ESC Teams at Agriturismo L’Arca | Daniel, Bouchra, Sunny, & Maxime Share Their Experience!
The ESC Teams project “Team for Healthy Life – T4HL”, financed by the European Solidarity Corps programme and run by Associazione Joint in cooperation with Agriturismo L’Arca in Italy, has come to an end!
The overall objective of the project, in accordance with the priorities set for 2021, was to promote well-being and a healthy lifestyle for the volunteers and local communities. It was an opportunity for participants to reclaim a space to socialise in a healthy and safe manner, while engaging in volunteer activities that promote the inclusion of vulnerable groups, health and wellbeing in communities.
Project activities touched on specific themes, in accordance with the host organisation and the needs of the local community:
- nature and outdoor life
- mental health
- health prevention/health promotion
- conscious nutrition
Daniel’s Testimonial
My time at the institute sowed in me a passion: the socialization of means of transport, in line with the reduction of carbon emissions and the promotion of a more united and secure community. So, with that teenage dream I embarked on the journey of logistics. That has led me to experience the first steps of a life full of changes, ups and downs. Until you find the balance.
I have always had a vocation for human development. In that way, I made the decision to start the degree in pedagogy at the university at a distance to reconcile studies and work.
Then, after finishing pedagogy, I worked for a year in France with the long volunteer work of the European Solidarity Corps. This opened up new perspectives for me on the possibilities that Erasmus+ offers to both organizations and volunteers/students/young people. So, knowing that it was now or never because of the age limit, I decided to come as a participant to the T4HL project in L’Arca, Calabria. I wanted to live the experience of TEAM ESC before, perhaps, moving on to the organizational side.
Therefore, I sent my applications to different team volunteers that I found on the official portal of the European Solidarity Corps and on the Facebook website European Solidarity Corps Opportunities (https://m.facebook.com/groups/volunteeringopportunities/). That way, after conducting the interview of the volunteer selection process for T4HL, I was totally convinced. My initial idea to come to L’Arca was to know how to work in Italy to start and develop projects such as T4HL. In addition, I wanted to learn about the work carried out by the organic farm of L’Arca. Knowledge that can be useful to me to launch a personal project in my own local community for the promotion of leisure, training and products and services related to the rural environment near the cities. Although, in this g-local world, any place is interesting to undertake.
Since I’ve been in L’Arca, I’ve learned techniques to take care of fruit trees and tomato trees. But, personally, I think that the best of the gifts that such an experience can offer me, is to improve my abilities for coexistence and to have a place next to me for the other different. Living with all the volunteers, as well as with the people who work to make everything work, is truly something very special, very rich and full of surprises.
I’ve always liked physical work in the field and it’s what we do in the mornings. It reminds me of the jobs on my family farm in the north of Spain where I made a lot of friends and we had a great time. Afterwards, I like to take a nap in the hammock that Elina, a colleague, has brought from Bulgaria. I have also enjoyed the activities offered by the T4HL project itself within the local community of Belvedere Marittimo: rafting, making pizza and torteli, Italian classes, ceramics.
I insist again, for me, the most valuable thing about this experience is to meet other people, in an age range between 18 and 30 years old, with whom we have common interests and at the same time we all come from totally different contexts and places. It is a time of learning and personal improvement. It’s time to get to know other people and yourself well, far from the conditions and labels that sometimes mark our ways of relating. The group is the most valuable thing, even for work.
Personally, I recommend this T4HL project to anyone between 18 and 30 years old, who wants to do physical work in the field, outdoors, in a warm climate and with the Calabria sun. That he doesn’t mind being without internet. And he likes typical Italian food: pasta, risotto and pizza.
