Call for 4 volunteers from Kosovo
Voltige project – ESC volunteering team
Bozevce (Kosovo), 11th of July-31st of July 2022
GAIA Kosovo is looking for 4 young people from Kosovo interested to volunteer with us and learn how to work with natural materials. The project will gather 16 volunteers from France, Kosovo, Serbia and Lithuania for 18 days (11th of July until 31st of July) in the small village Bozevce, in the eastern part of Kosovo.
This project is part of a bigger GAIA program about natural building and permaculture, which aims at establishing a place for education, volunteering, and different sustainable practices.During this ESC volunteering team the main activities will be around natural building, theoretical and practical sessions on sustainable housing from foundations to roofs.
Work
The voluteers will be involved in the activities around the straw-bale kitchen and new summer kitchen:
- Preparing earthen plaster and applying it on the straw-bale walls of the kitchen
- Carpentry and wood-work with hand tools (making furniture and construction for smaller parts)
- Collecting succulents for the green roof
Also, the volunteers will be:
- Learning about safety on working site
- Theory of Natural building
- Discovering the basics of permaculture
- Getting familiar with basic woodworking and carpentry
Accommodation & Food
The volunteers will stay at GAIA’s estate in Bozevce. Sleeping will be possible in the educational house on mattresses or in tents. Volunteers should bring their sleeping bags. There are several composting toilets and outdoor showers. Cooking and cleaning will be done in teams and food will be vegetarian, seasonal, local, healthy, and very tasty. Lifestyle is sustainable, simple, and without much technology and virtual connections.
Learning possibilities
Participants will have plenty of possibilities to learn about sustainable living, permaculture, medicinal and edible plants and nature-related topics. Since this project is about building naturally with straw-bales and earthen plasters, the volunteers will specifically learn about:
- History of natural building and different techniques
- How to use basic tools
- How to build with straw-bales
- How to prepare and test earthen plasters for houses
- How to plaster straw-bale walls
- Probably much more…
Requirements for participation in this ESC project
This project is open for all young people from Kosovo, but candidates from rural areas will have a small advantage. There are only a few specific requirements:
- To be a resident of Kosovo (for other 3 countries, you should contact sending organisations listed below)
- To be older than 18 and younger than 30
- To be interested in environmental topics, natural building, permaculture, and similar
- No previous experience is needed but on contrary… if you had fewer opportunities for participating in international activities, that would be an advantage
- Basic English is welcome, but not necessary… we will find a way to communicate 🙂
Volunteers should be OK with the following conditions:
- Simple and sustainable living principles (compost toilet, saving water, electricity and other resources)
- Vegetarian and healthy food
- Sharing space with other volunteers
- Teamwork and physical work
- Presence of animals such as dogs, cats, chickens etc.
Interested candidates should fill in this application form before 1st of June 2022.
Please use the space to explain your motivation, previous experience, expectations etc. Short applications will not be taken into account. However, if it is, for any reason, complicated for you to fill in the application, we can also organize an online or phone call. Please do not hesitate to contact us.
Selected volunteers will be informed by the 5th of June.
European Solidarity Corps projects are special in several ways:
- All volunteers will have to sign the Volunteering agreement
- Travel costs will be reimbursed
- All costs of food, accommodation, tools, materials and insurance will be covered
- Small pocket money will be given to each volunteer (3 euro a day)
- At the end of the project, volunteers will receive Youthpass certificate
This activity is organized together with Hors Pistes, our partner organizations from France, VCV from Serbia and Patria from Lithuania.
Contacts:
GAIA, Kosovo: [email protected]
Hors Pistes, France: [email protected]
VCV, Serbia: [email protected]
Patria, Lithuania : [email protected]
