Bona Fides Association in cooperation with PiGreco – SEMI di Intercultura has a new opportunity for Polish participants in a 6-months ESC project “Roots of Change” in the Puglia region, Italy with Associazione Regen ETS. The topics of the project are: agroforestry, permaculture, natural building and community living.
Place: Palombaio (BA), Puglia region, ITALY
Duration: from mid of October 2025
Application deadline: 10th of September 2025
ABOUT HOSTING ORGANISATION: Associazione REGEN ETS
Regen is based in an organic farm in its transition to an Agroforestry now containing different fruit trees, shrubs, herbaceous plants and vegetable gardens. Our association regularly organizes training courses for young people and adults on permaculture and regenerative agriculture, with practical and theoretical parts. We organize regular events (formal and informal meetings, workshops, etc.) aimed at the local community and young people interested in agriculture. One of the consolidated and permanent projects that the Regen has been carrying out for the last five years is the edible forest project, in which monthly social meetings are held for all the public, in which alternative models of food production are shown like examples of bioconstruction of small spaces that respect their environment, recovery and restoration of the ethnological heritage of the estate.
We carry out different activities related to the training of participants in many areas within the framework of agro-ecology, bio-construction, ecology in general. Currently we work and collaborate in the development and establishment of different projects with agroforestry and agroecological models from a water management perspective. The association has been offering different courses related to organic agriculture, soil regeneration, agroforestry models, hydrological management, bioconstruction, holistic health and some other topics related to sustainability for about 5 years.
Palombaio
The venue is right outside the village of Palombaio. Palombaio is a fraction of the municipality of Bitonto, in the metropolitan city of Bari, with 2,917 inhabitants. The village is 8.7 km from Bitonto and 4.5 km from the small village of Mariotto. It is connected to Bitonto (60.000 inhabitants city) via a bus service. From Bitonto it’s possible to reach Bari (capital of the region), the airport and many other destinations by train.
Proposed activities for volunteers
The activities will cover the following topics:
• Agroforestry management through pruning
• Production of biofertilizers, microrganisms inoculums and compost
• Logistics and kitchen helping during the workshops
• Tidying up and cleaning of the indoor and outdoor areas;
• Helping with meal preparation;
• Fruit harvesting;
• Plant reproduction;
• Helping managing (wild) grass;
• Helping taking care of the plant nursery;
• Support in eco building;
• Posting on social media and documenting with pictures.
Volunteers will come across:
• Permaculture design concepts (how ecosystems work and how to mimic them), ethics and deepest motivation for ecological activism, design principles;
• Natural successions and agroforestry and its layers and related observation in the field and pruning experience to manage an agroforest.
• How to manage an agro-forest through pruning and rational organization of organic matter;
• Plant nursery building and planting;
• Soil: introduction to composting and natural fertilization, hot compost pile, a worm compost bin, biochar and biofertilizers.
Food and accommodation
The service will take place in the food forest of Regen Association in Paolombaio (Bari, Italy).
During your stay you will live in shared rooms inside the project with other volunteers and staff.
The house on the farm provides us with a kitchen to cook our daily meals, which are healthy, mostly organic and self grown and vegetarian. If you have any allergies or intolerances, special dietary needs, please inform us about it, so we can plan accordingly. It is our home and sacred space. It is important for us to know that you agree in spending so many days in such a simple basic way of life. The lodging choice will be always decided by us and it is not possible for you to choose your own accommodation.
In Regen the diet is vegetarian (close to vegan, sometimes we have cheese, soon we should have our eggs), mostly organic, as local as possible and with minimum packaging. We believe in critical consumption and we don’t want to forage industrial food as far as we can.
We understand that all of us have attachment to some confort food, but we try to minimize it. So we ask to not bring industrial food from outside like plastic bottled drinks, cans or chips. We are not super strict but it’s important to share a direction and work together in the same one. So space for “external” food will be minimized to one tray in the fridge and as little as possible for what doesn’t go in the fridge.
Regen will buy the food (part of it is produced in our own farm) following the principles of critical consumption whenever possible, and the 3 meals will be prepared by the volunteers and by the members of the staff, organizing shifts, in our kitchen.
Please use your plant based fully biodegradable toiletry (shampoo, soaps, toothpaste, etc.) so the water of the shower and the sink doesn’t harm nature.
Volunteers Profile
- ● interested in the project’s activities;
- ● open-minded and curious;
- ● with a strong personality and interest in issues such as integration, legality and
- ecology;
- ● motivated;
- ● proactive, sociable and creative;
- ● 18-30 years old;
- ● knowledge of English or Italian;
- ● with a good ability to work in a team;
- ● from European countries
Infopack and useful links
APPLICATION
Please send your CV and a motivation letter (in English) to a.siembab@bonafides.pl and anna@bonafides.pl or contact us for any further information! Please write “ESC in Palombaio, Italy” in the title of your e-mail.