International Volunteer Projects
("Workcamps")
I have now started my own international volunteer projects
organisation to offer volunteers the opportunity to participate in short term
development aid projects in the third world. See:
AidCamps
International
I have been on short term workcamps run by a couple of
organisations. These are:
The workcamps are cheap, communal, and lots of fun! They are a great
opportunity to get to know people from other countries and cultures by living
and working together for a common goal. During these, and other, voluntary
activities I have collected a number of Workcamp Games,
which help add to the community spirit.
I have attended the following workcamps:
in
Santa Maria delle Molle, Italy. 16-31 August 99. Legambiente
This workcamp was held at the southern end of the Parco dell'Appia
Antica just south of Rome. Via Appia Antica is the oldest of the Roman
roads. It was started by Appio Claudio Cieco in 312BC to facilitate the conquest
of southern Italy.
Clearing
the Via Appia Antica |
The work consisted of clearing the vegetation covering the ancient road in
preparation for a team of archaeologists that would arrive after the workcamp.
Accommodation was in a local primary school.
Of course, being so close to Rome a lot of the group's spare time was taken
in sight-seeing in the city, as well as visiting the towns collectively known as
the Castelli Romani near the workcamp site which are famous for their
wine (e.g. Frascati) and porchetta.
There were 13 volunteers: 1 Bulgarian, 1 Czech, 1 English, 1 French, 3
Italians, 1 Russian, 3 Turkish, 1 from the U.S.A. and myself.
in
Pettorano sul Gizio, Italy. 1-15 August 99. Legambiente
This workcamp was held in the charming medieval village of Pettorano sul
Gizio in the mountainous region of Abruzzo.
One
of the fences we built |
The work was clearing a path and building fences and steps along the banks
of the river Gizio, with runs just below the village. The path cleared followed
the route of a medieval path, part of a old network linking villages in the
region.
Accommodation was in a local primary school. We spent most of our spare
time entertaining ourselves and visiting the two bars in the village, as well as
getting to know the local people.
The group also visited Sulmona, the nearest town, and hiked for an overnight
stay to a mountain refuge.
There were 16 volunteers: 2 Catalans, 2 French, 3 Italians, 1 Japanese, 1
Russian, 3 Turkish, 1 Welsh, 2 from the U.S.A, and myself.
in
Venezia Lido & Mazzorbo, Italy. 4-17 July 99. SCI I-3.1
This workcamp was held in two locations in the laguna di Venezia. The first
week was spent on Lido where we cleared the vegetation around an abandoned
Austro-Hungerian fort as part of an ongoing project to convert historic military
sites into public parks. During this period we stayed in a military barracks
that is in the process of closing down.
The
entrance to the fort | 
Mazzorbo |
The second week the workcamp moved to the pretty island of Mazzorbo where
the group worked on a farm that is being converted into a local museum. We
cleared paths, made fences, and cleaned old farming implements for display in
the museum. We stayed in accomodation on the farm.
As we were only a boat ride away from Venice a lot of the group's spare time
was taken in sight-seeing, both in the city, as well as some of the less visited
islands in the laguna.
There were 14 volunteers: 2 Catalans, 2 Estonians, 2 Finns, 1 Hungarian, 1
Irish, 1 Polish, 1 Romanian, 2 Russians, 1 Turkish, and myself.
in
Lagdei-Corniglio, Italy. 30 August - 13 September 98. SCI I-6.8
This workcamp was held in the national park Parco dei Cento Laghi
(Hundred Lakes Park) in the Appenines on the border between Tuscany and
Emilia-Romanga near Parma.
The work consisted mostly of making paths and erecting signs for hikers.
The accommodation was luxurious by workcamp standards as we were staying in a
comfortable refuge within the park.
Parco
dei Cento Laghi | |
There were lots of long walks to various mountain peaks and several people
braved the cold lakes and went for a swim. At the weekend we visited Parma and
consumed large amounts of free prosciutto at Parma's annual prosciutto
festival.
The workcamp was delightfully musical with several people playing guitar and
singing.
