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Gardening and restructuring in southern Italy

The experience

Depending on the time of year, there's always different to do.
If you come in spring, you'd be busy preparing the summer garden, pruning the olive trees, and taking care of seedlings in the greenhouse. If you chose summer, you'd be involved in harvesting fruits and transforming them into jams, liqueurs, and syrups, as well as participating in house renovation activities. If you opt for autumn, you'd be occupied with the olive harvest.

What you offer

25 hours of help per week

Cleaning: Help clean the kitchen, bedrooms, bathrooms and common areas.

Kitchen Hand: Help prepare, finish and serve meals.

Building & Repairing: Help with a wide range of repairs or building.

Farming: Plant crops, sow seeds and help in outside tasks.

Additional fee required

Amount: € 5 Per day

Description: We ask for 5 euros per day to cover the basic costs: breakfast, launch, electricity.

What you get

2 days off per week

Team Dorm: You will have a bed in a shared room, which means you will share the same room with other people.

Tent: You will sleep in a tent at a camping site.

Breakfast: You are entitled to a free breakfast, every day of your stay.

Lunch: You are entitled to a free lunch, every day of your stay.

Free Laundry: You can use our laundry room freely.

Free Events: Get free entrance for the best events in town.

Bikes at your disposal: You can use our bikes any time you want.

Pick Up: We will pick you up when you arrive, and take you to our property.

Use our equipped kitchen: Feel free to use our kitchen and make your own delicious food.

Requirements

Beginner English or Beginner French

Between 18 and 70 years old

Welcomes solo volunteers, couples, and partners of volunteers

What's not included

Flights, Travel Insurance, Internal Transportation and Visa

Program Details

The collective was born in the spring of 2018.
Angela, who had been living in Brussels for several years, decided to raise awareness among her friends in Brussels about the social crisis in her region of origin: Puglia, in southern Italy.

The Building Social Resilience collective is made up of a core group of about twenty volunteers from Brussels and other countries.
It is supported daily by countless people united by shared values such as solidarity and ecology, and concerned about the migratory and environmental crises we are experiencing.

BSR seeks to raise public awareness of these contemporary issues and to launch projects in defense of refugee rights and reception, natural farming, and food sovereignty, while at the same time promoting cultural exchanges and rural areas.

Activities & Shift

People will help us during the week with activities like: gardening, harvesting and transforming fruits, restructure buildings, cooking. We have a weekly meeting in order to organize the work for the week, and each of one takes responsibility for the general maintaining of the place (cleaning, irrigate plants, etc..).

We are interested in creating a core group of people who live here and dedicate themselves to food sovereignty. Any volunteer is welcomed, but we prefer someone that would like to stay in the middle period (several weeks).

Since this is a countryside location, the comfort level is lower compared to the city, so volunteers must be able to adapt. For example, we use dry toilets. There are also insects inside the house, which unfortunately is inevitable in the countryside. We have cats and a dog. The city is a 10-minute drive away.

Rules

Volunteers should help us 5 hours per day from Monday to Friday, for the seasonal works. Duties should be taken also for the general maintaining of the house. We have a weekly meeting in order to decide the work and priorities. We use only biological products for cleaning. We tend to buy local and biological food. Anyone here should respect each other and try to have a non-violent approach.