Enjoy a multicultural experience with our Buddhist charity in Ontinyent, Spain

Details

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  Description

  We are a small community and registered charity of Buddhist practitioners who recently decided to expand and professionalize our social impact by offering a broader range of social services in our town and region.
  
  We work with many different volunteers and helpers, not all of whom are Buddhists, as we are open for anyone from any background wanting to contribute to our mission and learn about our philosophy and way of life.
  
  As a Buddhist center, we are part of the Fundation for the Preservation of the Mahayana Tradition (FPMT), an international nonprofit founded by Lama Yeshe and Lama Zopa Rinpoche, who are our spiritual leaders, with His Holines the Dalai Lama as our patron.
  
  As a Buddhist community, we promote tools and methods for understanding the mind with the goal of increasing happiness and fulfilment. This methods include meditation, introspection, emotional regulation, deconstruction of biases and beliefs, etc. In other words, we provide an environment of calmness and harmony where people can work on their understanding of themselves and their self-development through the Buddhist methods for happiness.
  
  As a social enterprise, we aim to design and implement specific social projects to tackle loneliness, attention deficits, depression, stress, anxiety, lack of connection, and, generally speaking, unhappinnes, specifically tailored for young people. We also seek to create healthy and enriching third spaces that are consistent with values of sustainability, inclusion, interculturality, non-violence, and vegetarianism.

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Charity Work

  Teaching

  Help with Computers/ Internet
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  Interests

  

  Events & social

  

  Politics / Social justice

  

  LGBTQ

  

  Videography

  

  Vegetarian or vegan

  

  Sustainability

  

  Culture

  

  Movies & TV

  

  Charity work

  

  Plant care

  

  Books

  

  Art & design

  

  Blogging

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Photography

  

  Animals

  

  Yoga / Wellness

  

  Nature

  

  Outdoor activities
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  UN sustainability goals this host is trying to achieve

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  What's this?
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  Cultural exchange and learning opportunities

  This is a great opportunity for cultural exchange. You will get to experience both a very traditional Spanish/Valencian setting and community, while also getting to know a bit about Tibetan culture and Buddhist culture. Also, you'll be living together with other international volunteers and sharing the work both with locals and other travelers.

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  Help

  The center has existed for almost 40 years, but we are transitioning to a new space that is being renovated right now. This means two things:
  1) Our current activities are limited due to efforts being shifted towards the renovation.
  2) We need to design our new operations and expand our reach to take advantage of the new venue as soon as it is ready.
  
  Therefore, the main kind of help we need is office support in these three areas:
  - Communication: Social media, web design, video skills, graphic design.
  - Fundraising: crowdfunding projects, other ideas.
  - Operations: project managing, event organizing, writing applications for projects.
  
  Our volunteer manager will be working with you, as he is also in charge of these departments.
  
  If you have proven experience in leading meditation sessions or workshops, yoga, or other self-development techniques, that's a plus, but we are currently not offering a volunteering position based solely on that type of work. You would have to combine it with some of the tasks mentioned above.
  
  We are also looking for experienced, motivated individuals who could take the lead on any of the social projects explained above.

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  Languages spoken

  Catalan: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  English: Intermediate

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  Accommodation

  You will be staying at a local Project House, own and managed by a sibling organization that focuses on art and activism. They offered all their energy and resources to help us for the duration of our renovation and expansion.
  
  The house is located in Ontinyent's medieval old town. It is a 4-story house with two private rooms and two double rooms. Most probably, you'll have a room for your own, because we rarely host more than 4 volunteers at a time. The house is old, and has no heating or AC, but it has everything else you need, plus a large chill/office area and a nice terrace.
  
  Vegan food will be provided for the volunteer team. No meat or fish is allowed in the house. Volunteers will be in charge of cooking, cleaning, mantaining the house, and keeping a friendly and harmonious atmosphere in the house. These tasks are understood to be basic human behavior, and they are not included in the volunteering working schedule.

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  A little more information

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    Internet access

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    Limited internet access

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    We have pets

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    We are smokers

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    Can host families

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  My animals / pets

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