Discover the unique Wadden Sea habitat and get involved with the upkeep of its local flora and fauna. Every summer since 2010, an group of volunteers from ijgd has helped with the conservation work along the coast, and you could be next With shovels and hoes you can help to take care of freshwater biotopes and protect the local vegetation from being replaced by other rapidly spreading plants. While working, you ll learn a lot about nature on the island and about the Wadden Sea World Heritage Site. You ll be led by a specialist conservationist.
Accomodation & food:
You ll be staying in rooms with multiple beds in a youth hostel. Your stay will be catered, but you will take it in turns to help with some cooking and cleaning.
Location & leisure:
Wangerooge belongs to the Lower Saxon Wadden Sea National Park and boasts a variety of unique flora and fauna. There are absolutely no cars on the island. In your free time you could go swimming, discover the island by bike, take a walk around the island and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere.
Requirements:
The work is physically demanding. You must be able to ride a bike.
If you want to combine natural adventures with gardening and manual work, then this is exactly the workcamp for you. During a 3 day excursion you can sail with a 2-mast-boat, go kayaking or canoeing, cycling and even stay overnight at the beach. You can learn how to navigate a high rope course and how to do well at archery. Before, during and after these activities you can also show off your creative and practical skills in self-organised workshops on themes such as language, theatre, music and singing. As well as this, you will be working in the garden and making small repairs to your accommodation and vehicles. During all of these activities you will get to know each others languages, cultures, eating habits as well as creative and practical skills, together with the support from experienced group leaders. The camp is teaming up with Grunen Grashalm, an organisation which primarily deals with teaching and coaching in the international exchange sector. Most of the organisations activities take place outside amongst nature and have a very adventurous framework. Almost 30 employees between the ages of 16 and 64 (two thirds of these are under 30 years old) organise tours, boat trips, ice skating, skiing, cycling, rope climbing and even aircraft activities. The camp will be led by three group leaders, who all have experience with international youth groups.
Accomodation & food:
You will be staying in rooms with multiple beds. During the excursion you will be sleeping in tents. You will cook your own meals together.
Location & leisure:
Learning by experience doesn't start in the morning and end by midday. All activities on offer have a strong recreational nature. Through hikes and cycling tours, you will get to know the beautiful surroundings of the area and will be able to visit the Hanseian town of Wismar, travel to the Ostesee lake, go swimming and also sit around the campfire in the evenings.
Requirements:
You should be able to swim and ride a bike, enjoy being on the water and be able to speak English.
Make your own television This is what you can try out in this international media workcamp. After an introduction to the technology involved, you ll develop your own story line and be provided with a camera for filming. In the studio you can then work more on your material. At the end of the camp, your film will be presented live at an event, which you will also be organising. The technology and workspace needed to carry out this project is provided by the Offene Kanal Flensburg, a public, local television channel. You will be coached by an experienced media pedagogue and will be able to learn many new things about working with television and videos. Prior knowledge is not necessary, but also welcome. As the proprietor of DIE EXXE youth centre, the Flensburger Youth Association is your host and will also be inviting young refugees to take part in your project.
Accomodation & food:
You ll be sleeping on air beds in a simply, cosy youth centre. You ll cook your own meals together.
Location & leisure:
Flensburg is the most northern town in Germany and has many sights, shopping centres, cultural activities and of course a lot of water to offer. At the weekends, you can take a trip to the Nordsee and Ostsee beaches, to nearby islands or even to Denmark.
Requirements:
You should easily be able to regularly walk 2.4km 30min to the TV studio.
Together with the forestry and conservation specialists of the Alb-Donau district, your tasks will be to take care of and restore a wetland area (ponds and streams), to take care of a juniper heath and some neglected grassland at Mochental. You ll cut the ponds free, repair the dam and move the rapidly growing climbing plants away from the pond, so that many different species of plants and animal can grow there once more. Juniper heaths were in this area in the past through grazing from sheep and goats, and as the biotope with the largest number of different species in central Europe, is heavily protected by conservationists. They are in danger of growing like in the woods again. Here you will be moving prickly shrubs and trees in order to create more space and light for the rare plants, insects and birds who are already living there. You will be coached by a forest ranger, a forestry master and some apprentices.
Accomodation & food:
You will be sleeping on camp beds in a group room on the grounds of the Mochental Castle. There is a separate living space with kitchen. You ll cook your own meals together.
