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Last replied
19 Apr 2024
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Description
WANTED: GARDEN EXPERT WITH HANDS-ON MENTALITY
Our dream is building a permaculture garden in the small plot behind our office. We don't have any experience with gardening, permaculture or growing vegetables, but we would love to learn from someone who can take the lead, make a garden plan based on our wishes and to get started. We prefer someone to stay with us for at least two months in spring/summer to set this up together and who can teach us how to continue after you leave :)
EXTRA CREDITS IF YOU LIKE TO ENTERTAIN KIDS AND ARE ABLE TO DRIVE A CAR: Sometimes we work late or we have meetings in another city, which means we can’t pick up our daughter from school at 3pm. We are looking for a female nanny who would be willing to stay with us for at least 1 month and who can practice English with her after school.
Update: we prefer to host families with kid(s), because our daughter would love to have more kids around, especially in summer! But if you are a solo traveller/childless couple/duo with a playful mind, you are welcome to apply as well :)
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We are Veerle and Pablo, and our 8-year old daughter Mila. We live in a house with 4 bedrooms, a big livingroom/kitchen, a bathroom and a veranda. And a garden :)
We use one of the bedrooms as a a small guest room for (international) volunteers who like to spend time at our place. If you don't mind staying in a room with a pink wall and quite some kids toys, you are welcome to stay with us as a volunteer. We also have an extra room with a double high bed, which comes in handy when we have more than one guest staying over. And we have a very nice couch on which guests have slept before.
We are quite new to Workaway, and we welcome people for short stay as well as long stays, however we work with a trial period of one week. If we get along very well, we are flexible and can extend your stay.
Types of help and learning opportunities
Charity Work
Art Projects
Help with Eco Projects
Teaching
Gardening
Babysitting and creative play
Creating/ Cooking family meals
Help around the house
General Maintenance
Help with Computers/ Internet
Cultural exchange and learning opportunities
During your exchange you will live in the middle of the Netherlands. Almere might not be as well known as Amsterdam, but it is actually one of the biggest city of the Netherlands. Many people from Amsterdam come to live here because it is very close to Amsterdam (30 minutes by train), but much greener. Our office is next to the train station and at a 5 minutes walk from a big nature reserve called Oostvaardersplassen (sometimes called 'Amsterdam Safari'). You can see hundreds of wild horses, deers, buffalo's and thousands of different kinds of birds.
Apart from the natural beauty, you will certainly enjoy to have a look behind the scenes of a vegan non-profit organization, you will take nice vegan food (or prepare it yourself), maybe join us in events and contribute to make a change for a better world for humans and animals.
Projects involving children
This project could involve children. For more information see our guidelines and tips here.
Help
Edible garden:
The house has a garden which is currently nothing but some pavement, a few plants and many weeds. As work-a-way volunteer you can help with weeding and the creation/maintenance of an organic edible garden. We are looking for a volunteer who has skills in gardening/permaculture, who can advice and implement these in the garden. There is no plan for the garden yet, so it will be up to you to design a plan, present it, get feedback and implement it. We will give priority this summer to people who can help with this project.
Languages spoken
English: Fluent
Spanish: Fluent
Dutch: Fluent
German: Intermediate
French: Intermediate
Accommodation
The place is a combination of an office (downstairs) and a family house (upstairs). Our two staff members (Veerle and Pablo) and their daughter Mila (2013) live there. At the top floor we have a spare room for one volunteer. It is pretty basic, but nice. We have a shared bathroom and 2 toilets (one upstairs and one downstairs).
Daughter Mila (2013) loves to talk to volunteers and learn new languages. Once she likes you, she will show it to you by asking your attention basically all the time. And she will teach you Dutch :)
What else ...
We live next to a train station (Almere Oostvaarders). We have direct connection by train to Amsterdam and Utrecht. The House is smoke-free and free of animal products. We trust you will respect that.
In Almere we have plenty of sights worth visiting, several nature reserves, a beach, a wild life rescue center, sport facilities and swimming pools. Of course you are welcome to borrow our bikes (in case we are not using them ourselves). Did you know we are actually located under sea level? True story!
IMPORTANT: We receive many applications from Work away-ers. Several a day actually! This makes it difficult to react instantly. Please note your application will receive a standard answer in case you send us an impersonal mail just asking us to stay. If we host you, we would at least like to know more about you, your motivation to work for the the Foundation and a concrete proposal of tasks you could help us with and why you would be the best fit for this organization.
Applications will be read by are project manager Veerle. Also take into account that the house where you will stay will be completely vegan. It is not allowed to bring in non-vegan items. This is why we prefer to host vegans and vegetarians, even though our house is open to non-vegans who would like to experiment with a vegan lifestyle.
A little more information
Internet access
Limited internet access
We have pets
We are smokers
Can host families
Can host digital nomads
This host has indicated that they love having digital nomads stay.
Space for parking camper vans
This host can provide space for campervans.
Can possibly accept pets
This host has said they are willing to accept those travelling with a pet.
How many Workawayers can stay?
More than two
Hours expected
5 hours/day (max 25 hours/week)