There were 14 volunteers: 1 Albanian, 1 Basque, 5 Belgians, 1 German, 3
Italians, 1 Japanese, 1 Swiss, and myself.
in
Tuzla, Bosnia. 3-22 August 98. SCI I J-2
This workcamp was supposed to include the reconstruction of a kindergarden
(which is why I went!), but by the time we arrived the kindergarden had already
been rebuilt, so the workcamp concentrated on playscheme activities at an
orphanage in Tuzla and the painting of a mural on the walls of one of the
buildings of the orphanage that had been damaged by shrapnel.
The group amused the children, aged from 8 weeks up to 20 years, for nearly
three weeks, helping the staff take care of the younger ones and organising
various activities for the rest. The mural took a considerable amount of effort
too.
The group lived in a kindergarden in Tuzla in rather cramped conditions and
using furniture designed for 5 year olds! One weekend the group visited
Sarajevo and saw both the beauty of the city and just how much devastation war
can cause.
There were 21 volunteers: 1 Belgian, 1 Catalan, 1 French, 1 Irish, 9
Italians, 1 Japanese, 1 Slovenian, 3 from the U.K., 2 from the U.S.A., and
myself.
The
Mural
in
Agropoli, Italy. 13-26 July 98. Legambiente
Clearing
paths |
This workcamp was held in the seaside town of Agropoli, about 75kms south of
Naples. The work consisted of cleaning the banks of the local river and making
riverside paths so that people can enjoy the local environment.
Accommodation was in a local primary school, and a lot of the group's spare
time was spent on the beach. We also visited Pompeii and Paestum, the local
centre of Magna-Grecia. There were 14 volunteers: 3 Danish, 1 Dutch, 4 French,
2 Italians, 2 Slovakians, 1 Greek-American, and myself.
in
Ljubljana & Svetinje, Slovenia. 21-31 August 97. SCI Si-1.1
The purpose of this workcamp was to take two dozen Bosnian refugee children,
living in refugee camps in Slovenia, on holiday.
This workcamp was hard work! Workcamps that involve manual labour are
easier, at least you get to relax in the evenings! On this camp we were
working all the time. Still, it was enjoyable and rewarding. We started off in
Ljubljana staying at a school for a few days, no kids, just the volunteers,
learning about the refugee situation, the political situation, the war, etc, and
planning activities for the holiday. We visited the two refugee camps the kids
were coming from and saw a bit of Ljubljana.
Bosnian
refugee children and volunteers |
Then we collected the kids (9-13 years old) in a bus and drove off to a
tiny village, Svetinje, in the middle of Slovenia's wine making region, where
we occupied the largest house. Six days of activities followed: games, mime,
drawing, music, dance classes, basic language lessons, craft classes, etc.,
etc., etc. I was in the so-called drama group, were we did a lot of mime and I
introduced some good old workcamp games like "machine" and "knots".
We threw a mask party and an Indian party for the kids and held a sports
competition. We got to eat Bosnian food, cooked by three of the mothers that
came with us and, discretely, tried some of the local wines.
There were 18 volunteers: 1 Belgian, 1 Finnish, 3 Germans, 2 New
Zealanders, 5 Slovenians, 5 from the U.K., and myself. Everybody left feeling
satisfied -- and exhausted -- and the kids had a great time.
in
Pentidattilo, Italy. 2-16 August 97. SCI I-9.2
Pentidattilo |
Pentidattilo is an old village in the Greek area of southern Italy, near
Reggio di Calabria. The village is built in the palm of a mountain shaped like
a hand, from which it takes its name "five fingers". The village was
abandoned in the early '60s due to fears of the imminent collapse of the
mountain. However, the mountain is still intact and various organizations are
working to restore the village.
The workcamp excavated a part of the cistern of the medieval castle, dug out
paths in the hillside, erected some fences, and staffed the village information
centre ("Pro Loco"). We lived with constant water shortages, and
suffered a European Commission film crew making a video of the project. Some
volunteers went to Sicily for the weekend, while others lounged on the beach.
We all saw a fair amount of the local area.
