even the harbor. On the weekend a trip to the North Sea or the Baltic Sea coasts are well worth your time.
Requirements:
A good knowledge of English; knowledge of German is also welcome
« The outside world did not interfere, because it seemed so distant, and so we spent our spare time getting to know each other and learning about each other countries', languages and cultures. Everyone was completely relaxed. This simply would not have been possible on any other type of holiday. VAP enabled me to have a truly memorable experience. »
