Volunteering

Where: Merboltice, Czech Republic

When: ideally from April to end of November projec is open in years 2022 - 2027

Hosting Organisation: Spolek Hvozd NGO culture-educational s pace in countryside

Who: three participants 18-30 years old applicants from EU and Ukraine 

Applications deadline: we intend to choose volunteer as soon as possible so do not hesitate

Spolek Hvozd NGO –is currently looking for thee volunteers which will support our staff and live with us on authentic farm focused on hand-crafts and gardening in family environment.

About the hosting organization

We are a small group of people living in the same village, fascinated by sustainability and permanent culture. Family sharing their living space with the volunteers have two small kids. We transform traditional farm homestead into the house with technologies saving environment, trying to reach energetic selfsufficiency. We also care about surrounded land, fruit orchard and garden. Our activites are based on the place: working with wood and many improvisations about house maintenance, crafts, music. Activity enable to observe natural principles including singnificant manufacturing possibilities. Place is situated in beautiful mountain landscape of national protected area České středohoří.

We focus on those topic:

1) hand-crafts - wood work, traditional carpentry, advanced joinery and music instruments crafting, building of structures, maintenance of homestead, energy-saving technologies.

2) gardening - creating and maintenance of vegetable and herbal gardens, fruit orchards, seed harvesting and food preservation. In the year 2024 we expect to do a lot of preserving of apples, plums

3)Using local sources, trying zero waste, which means we eat a lot of wild herbs from garden, and try to avoid plastic, but we are not perfect.

4) community and culture - we do care about the things together, we share the space together, so we need to communicate everything together. Organizing seminars, workshops and sometimes culture events either at NGO center or in the village, where many families with  kids lives. Team work with other volunteers and visitors, organizing activities for adults and kids. We need help with promotion of the events.

We are looking for volunteer, who care for environment and look for ways to live a self-sufficient life, creative and willing to improve hand-craft skills. We appreciate applicants able to lead and host other short-therm volunteers in the house and communicate with kids.

All info, photos, etc. at www.spolek-hvozd.cz

Volunteers tasks

The volunteers are involved in any of the practical works that the members of NGO do, under constant task-supervision, proportionally divided into :

•  work in garden and orchard, terrain preparation for planting needs, seeds treatment, food preserving;

• repairing of tools and equipment, fire-wood handling, sharpening hand-tools, cleaning and putting things to the order, or distribution of the material etc.

•  specific project planning, non-formal education on subjects as community communication and environmental awareness, self-reflection, evaluation of finished projects and tasks, personal development, socializing with guests and instructing of short-term volunteers. 

• manufacturing items of art or daily use in workshops

• PR assistance

On daily basis, there are daily tasks about keeping things organized and in the good shape, cooking for whole community, sharing responsibilities. Works in the gardens and orchards and forest – cutting grass, weeding, transplanting, maintaining old fruit trees, planting new trees, making compost in all different ways, collecting the harvest, processing of fruits and vegetables, collecting seeds and seed propagation, some forestry work - collecting fire wood. These activities are dependent on season from April to October, during process of these activities volunteers get experience important for learning principles of gardening in permaculture way, thanks to longer period he/she can really observe own results of work. 

We are open for experimental approach, and we are used to explain our own experiments, so volunteer can discuss specific topic with us and than make his/her own experiment, or get our „know how“. Solving problems together helps to the exploration relationships in the nature. In the case of bad weather we usually do work inside, in the workshop or in the kitchen.The volunteers are expected to be involved in preparation of communal meals, and maintenance of our communal areas, also house reconstruction works. On the kitchen we share knowledge of how to make bread, how to use local vegetable and herbs, how to save energies, how to store vegetables and make special recipes for fermented vegetables and pickles.

The participants will get practical view into the life on permaculture farm in Czech village. We expect that volunteers will be open and interested to make relationships with the local community, so they can improve their communication skills in Czech. They will have the opportunity to reflect on their own culture, perceive the common traits and differences in comparison with other cultures, and understand the importance of cultural diversity. They will discover their potencial in crafting objects of daily-use or art in wood, pottery or metal workshop. Will be surrounded by music, musicians and can become a part of music instruments making.

Learning outcome:

- how to design and manage resilient small-scale farm systems with annual and perennial plants, prepare educational and cultural events with continuous flow of short-term volunteers.

- how to bake bread, preserve food for the winter, seed-saving techniques , managing community food-bank.

- how to care and maintain a healthy cultural landscape (scything, small-scale animal husbandry, landscaping, plant guilds, integrated forest gardening, herb use)

- traditional crafts like pottery , didgeridoo manufacture, cabinetmaking, clay plastering, wood carving, glass objects

- natural building - basic carpentry, clay plastering, stone work, energy-saving technologies.

- homesteading - making fire wood, making fire, using and repairing basic craft tools.

- constant promotion of stuff in social media

The participants will live together in one farm household, sharing responsibilities for the place and plants, they will need to coordinate their daily household tasks, they will have to be able to communicate their needs and ideas. They also will be meeting dozens of visitors and short-term volunteers who will take part in the work of the farm. The participants will need to take care of visitors and other volunteers. 

The participants will experience closeness and community, but also the need for boundaries and clear communication.

Fewer opportunity

People with special diets and and light cardiacs are welcomed here, as well as people with social or economics obstacles. Farm is in north hillside, weelchair unaccessible, as we don't have strong personal team, we can't provide special workers for disabled.

Conditions 

Food and accommodation, language course, health insurance, travel expenses and mentoring are covered by the European solidarity corps. The volunteer will receive a pocket money 5€ per day. The candidates have to meet the following criteria:

• Be available for the whole duration of the project

• Be 18-30 years old 

• Have European or Ukrainian nationality

• Speaking English and to be interested in learning basic Czech

• Travel by bus or train to the place, not by plane

• Be ready to live in an family with kids in a rural area, where the closest town with facilities is at 15 minutes by bike or our electric scooter, bigger city (Decin) one hour 10min ( 40 minutes walking to train station and 30 min. by train), Prague is reachable in 3 hours.