Bouchra’s Testimonial
I worked as soon as I got out of college, doing one job after another where money was my only motivation. I worked in the hope that one day I’d have a happy life to live, like all those people on the instagram posts who were living their best life abroad, but the more the days pass and the more I felt that unfortunately this day will never come to me. So I decided to go and find it myself. I contacted the association “Parcourt le monde” which offered me several volunteer opportunities. I chose this one because I really wanted to go to Italy, and I hoped that this trip would bring me unique experiences, memorable memories and a new language that I could master. But I didn’t manage to learn Italian, but I strengthened my English, it’s an international language so I’m proud of myself. It’s also this language that allowed me to communicate with my new friends, with whom I shared lots of experiences, the bad ones like waking up very early to work, but especially the good ones like making pizza, baskets, ceramics, or visiting several Italian cities. Crazy experiences like rafting, or simpler ones like relaxing and watching a film together. This project was very eventful, but it’s an experience you should have at least once in your life. I recommend this project to those who don’t mind waking up early to tackle a very physical day. But if all this allows them to have lots of adventures with incredible people from the four corners of the world, then it’s well worth the effort of 6 hours a day.
Sunny’s Testimonial
I left university after 2 years of Biotechnology because I felt like it wasn’t the right choice for me or what I wanted to do in that moment: I started to have to deal with a lot of anxiety and hard moments, I felt like lost myself so I decided that leaving would be a better choice. I wanted to do something that I would really like and give me joy so I decided that this year I would travel and volunteer. I wanted to find myself again and my happiness, get to know new people and maybe share them my experience with my depression and my story. I jointed this project about living a healthy life in a farm: here I got to know many people from many different countries and I found my people; We are a big family of people from Spain, Germany, France and Italy. We really get along and I would have never thought I would have so much in common with people who two months ago were totally strangers to me and I would have never thought I would find love. With their help, I learned to be more confident and how to deal with my feelings, which before was one of my biggest problems. Though, as practical things, I learned how an organic farm works: the process of taking care of trees and animals and the process behind the selection of fruits and vegetables for the market. Although the work in the morning, we had a lot of free time, during which we had some workshops, such as creation of a basket and ceramic statues, rafting, get to know better how a hive works, harvesting olives and learned how to do pizza and tortelli.
I am glad I decided to try to partecipate to this project and I really recommend it, because not only we get to know a lot of people and culture (and those people can become your new family and maybe someone you’re going to share your future life with), but it helps for your personal grow.
Maxime’s Testimonial
I started to travel when i was younger because my family love to travel which i found a passion for it. Then this past year i was at university (my digital school) and i left for some reasons, which one of them was by studying later and to travel now. I want to decidate this year by working and traveling, that why i joined this projet. I didnt have any expectations, i prefer to travel without knowning many information because its more interesting like that in my side 🙂 In this project learned how to digue, how to zappa, to do a basket, ceramic statues, rafting, cooking pizza how to live with people for many weeks, how to handle my life constantly surrounded by people (managing my time alone for example). I learned some stuff about psychology, news cultures and obviously, words in italian. I worked, went to the beach, playing and teaching chess to people, having fun, playing music (piano), visiting news cities (like napolis and parlermo), we selected the fruits and vegetables sharing interesting and deep conversation, petting animals 😎 and enjoying life :)) A very good experience which i had a lot of fun and i learned a lot of stuff. Very interesting, funny and openminded people. The staff is very kind and listening, the place is wonderfull, lost in the nature which there is the sea and the montains. I did find very good friends which i will meet again and Love. So a very very good experience which i recommand to young people. I recommand because it will make you get out from you confort zone which will help you to grew up and gain in maturity. You will do a life experience that you will never forget. You will learn a lot of thing, make new friends. You have to do it, you could miss something great.
Join the project!
ESC Teams
The special feature of the ESC Teams is its short duration, ranging from 2 weeks to a maximum of 2 months. This aspect makes it accessible also to young people who work or study and cannot dedicate a whole year to travel! Despite the brevity of the projects, Group ESCs offer meaningful and intense life experiences, during which numerous professional skills can be acquired. Moreover, by sharing life and work with a group of people, similar to a community, lɜ participants have the opportunity to create strong bonds even in a short period of time.