Join us at an animal sanctuary and permaculture project in Castiglione Di Sicilia, Italy

Details

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  Description

  🟢 🟢 OLIVE HARVEST 🟢 🟢
  🟢 🟢 OCT/NOV 2026 🟢 🟢
  More info at the end of the description.
  Start beginning of Oct, minimum 4 weeks, better 6-8!
  
  Dear WORKAWAYers,
  
  In summer 2020 we bought a beautiful property in Sicily with an amazing view on Etna and started our no-profit animal sanctuary with permaculture project.
  
  I’m Christin, 39 years old from Germany, and I quit my office job some years ago to go traveling. Since quite some time I had the feeling and desire though to use my time “better”, to create something beautiful and make this world a bit better. I love animals and I’d love to live off-grid and self-sustainable (one day).
  Luca is 34 years old, from Italy (Torino). He worked years as a photographer and musician and traveled the world even more than me.
  We're both vegan and want to give something back to Mother Earth, hence our project.
  
  At the moment 55 animals are living with us (14 cats - 2 of them paralyzed, 3 kittens, 9 dogs, 17 chickens, 2 roosters, 4 sheep, 3 goats, 2 tortoises, 1 pigeon). We did set up a food forest, a vegetable garden, an olive grove, structures for animals and humans, and we take care of a piece of woodland.
  
  
  Outside of helping hours we share the tasks of cooking (vegan food, usually fresh local produce and often from the garden) and household chores. We usually have lunch and dinner together, which we consider important moments to meet and exchange opinions. We have a shaded space for camping, with a compost toilet and electricity point. Kitchen, toilet, shower and other facilities are in our house, 20 meters away from the camping area. We can provide headlamps, rubber boots, tents, camping mattresses, sleeping bags. Occasionally also our campervan could be used as accomodation. We can provide our hotspots as wifi from time to time if you need it.
  
  Luca can share information about olive farming, natural agriculture, permaculture, agroforestry, food sovereignty, local wild plants foraging, food preparation, and how we try to preserve old varieties of fruit and vegetables; Christin can tell you more about the foundation of an animal sanctuary, animal welfare, animal rights, how to care for dogs, cats, sheep and chickens and much more.
  
  In the days off you can hike on Etna (1h away by car), go to the river (10min away by foot), to the beach (35min away by car), visit extinct volcanoes (1h by bicycle), have a walk and a granita in little middle age villages, or wonder around the area of our house, which includes forests and archeological features (and many of our rescued dogs, cats, sheep and chickens!). Sometimes you could maybe rent our car (no promise, we might need it for vet visits, groceries etc.).
  
  You are the right person to help our project if you:
  - love animals, have no animal allergies, are not scared of them, like to be in their company and to clean their areas
  - love nature, like to spend time outside rather than inside, are not put off by 'bad weather' such as wind, rain, heat, have no problems with getting your hands (and the rest of your body & clothes) dirty
  - are able to help physically, e.g. moving repetitively weights of 10-15kg for dozens of meters
  - are able to help in a team as well as on your own
  - are an active person and would choose a hike over watching a movie
  - are a proactive person, you see things around you and see how you could be helpful without being told / asked what to do all the time
  - understand that community-based life involves taking responsibilities over common areas (e.g. keeping the volunteers' bathroom clean, clean the common kitchen) and shared tasks (taking turns in preparing meals, washing dishes)
  - understand when community time is best and when it's better to also spend some time alone
  - understand that we are an animal sanctuary that has rescued farm animals, and therefore out of respect for them you don't bring food that has animal products (like milk, cheese, other dairy products, eggs, honey, meat,..)
  - speak English well (we speak English with each other and since Luca doesn't speak German, we ask our volunteers to speak English to us as well; Italian is an alternative of course since we are in Italy and Christin is learning the language too)
  - can commit to be here for at least 2-3 weeks.
  
  Please note that we can’t host children since one of our dogs is aggressive with kids, and we also can't host workawayers who travel with their pets, we have enough trouble with our animals…
  
  Now, if you made it this far reading our profile and would like to apply, write "Vento" in the subject or at the beginning of your message, so we know you’ve read our description. :) you can also tell us why you are choosing this project over another, and what contribution you think you would bring.
  
  Thank you so much for taking the time to read our profile and we’d love to hear from you! Any questions? Don't hesitate, just let us know!
  
  Much love,
  Luca & Christin ❤️
  
  
  🟢🟢-OLIVE HARVEST-🟢🟢
  We are creating our olive harvest magic team for 2026! We would prefer volunteers to arrive on, or before, the 10th of October, and leave around the 3rd/4th week of November, depending how the harvest goes. We have 4 volunteer positions open to join the harvest team, and 1 volunteer position as a cook for the team (the most important job!). Our olive harvest is pivotal to us as all the surplus oil we make is exchanged for donations to our project, donations that entirely go to sustain our no-profit activities with the rescued animals and environmental cause.
  