Location & leisure:
You ll be living in a remote location, and can sit around a camp fire during the evening. In the surrounding area (up to 35km away), there are companies in the Swabian Alp biosphere region, theBierkulturstadt Ehingen, the Laichinger caverns and high ropes course, canoes on the Grossen Lauter lake, the outdoor museum in Kurnbach and the river Ulm with the world-renowned city of Munster. More further afield (up to 150km) are Bodensee, Stuttgart, Augsburg and the bear cave at Lichtenstein.
In Enkenbach-Alsenborn there is a nature trail that, with your help, will be renewed and restored. Various game components and wooden instruments need to be reconditioned and there is some maintenance work around a small pond and barbecue area to be done. Together with an artist you will create sculptures and paintings in a creative workshop, where you can let your creativity with games run wild.
Accomodation & food:
You ll be staying in an empty children s nursery. You ll cook your own meals together.
Location & leisure:
There is a great outdoor swimming pool in Enkenbach-Alsenborn, which you can use for free, located in a beautifully green area near to the Palatinate Forest Nature Park. You can also visit the Hambacher Castle, which is nearby. A tour of the Frankenstein castle at night time is also available. Bikes are available for all participants. Heidelberg, Mannheim or Mainz are all close enough for day trips. As well as this, you are not too far from the French border, so an excursion to Strasbourg would also be possible.
The cultural and leisure centre Pegasus can be found in the centre of Senftenberg and is the biggest establishment for children and young people in the entire town. The house and its outdoor facilities are used by many children, young people and other visitors on a daily basis and must therefore be taken care of and well maintained. With physical flair and creativity, parts of the indoor and outdoor areas of the Pegasus centre should receive a fresh new look. At the same time, many popular holiday games for children between the ages of 7 and 12 are taking place, which will be organised and co-ordinated by you. This workcamp is particularly special because after finishing work for the day, you are given the opportunity to learn German. 2 hours a day of language classes as well as following German daily life will really move your level of German along and help you to improve. Your language teachers are native speakers who also have experience teaching German as a foreign language.
Accomodation & food:
You ll be staying in the rooms of the cultural and leisure centre Pegasus on mattresses or camp beds.You ll cook your own meals together.
Location & leisure:
You can go swimming in the Senftenberg lake or use the indoor ski slope nearby to cool down even more. In the particularly special Spreewald countryside, you could enjoy a boat trip. A trip to the city of Dresden could also be exciting.
If you enjoy being outside amongst nature, spending the evening around a camp-fire, discovering the forest first-hand with people from all around the world and working hands-on in the forest with real foresters, then this project at the Forestry Education Centre in Hahnhorst is exactly the one for you In the studying part of this project, you ll learn how to orientate yourself in the forest, how to recognise edible plants, how to start a fire without equipment and how to build a place to sleep for the night using only natural materials. Besides this, you ll be working in co-operation with foresters and forest workers on conservation projects in the forest and will help to improve the quality of habitats for rare species of plants and animals. In the mornings (you ll be working up early), you ll be focusing on the work tasks. The survival workshops will take place in the afternoons.
Accomodation & food:
You ll be staying in rooms with multiple beds in the Forestry Education Centre. You ll also be involved in the house chores. Food will be provided, but you will also take it in turns to help out in the kitchen.
Location & leisure:
There are some free afternoons for enjoying the range of free time activities available (for example a bike tour, an international buffet one evening, sitting around the camp-fire, a trip to the swimming pool. At the weekend, you could also go on a day-trip to Bremen for sightseeing and shopping.
Requirements:
Desire to work hands-on in the forest and to get involved with outdoor activities is preferred. You should be able to ride a bike.
The city forest at Wolfsburg enjoys huge popularity amongst joggers, cyclists, hikers and people who enjoy walking. Besides this, it is a habitat for many i even rare i species of plants and animals, such as orchids, for example. The park will also become your operation site, as you ll be supporting the district forest service in many different ways, such as taking care of the forest, repairing recreational facilities, removing non-native plants (neophytes), which could displace local species. Of course, during this time you will also get a great insight into the work of a district forest service employee and into the ecosystem of a forest. Your accommodation is not so far away from the forest, so you can easily get there on foot.
Accomodation & food:
You ll be staying in rooms for young people at the Saint Stephen s Community Building in the Detmerode district of Wolfsburg. You ll cook your own meals together.
Location & leisure:
The best known attractions in Wolfsburg are the castle, the art museum, the Autostadt (car city) and the Volkswagen Musem, the VfL Wolfsburg football team and the Phaeno experiment landscape. The VW-Pool is the most beautiful outdoor swimming pool in the region. In the Saint Stephen s Community Building, there is a youth club every Thursday. You can also enjoy all of the activities on offer at the nearby Detmerode leisure centre.
Requirements:
You need to be physically fit for the demanding work.
« 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. »
