This camp combines artistic renovation, remembrance work, and meeting local youth. It will take place in cooperation with the Tossehof Youth Center, where you will be living, working, and having contact to local youth from Gelsenkirchen. This camp is about constructing a memorial to the children and youth who have become victims of racist violence, from the Nazi era through the present. The local youth, your team, and a stonecutter will be creating a large sandstone sculpture. The best part about this is that you will be designing it together, then building it yourselves with the sandstone. This is a creative, artistic project with a focus against Nazism and racism. You will be going on various excursions (i.e. to a synagogue and a Jewish museum), go on city tours, and have discussions about history and the present. The third important point is meeting the local youth. You should learn from them, such as about what life in Gelsenkirchen is like, and have fun together with them. Activities are planned for you to do together. At the end of camp, your sculpture will be presented to the public during a small festival, which you can take part in organizing.
Accomodation & food:
You will be staying in the Tossehof Youth Center. You will be cooking together with the local youth.
Location & leisure:
North Rhine-Westphalia; Dortmund 25 km, Cologne 85 km.
At the youth center, you will be able to play foosball and billiards, listen to music, create pottery, work with wood, and bowl. Excursions to local sights are planned, such as to the Gasometer, the Zeche Zollverein, climbing, and canoe tours. In Gelsenkirchen you will find outdoor and indoor pools, museums, and pubs. From July 4-7 there will be a large, free, music festival called Bochum Total . Due to its central location, Gelsenkirchen is an ideal starting point for trips to nearby cities such as Dortmund, Bochum, Cologne, Hamburg, or even to the Netherlands.
Requirements:
You should be interested in art, and be ready to discuss the topics that will be addressed in this camp.
During the first week, you will spend the morning in an intensive German language course (2 x 90 minutes/day) in order to learn the parts of the language necessary for daily life. Your instructors are native speakers and have experience in teaching German as a foreign language. During the first week they are also a part of your team. During the second and third weeks, your team will be helping maintain graves of war victims in the Reinickendorf district, located in the north of Berlin. The victims buried here are German as well as non-German soldiers and civilians, for whom this part of the cemetery was built. Your team will help renew grassy areas and clean the gravestones and concrete borders.
Accomodation & food:
You will be staying in a scout shelter in Alt-Tempelhof, sleeping on mattresses placed on the floor. Meals will be prepared as a group.
Location & leisure:
Berlin. Berlin offers plenty of fun activities to do in your free time, both day and night. In order to be able to better discover the area, you will be provided with a public transportation ticket good for the duration of camp and in the entire city area.
Do you enjoy taking pictures, and love nature? This will then be a great challenge for you, putting in 25 km daily by bike in a national park, building hiking and biking stations, all while taking plenty of creative pictures Your group will be building a viewing point, information boards, a seating area, and will be helping with a small hut. At the beginning of camp, you will learn the basics of adventure and nature photography in a professional workshop, then in rotating groups work and take in camp life behind the lens. At the end of camp, there will be a photography exhibit. www.erlebniswelt-fotographie-zingst.de, www.nationalpark-vorpommersche-boddenlandschaft.de.
Accomodation & food:
Meals will be prepared as a group. You will be sleeping in tents on a sports ground; sanitary facilities are located in the sports center.
Location & leisure:
Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. Zingst is the largest town on its peninsula, which is a beloved vacation and nature area due to its kilometer long sand beaches, stretching forest areas, and its small, cute vacation areas. www.zingst.de. The photography workshops and your photography is sponsored by Olympus (Olympus Deutschland GmbH); www.olympus.de
Work part: Although the main task will be studies of history, manual work like gardening, maintenance work and cleaning-up of specific areas of the memorial are planned. Study part: Besides the manual work the study component will be an important part of our project. Volunteers will learn a lot about the time of National Socialism, the Holocaust and also something about the period after World War II especially the Soviet camp Sachsenhausen until 1950. Guided tours in and around the memorial site Sachsenhausen and excursions to different memorials and places of earlier German history are planned. Volunteers will have the opportunity to work in the exhibitions and in the library of the memorial site. Furthermore there will be several discussions with employees who perform guided tours and are involved in historical research. The international volunteers with their different backgrounds will inform the group about the memories and commemoration in their countries.
Accomodation & food:
You will be accommodated in a youth hostel, 2 km away from the memorial centre.
Location & leisure:
Sachsenhausen is a part of Oranienburg, ca. 33 km to the north of Berlin.