There were 17 volunteers: 3 Belgians, 2 Dutch, 2 English, 2 Germans, 5
Italians, 1 Portuguese, 1 Spanish, and myself.
in
Pitigliano, Italy. 15-30 July 97. SCI I-11.4
Pitigliano is a picturesque medieval hill top village in the Etruscan part
of southern Tuscany. The main purpose of the workcamp was to excavate some
Etruscan tombs in a valley below Pitigliano. The tombs, dating from the 7th
century BC, were raided by tomb looters about 40 years ago. The hillside has
since slipped down filling and covering the tombs.
Some
Etruscan tombs we dug out |
As the tombs had been looted we did not expect to find anything in them,
although we did find a few sherds of Etruscan amphorae that the raiders had
missed. However, it was exciting to see the tombs appear out of the hillside
as we dug them out, and the group had a couple of midnight parties in the tombs
to get the full atmosphere! In the last couple of days we also cleared the
grounds of an abandoned monastery.
Staying in the local seminary, we found Pitigliano to be a quiet yet
charming village. We went for walks, visited a local country fair, went for a
dip in the nearby Roman hot springs at Saturnia, attended a local wine festival,
and managed to go to a disco and a concert.
There were 11 volunteers on this workcamp: 1 Austrian, 1 French, 1
Hungarian, 4 Italians, 2 Spanish, 1 Swedish, and myself.
in Rome,
Italy. 1-15 October 96. SCI I-8.6
There were 12 volunteers on this workcamp. 1 Italian, 1 Malaysian, 1
Norwegian, 1 Polish, 1 Slovenian, 1 Spanish, 2 Swiss, 3 from the U.S.A., and
myself.
The workcamp was held in a six story building in Via San Tommaso d'Aquino
occupied by the self-managing cooperative Il Corallo.
The building contains 23 apartments, in various states of repair, of which we
occupied two. The work itself was helping in the restoration of the building.
We cleared rubble, cleaned, plastered, painted the stairwell, destroyed an
unwanted wall, and mixed concrete to set new floors in some of the apartments.
As the building is just 10 minutes walk from the Vatican, afternoon
sight-seeing tours of Rome were an almost daily feature of the workcamp. Funds
for a "wine kitty" were collected regularly and guaranteed, despite
being in "the big city", that many enjoyable evenings were spent in
the building, with dinner turning into a party almost every night!
One good idea that was suggested was begging for food! We would go to the
local market just before closing time and ask for fruit and vegetables that were
going to get thrown out anyway. This helped supplement the food budget allowing
us to buy some luxuries like herbs and spices. This, with the excellent kitchen
skills of the participants, resulted in a very high culinary standard indeed!
We left an additional mark on the building in the form of a community effort
mural. Several people felt their stay to be worthwhile enough to remain for
some time after the workcamp proper was over. Indeed, I stayed on for an extra
month!
in
Nettuno, Italy. 3-19 July 96. SCI I-6.30
Nettuno and Anzio are twin seaside tourist towns, about 60kms south of Rome.
They are famous for the allied landings for the liberation of Rome towards the
end of the 2nd World War.
There were 18 volunteers on this workcamp: 1
Belgian-French, 1 Dutch, 2 Hungarians, 5 Italians, 1 Norwegian, 2 Polish, 2
Serbians, 1 Spanish, 2 Turkish, and myself. We stayed in a primary school,
enjoying hard floors, cold showers, and good humour. The weather was great the
whole time -- so much so that a large number of people ending up sleeping on the
roof terrace under the stars. A shortage of keys allowed some people to get in
practice at climbing into first-story windows!
The work was restoring an urban park in part of the old Villa Borghese. The
setting was very pleasant, the park being a large enclosed wooded area. We
cleared paths, cleaned and painted the huge main gate, repaired fences, dug
holes, mixed concrete, built wooden benches and tables, and erected signs. We
worked a 30 hour week, mostly in the mornings (before it got too hot), although
we put in some extra, afternoon, hours in the second week to ensure the work was
completed.
Most afternoons were spent on the beach, walking around town, or enjoying a
siesta. The evenings were usually spent "on the town", with the
occasional party at "home". We, of course, took one weekend to go and
see Rome.
The camp ended with the work completed, many good friendships made, and
quite a few goodbye tears.
