Last autumn, the European Voluntary Service project NATURAL (Natural Awareness ThroUgh Active Learning), co-funded by the Youth in Action Programme (action 2), came to an end. The project gave 12 young people from 6 European countries (Austria, Estonia, France, Lithuania, Spain and Hungary) with fewer opportunities the chance to make a volunteering experience at the natural reserve in Serra Guarneri, in the Northern cost of Sicily.
For one month, the young people worked as a team, carrying out different manual activities linked to nature. For instance, they picked olives and produced biological oil, worked in a plant nursery curing and planting Mediterranean plants, worked in an organic garden planting seasonal vegetables and picked wild fruits available in the reserve.
This experience allowed them to approach nature in a conscious way, getting to know all its aspects, such as its seasonal cyclic feature (to be borne in mind also in non-formal moments like cooking and eating vegetables – of course always seasonal vegetables!).
The volunteers collected all the key points of their experience in a Booklet, describing the activities carried out and the knowledge acquired. Through this final product, the volunteers express their feelings and leave their suggestions to future volunteers on how to “better live” the experience of volunteering and Italian culture.
The booklet is available here.
For more information please write an email to youth@cesie.org