Requirements:
For this project it is necessary to have good or very good English skills German skills are beneficial.Please prepare at home a short presentation about your country, including the history of your home country and the view on German history.A motivation letterspecific to this project- is required.Volunteers should be able to ride a bike, because various shorter and longer bicycle-tours are planned.
During the first week, you will spend the morning in an intensive German language course (2 x 90 minutes/day) in order to learn the parts of the language necessary for daily life. Your instructors are native speakers and have experience in teaching German as a foreign language. During the first week they are also a part of your team. During the second and third weeks, your team will be helping maintain graves of war victims in the Reinickendorf district, located in the north of Berlin. The victims buried here are German as well as non-German soldiers and civilians, for whom this part of the cemetery was built. Your team will help renew grassy areas and clean the gravestones and concrete borders.
Accomodation & food:
You will sleep in covered wagons set up by local boy scouts in Berlin-Steglitz. Meals will be prepared as a group.
Location & leisure:
Berlin offers plenty of fun activities to do in your free time, both day and night. In order to be able to better discover the area, you will be provided with a public transportation ticket good for the duration of camp and in the entire city area.
This year your help is needed in continuing to build the conference room. It will be build in a sustainable manner, which means that there will be used only ecological materials. Similar to previous years is the opportunity to get to know and look after the local Permaculture (trees, plants, animals and nature/environment education).We are happy that you will be part of our event Ernahrung Global: Sachsen und Asien (Global food : Sachsen and Asia). Asian food recipes and an overview of Asian food culture are very welcome.How to create a productive garden which grows plants and feeds animals in a way that only a minimum input of energy and resources are required to achieve maximum sustainability to the environment? Interesting ecological and cultural projects/information from your country are very welcome.
Accomodation & food:
The participants are accommodated in the seminar rooms. Please bring a sleeping bag with you.
Location & leisure:
The afternoons and evenings, also weekends are free for personal use: sports, fieldtrips in the region and to Freiberg, swimming.
Requirements:
We are looking for 12 motivated young people who are interested in handicrafts, advanced training and gardening/landscaping.
Work: In this year the project in Ravensbruck will continue to connect practical work and study with youth meetings.During the first week a Hip Hop workshop will be run. Last year we gave it a try for the 1st time and because of the great success it is planned to continue. You will work with a professional teacher of dance and perform your dances during the Water festival in Furstenberg in the time 12.-14.08.It is planned that the group will work on the area of the women s concentration camp. There are many different tasks to be done: cleaning the area of wild growing vegetation, environmental work and investigation work.Study part:For one or two days (depending on volunteers interest) there are many possibilities to read about the history of the women s concentration camp and about the background of fascism. Volunteers can use materials from the library and the archives in different languages. A main topic for the study part will be the special camp, where the participants work.
Accomodation & food:
Youth hostel
Location & leisure:
Fuerstenberg/Havel
Requirements:
For this Workcamp it is necessary to have very good English skills A motivation letterspecific to this project- is required.
Work part: Although the main task will be studies of history, manual work like gardening, maintenance work and cleaning-up of specific areas of the memorial are planned. Study part: Besides the manual work the study component will be an important part of our project. Volunteers will learn a lot about the time of National Socialism, the Holocaust and also something about the period after World War II especially the Soviet camp Sachsenhausen until 1950. Guided tours in and around the memorial site Sachsenhausen and excursions to different memorials and places of earlier German history are planned. Volunteers will have the opportunity to work in the exhibitions and in the library of the memorial site. Furthermore there will be several discussions with employees who perform guided tours and are involved in historical research. The international volunteers with their different backgrounds will inform the group about the memories and commemoration in their countries.
Accomodation & food:
You will be accommodated in a youth hostel, 2 km away from the memorial centre.
Location & leisure:
Sachsenhausen is a part of Oranienburg, ca. 33 km to the north of Berlin.
Requirements:
For this project it is necessary to have good or very good English skills German skills are beneficial.Please prepare at home a short presentation about your country, including the history of your home country and the view on German history.A motivation letterspecific to this project- is required.Volunteers should be able to ride a bike, because various shorter and longer bicycle-tours are planned.
« I would recommend participating in a workcamp, especially with VAP, who ensured that I found a project to suit me and provided essential training for me in preparation for my trip. Being part of a workcamp really is a life-changing experience, oh, and it looks great on your CV! »
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