Bona Fides and Gent Fair Trade are looking for motivated candidates (aged 18-30, citizens or residents of Poland) for 2 long-term ESC volunteering placements in Belgium!
Place: Ghent, Belgium
Start: September 2026
Duration: 12 months
Application deadline: 24th of June
About the organisation
Gent Fair Trade is a partnership between the City of Ghent and Oxfam Worldshops in Gent. The City of Ghent and Oxfam Wereldwinkel Gent-Centrum are putting fair trade on the map, together with a broad group of partners.
We promote Fair Trade practices and a sustainable lifestyle toward the inhabitants of Ghent, people who visit, shop, work, study in the city, support entrepreneurs that sell ethical products and promote fair trade in general. We focus on three topics: fashion, food and electronics.
We have two open vacancies for international volunteers, to work in our international justice movement in Ghent, Belgium.
1. COMMUNICATION VOLUNTEER
Main activities the volunteer will be involved with:
The main focus of this volunteer program is communication:
• Daily online communication (social media + website): content creation, making photos and videos, desk research.
• Periodical printed communication (a magazine, walking routes, brochures): writing yourself, working together with photographers, reporters and graphical designers
• Periodical campaigns (fashion revolution, world fair trade day, Fair Trade Week, summer campaign) from brainstorming to practical implementation.
• Keeping contact with our target audience, the ethical entrepreneurs in our network and our volunteers.
The volunteer will also be involved with:
• Organize events; together with partners, entrepreneurs and volunteers, we set up activities. Our most know activities are our Fair Fashion Fest (an ethical fashion festival that attracts about 4000 visitors in a day), Slow Fashion Show (a catwalk with second hand clothes), Fair Trade Walks through the city, Fashion Revolution Week in the city of Ghent, Fair Trade Week in our city, Fair Fashion Talks
• Improve the procurement policy of the city; we advise the city or lobby with the city to make the cities procurement more ethical and sustainable.
Goals of the volunteer project – develop skills and competences in the field of:
• Communication: The participant will gain experience in communication on a more strategic level (getting to know our target audience, writing out communication strategies and how to use Principles of Persuasion in communication, evaluating and monitoring) as well as a practical level (creating concepts, working out communication plans, creating content).
• Project and event management: Participants will be involved with the all stages of project and event management, more strategical (brainstorming, working out a concept, defining goals) and practical (taking contact with speakers, making up material lists, building/decorating the event location).
• Gain insight and knowledge: We work on the general topic of fair trade, but we specialize on food, textile and ICT. Participants will be able to learn more or less about these topics depending on their field of interest (so they can pick one or more to specialize in).
2. ACTION AND ADVOCACY OFFICER
Main activities the volunteer will be involved with:
The main focus of this volunteer program is organizing events, set up actions and support the advocacy work of Oxfam in Ghent, a.o.:
• Working together with a broad group of partners, entrepreneurs and volunteers,
• Organizing and supporting volunteers in organizing our Fair Fashion Fest (an ethical fashion festival that attracts about 4000 visitors in a day),
• Supporting the Komaf Koffie initiative (a mobile coffee stand that is manned by former refugees),
• Organize other initiatives like our Slow Fashion Show (a catwalk with second hand clothes), Fair Trade Walks through the city, Fashion Revolution Week in the city of Ghent, Fair Trade Week in our city
• Set up advocacy initiatives together with local stakeholders on actual topics.
The volunteer will also be involved with:
• Periodical campaigns (fashion revolution, world fair trade day, Fair Trade Week, summer campaign) from brainstorming to practical implementation.
• Keeping contact with our target audience, the ethical entrepreneurs in our network and our volunteers.
Goals of the volunteer project – develop skills and competences in the field of:
• Project and event management: Participants will be involved with the all stages of project and event management, more strategical (brainstorming, working out a concept, defining goals) and practical (taking contact with speakers, making up material lists, building/decorating the event location).
• Advocacy and networking: As part of the team of Oxfam, the participant will apply lobby methods and gain insights in the creating process of advocacy practices. The participant will take part in events from partner organizations as a representative of Gent Fair Trade.
• Communication: The participant will gain experience in communication on a more strategic level (getting to know our target audience, writing out communication strategies and how to use Principles of Persuasion in communication, evaluating and monitoring..) as well as a practical level (creating concepts, working out communication plans, creating content)
• Gain insight and knowledge: We work on the general topic of fair trade, but we specialize on food, textile and ICT. Participants will be able to learn more or less about these topics depending on their field of interest (so they can pick one or more to specialize in).
Profile and requirements
We are looking for someone who:
• is motivated to work in an organization that promotes a sustainable lifestyle;
• can write and speak well in English;
• is creative and likes to do content creation for social media (mainly Instagram and Facebook);
• is motivated to work with volunteers;
• is willing to learn about social and environmental sustainability:
• is younger than 31 years old;
• can identify themselves with the principles of the Fair Trade movement (read Fair Trade Charter here).
We offer
• a volunteer contract for one year (check period on website);
• a position as part of a small professional team. You will work together with people who work for Oxfam (non-profit organization) as well as civil servants who are working for the city of Ghent;
• a work week of 35 hours a week (Monday to Friday) and 24 days of holiday;
• aA monthly fee of €600 (to cover daily expenses) + a reimbursement of (co)housing cost (with a max. of €550 per month) + reimbursement of travel cost from and to Belgium at the start and end of the project;
• the possibility to follow courses related to the volunteer work you will be doing at Gent Fair Trade.
Application
Send a motivation letter, CV and video to introduce yourself (optional, but strongly advised because of high amount of AI generated applications) to: info@gentfairtrade.be
as well as to the sending organisation in Poland: mariachiara@bonafides.pl
Write ‘ESC vacancy – Communication volunteer’ or ‘ESC vacancy – Action and advocacy officer’ in the title of your e-mail.
Check out all the projects we’re currently recruiting for
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Website: https://evs.bonafides.pl/category/aktualne-nabory/