Volunteering

The River
Volunteering Teams project
24. July - 6. August 2023, Prenčov, Slovakia

Description of project

The River is a 14 days solidarity project focused on topics of climate changes, active citizenship and creativity and culture. 25young people from whole Europe will meet together for local action – strenghtening theriver banks for prevention of floodings. Decades of changes in the surrounding country has changed the regime of local small river. In the summer the water often disappear from the surface, while during wet seasson and stronger rains the riverbed is full of later, commiting floodings from time to time. During this project, young people will strenghten the river banks by river stones, deepen the riverbed and build few small damms upstream in the forest, where eventual flooding makes no damage. By this and following educational and artistic activities young people will foster resilience of local community. Artistic activities will be focused on site specific theatre and landart. Result of the project is better protected iverbanks, small artistic gathering/perfomance with educational elements included and video, which will be shared online or international audience.

More informations you can find in

Info Kit

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Application form

What will you experience

How to use the Dragon Dreaming for
working in the teams
Basic and principles of Permaculture
How to influence society by art
How to work with water at home, in the city, in the countryside, in the country
Friendships and Contacts for the future.

What you get

Land art, music, theater
Physical work in nature
2 weeks living close to wild nature
International community environment
Excellent and tasty vegetarian food
Lots of fun and deep moments
An unforgettable experience for a lifetime

Venue

Our organization is located in Prenčov, a small village in the middle of Slovakia, in the region of Banska Bystrica, under the hill of Sitno and surrounded by beautiful natural landscapes. The village has many folkloric houses, a rich cultural heritage and living traditions. Life in the village is strongly connected to the nearby town of Banská Štiavnica. This town is a part of the UNESCO cultural heritage and it is one of the most popular destinations in Slovakia especially in summer, with many cultural events throughout the whole year. The region of Hont, where we are settled, is mostly rural with a lot of small traditional villages and a beautiful environment, but a lack of work, educational and social opportunities. Sadly, consumerism is becoming the leading motivation thus making traditional, rural methods and crafts slowly disappear. People are losing the relationship and the contact with the soil, nature and with themselves. As a result, rural areas are losing productivity with a rising level of dependence on national budgets or EU grants. The lack of working opportunities leads young people to passivity, migration to cities or abroad which leads to depopulation. We are reacting to this situation with our long-term goal to explore possibilities of sustainable lifestyle in the rural area and the role of the individual within the community . We want to support the process of change in our region towards a modern rural sustainable lifestyle, with an emphasis on interconnecting cities and rural areas.

Volunteer profile

We are looking for volunteers who are willing to participate actively in all the process, who are open to work and learn in a wide range of activities ready to work physically and be responsible for the duties and agreements. We search for volunteers who are looking for living and working in a rural area connected with nature and community, who feel concerned about climate change issues and are willing to learn and live responsibly. We appreciate it if volunteers have some manual skills of using working tools, or other skills needed in rural areas, but it is not required. However some preconditions for rural and community life is needed.

We want to support volunteers in becoming skilled and competent in a variety of tasks that are important for living in rural areas and in a community.

We want to encourage and develop their creativity and entrepreneurship as they discover the potential and the different sources offered by this natural environment in order to enable people to live in a more meaningful and respectful way in rural areas.