Bona Fides Association and GEPEC-EdC are looking for participants (citizens and residents of Poland) for a long-term environmental project in Catalonia, Spain!
Place: Tarragona (southern Catalonia), Spain
Dates: from April 2024 to December 2024
Duration: 9 months
CHECK OUR INFOPACK FOR PHOTOS AND MORE INFO!
What is GEPEC-EdC?
The Grup d’Estudi i Protecció dels Ecosistemes Catalans – Ecologistes de Catalunya (GEPEC-EdC) is
an environmental organization that has been working for more than 35 years, independently and non-profit, to defend and preserve the natural heritage and the environment. We are also part of the Ecologistes de Catalunya federation, of which we are founding members, as well as the Xarxa per la Conservació de la Natura. We are an active citizens movement: the organization, made up of partners, volunteers and sympathizers, strives to solve the environmental problems of southern Catalonia. We act from the point of environmental defence, avoiding and denouncing aggressions in the territory. Year after year we work on preservation projects to protect endangered species and to improve their habitats and ecosystems. All without losing sight of the goal of a cleaner, greener and healthier planet. For a sustainable future, we also promote environmental education in everything we do.
Our mission and values
The main objective of GEPEC-EdC is to protect and to improve the environment. In order to reach this milestone, we implement conservation projects and we promote awareness among people with peaceful protest through public or legal reporting of environmental conflicts.
We have always been an independent and transparent entity. Therefore, we act without political affiliations, governed by ethical and sustainability principles based on respect for nature, environmentalism and society.
Our motivation to host European volunteers
GEPEC-EdC is an organization that has relied on volunteers since its inception in 1985 and considers the volunteer as a structural figure in the development of its mission. The volunteers themselves run the association. In this sense, the motivation of the organization for its participation in the CES, the objectives and the impacts it wants to achieve are summarized in three points:
- – Spread the mission and the entity itself beyond its usual dissemination capacity
- – Share actions and experiences in favour of sustainable development in collaboration with other initiatives on a European scale
- – Encourage the personal growth of the GEPEC-EdC volunteers and professional team with experiences from other territories
Volunteer profile
Our project is aimed at young people, from 18 to 30 years old, interested in Nature and Environment, and at Europeans who want to come to the south of Catalonia to volunteer for 9 months, from January/February 2024 to September/October 2024, with the environmental NGO (www.gepec.cat) in the European Solidarity Corps project. One of the places is for young people with fewer opportunities.
The number of volunteers that we would like to include in the project is 8. We’re looking for people motivated with the conservation of biodiversity and sustainable development, who appreciate environmental values and that want to actively learn how to spread awareness about environmental problems and their possible solutions.
We are looking for people capable of carrying out practical actions and to understand the value of their permanent achievement, who are involved with the organization and that are capable of developing teamwork, continuously and with a desire of personal improvement but also of the team improvement and of the fulfillment of the organization’s mission. Committed people, who without receiving a salary during their staying, know how to commit and to fulfill one hundred percent, who are willing to work five days a week including weekends and holidays (for example from Wednesday to Sunday), taking into account that there will be a wide variety of jobs that could include from hard physical work abroad (cold, heat, rain, mosquitoes) to computer work, with people of all kinds (children, adults, people with functional diversity), with wild and domestic animals, live, injured or dead animals, buildings, etc.
We are looking for young people who have an interest in knowing Catalan culture and language as well as in learning Spanish language.
In short, we are looking for profiles with the will to grow personally by learning the value of social and environmental sustainability for our society and the need to develop practical examples in the territory that favour a dynamic towards sustainable development.
Description of the Activities
Throughout this project, depending on training and experience, the volunteer will be involved three days a week in ONE specific line of work from those shown below:
- Organization of the bibliographic documentation and support to Administration.
- International marketing, web and multimedia graphic design, and support for communication processes on social networks and in the press.
- Support for the activities of the School of Naturalists and environmental education.
- Support to technicians and volunteers of projects
- Support to technicians and volunteers of environmental defence
The other two days of the week, our purpose is to implement some activities in which to a lesser or greater extent we want all the volunteers to participate: - Maintenance and restoration of the Canyadell farm.
- Maintenance of Cal Freu and Cal Bofill and opening to the public of Cal Bofill.
- Support for local volunteer groups.
- Support for dissemination activities (fairs, congresses, etc.)
- Activities with ONADA fundation
Accommodation, financing and activities spaces
Currently two of the main fieldwork sites are very close to each other in two contiguous municipalities: Altafulla and Torredembarra.
Altafulla: GEPEC-EdC has a custody agreement with the owner (Altafulla’s city council) of an idyllic 13,000m2 estate (El Canyadell) consisting of a pine forest that leads to a cove of the same name, surrounded by the suburbs. The activities of one of the GEPEC-EdC’s Naturalists Schools take place on this land, as well as the experimental nursery for native plants, a shelter for bats, etc. In addition to the classroom where the children keep their materials, a furnished apartment has been set up for the reception of 8 volunteers. In it there are 2 kitchens, 8 single bedrooms and 2 bathrooms like other common spaces. In addition to be a very beautiful environment, this place is located at 5 minutes by bike from the train station and at 15 minutes by train to Tarragona and 1 hour to Barcelona. Volunteers will be paid for the round trip to Torredembarra according to the European Solidarity Corps travel table, and during their staying they will be paid 150 € each per month for food, plus 6 € per day for personal expenses.
Torredembarra: the entity has two premises also on the beach: an office (Cal Bofill) and a small storage room (Cal Freu). Both 10 minutes by bike from the former Canyadell estate. These places are the work centre especially of the Protected Area of Els Muntanyans (natural beach with dunes and marshes and strong human pressure). In parallel, since the association works throughout the geography of southern Catalonia as a result of these projects and campaigns, it is usual to leave these two municipalities, either to help with field work in the mountains, as well as to help with activities at the central office in Reus (30 min by train) or secondary office in Roquetes (1h by train and bus), or with the activities on the northern beaches of Calafell, Cunit, Cubelles and Sitges or on the estates with monumental olive trees 100km to the south.
CHECK OUR INFOPACK FOR PHOTOS AND MORE INFO!
If you are interested in joining us, please send your CV and a motivation letter in English (with a title: “ESC in Tarragona, Spain”) to mariachiara@bonafides.pl and anna@bonafides.pl