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International Workcamps Leaders / Environmental Messengers
Start date: Jan 1, 2016, End date: Dec 31, 2017 PROJECT  FINISHED 

SEEDS organises international volunteer workcamps with local communities, other associations and individuals all around Iceland. Jointly we develop projects aimed at fulfilling an identified need or to help in the development of particular actions. Projects are designed to be mutually beneficial to all involved: the individual volunteers, the local hosting communities and Iceland as a whole! In this project we will be involving 12 participants from European program countries with a keen motivation for working with international groups.The EVS project will be divided in 4 parts, project training & language orientation (stage 1), preparation for the work in the field (2), field work (3) and evaluation & planning for next season (4). Volunteers will be in Reykjavík during stage 1 and 4; stages 2 and 3 will take place in different locations around Iceland. In this sense, volunteers will have the unique opportunity to experience Iceland in the capital but also to work and develop projects in different places all around the country.The projects are often related to nature conservation, some examples include: removing invasive growth, building of walking paths or hiking trails, cleaning the coastline, reforestation and erosion control, construction or renovation of a building, heritage site or artwork. There are also some cultural, agricultural and study projects, as well as others which are based on identified needs of the local communities or associations. Groups’ sizes vary between 5 and 25 international participants.There will be a division of the EVS volunteers in International Workcamp’s Leaders and Environmental messengers:The volunteers selected for the International Workcamp’s Leaders project will be mainly in charge of leading the international workcamps at SEEDS, acting as a link between the Icelandic hosts and the International short term volunteers. The Environmental messengers role is to additionally raise awareness about environmental issues both within Icelanders, being hosts of SEEDS workcamps, and among the International volunteers taking part in the projects. They will encourage the actors in those projects to undertake simple but easy-to-implement actions which will affect the way we use our resources and we deal with the environment and the world we live in. Environmental messengers will get the opportunity to organise several environmental work camps during their stay. They will be responsible as a group for organising activities, events and work that raise awareness in Iceland and amongst the volunteers about relevant environmental topics (e.g. recycling, waste management, water or air pollution, soil erosion, reforestation, fish stocks depletion, climate change, healthy living, eco-tourism, etc.). With this project we want to support local Icelandic initiatives that would not be possible without the involvement of the volunteers. On a larger scale this project strongly promotes intercultural understanding and European awareness within the local Icelandic communities and among the hundreds of volunteers participating in the camps.This project encourages people to challenge their stereotypes of other cultures. It promotes intercultural awareness on an international level, as the participants in our workcamps come from a broad international background. By promoting tolerance and reflection on our diversity of values, as well as promoting the values and skills for cooperation and earth protection, this project seeks to inspire both the international volunteers and the local Icelandic communities involved.

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