Have you ever been greeted by a big applause upon arrival at the workcamp? This is how the community of Monar welcomed our little group of volunteers to their summer camp in Bachotek. Dancing around the campfire to the sounds of Disco Polo, we celebrated the start of this special fortnight. The following days went…
At least I tried – our workcamp in the wild
It all started with the Gendered Realities project and the call for local activities on gender equality topic by SCI. The team of three girls Bea from Poland, Vili and Shirin from Bulgaria, who already had organized two workcamps on women empowerment in a small village in Lukovit region in Bulgaria (in 2017 and 2018)…
Relaxation, spirituality and excitement in Draganac Monastery
Draganac Monastery is this kind of place that you cannot describe in one sentence. The moment I arrived there, I felt different vibrations, between relaxation, spirituality and excitement. I arrived there on a Saturday afternoon to help settling the workcamp that GAIA Kosovo and the brotherhood of Draganac organize every year for Slava, a celebration…
Memories of volunteering from El Salvador
My name is Tania and I would love to share with you part of my long term volunteering experience with SCI in the ‘Consciente’ project in San Francisco Gotera (El Salvador). I think that our job as volunteers is to show the world the potential and hidden treasures of the places we visit! That is…
It is part of your work “to improve the environment a bit”
My name is Mitzi, I am 21 years old and I volunteered at the VIA VZW Project in Meihof Asylum Centre in Lint, a small village in the province of Antwerp (Belgium), where there are around 160 refugees, of which about 25 children and 18 unaccompanied minors. Really working in the center with so many children…
Peace on the streets
The 7-day-training “Peace on the Streets” took place from 1st to 7th June in Vienna, organized by SCI Austria as a seminar about Street activism and campaigns, which are connected to spreading peace in different ways. The international SCI training gathered 26 people from all over Europe with three participants from Switzerland: Adina Jessica Karerra,…
Peace Messenger Study Session in Strasbourg
Recently a SCI/VYRE peace messengers study-session took place in the European Youth Centre Strasbourg. Last week I attended the Study session “Peace in the Spotlight” that took place from 8th to 12th April organised by Service Civil International, Voices of Young Refugees in Europe and in cooperation with Youth Department of the Council of Europe….
Volunteer summer in the Mountains of the Balkans
If you are from the Balkans you would not be able to imagine the landscape and natural heritage of the region without coming to think of Velebit, Sharr, Pirin or Frushka gora mountains. All of them are special places which provide home for rare animal and plant species. Proclaimed as protected areas this summer they…
Wonderful days at farming workcamp in Malaysia
It was a great learning experience to attend Organic Farming and Meditation workcamp at Cameron Highlands (Malaysia) last December (11-21). We got to learn the ins and outs of organic farming from seeding, planting, compost making, to harvesting and packaging. Among all, weeding was a big part of our daily chores. Thanks to the sharing…
Experience in language teaching workcamp in Ho Chi Minh City
The language teaching workcamp (Nov 19 – Dec 2018) was held in Ho Chi Minh city (Vietnam), a vibrant and crowded city full of life and motorbikes. Our first two days were welcomed by Khai, the local representative from Volunteers for Peace Vietnam (VPV). In our group, we have Maya and Ben from Luxembourg, Olivia…
European Solidarity Design was a most wonderful experience!
Isanne ten Have from the Netherlands went for 6 months with EVS to Bucharest, Romania. My departure I left early in the morning to Schiphol. Here the nerves struck me and once I was on the plane this continued to persist. But then I thought of the reasons I had chosen for the project. I…
BioBlitz at Jenolan Caves
An IVP Weekend workcamp team recently pitched in to assist organisers of a citizen science event at a popular tourist destination and nature biodiversity hotspot, near Sydney. For this occasion we advertised for volunteers at the Asylum Seeker Centre in Sydney, and three people on temporary visas came along. The principal task was catering for…