  🫒 The harvest team will help with Luca in the morning for 5 hours, and drive to different farms maximum 30min away from home, so you will be away for 6 hours approximately. We harvest with two telescopic-pole machines that shake the branches. They will be handled by 2 people, while the rest is moving the nets on the ground and harvesting by hand where we don’t reach with the machines. We work 5 days a week, so you get 2 days off per week, plus every afternoon. We are flexible about times and days, as long as we all agree, so we usually talk all together and decide, also according to the weather conditions. Within the team there should be at least 2 people that are phisically able to hold the harvesting machine for a long time (it's a 3kg, long pole and it can be tiring after a while) and to carry the olive boxes alone (the boxes are about 20kg each, they can be carried also by 2 people, but efficiency-wise it would be good to have 1 or 2 people who can help Luca with the task sometimes).
  
  🍅 The "chef" instead stays home with Christin and the animals, preparing lunch and dinner for the hungry harvesters! You will need to organize your 5 days/week schedule and the vegan menus on your own, sometimes you can also drive to the veggie shop for groceries. We provide all the kitchen tools you need. The arrival time of the harvesting team is not super punctual at times, but we do our best to keep you updated for when we come for lunch! You don’t need to prepare anything fancy, but you need to be able to organize the meals alone and handle food for 7-10 people. We mainly eat fresh veggies, some of them from our garden, and use local and seasonal ingredients. So you need to handle meals without processed foods and non-local ingredients, and instead mostly adapt to what is available in the local vegetable shop and create the magic from there, harvesting and using the herbs we grow around!
  
  What’s in it for you:
  
  🟢 You will learn about olive farming and olive oil production
  🟢 You get to see the press, and smell and taste freshly pressed olive oil
  🟢 You help in farms with nice views, always with other people, and get to know the local landscape and culture
  🟢 Luca is always happy to talk about olive oil, natural farming, permaculture, wild plant foraging, food sovereignty, how to preserve ancient varieties of fruit and vegetables, local history, …
  🟢 Christin can teach you about animal care, from pets to farm animals, and can tell you about antispeciecism, animal rights and the importance of animal sanctuaries
  🟢 You have a total of two days off per week and of course the afternoons off, with all the other volunteers, so you can organize activities together, if you wish
  🟢 We can suggest hikes to do, you can walk to the river (15min), to archeological sites nearby, get to wake up with an amazing view on the volcano Etna, and have a forest just 1 minute away to explore.
  
  What you need to know:
  ❗️Helping and life is mainly outside. It is usually sunny and around 20°, but sometimes it can get chilly at night (8-10°), windy and rainy. Also there are constantly our animals around (inside and outside), there are insects and everything else that comes with camping and helping outdoors. We can provide blankets, jackets, rubber boots, hot water bottles, head lamps, tools you need for helping and some camping stuff.
  ❗️Tasks are monotonous at times, even though olive harvest is one of the least repetitive harvests of all.
  ❗️We live in a remote area, surrounded by farms and woodlands, and we have many animals. Although we enjoy nice talks and interpersonal bonding during the meals for example, it's not a party-friendly project!
  ❗️We recommend to bring, apart from your camping gears (we can provide some things but availability of items is limited), a warm sweater for early morning and evening, a rainjacket, sturdy shoes, long trousers.
  ❗️Life is community based, with everything that goes with it, from cleaning from time to time and set the table if no one did it before, to generally care for the spaces we use. In the off days sometimes you could prepare meals alone or all together, as you prefer. Every day, washing dishes is a shared task that we perform as equally as we can.
  
  We’re looking forward to our seventh olive harvest and to meet this year’s team! If this calls you, we’re happy to read your message with some information about yourself, if you were involved in some agricultural activities before, and why and when you would like to join us.
  
  Big bonus if you come with your car and can drive some volunteers to the farms, we'll cover the expenses!

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  Types of help and learning opportunities

  Help with Eco Projects

  Light gardening

  Creative DIY projects

  Animal Care

  Farmstay help

  Creating/ Cooking family meals

  Help around the house

  Light maintenance
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  Interests

  

  Vegetarian or vegan

  

  Sustainability

  

  Self development

  

  Politics / Social justice

  

  Pets

  

  LGBTQ

  

  Culture

  

  Farming

  

  Charity work

  

  Plant care

  

  Photography

  

  Music

  

  Hitchhiking

  

  Languages

  

  Gardening

  

  Books

  

  DIY & crafts

  

  Cooking & food

  

  Carpentry

  

  Animals

  

  Outdoor activities

  

  Nature

  

  Mountain

  

  Hiking

  

  Camping
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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

  You have the possibility to be part of a very nice project and shape its future together with us. You can bring up any idea and we can discuss different possibilities and learn and grow together.

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  Help

  looking for people who want to help us build some animal shelters, fences, doing some tasks in the veggie garden, caring for the animals!
  
  
  Activities here include (depending on the season): helping with planting trees, planting or transplanting vegetables, help in the vegetable garden, weeding, watering trees, mulching, harvesting, preserve or transform produce, pruning olive trees, harvesting olives, making compost, making hay, distributing manure or worm-tea, making fire-breaks in the forest, chop and store firewood, carpentry and light construction help such as building or maintaining stables. Also cleaning the areas of the animals, spending time with them, taking them for walks, bringing supplies, feeding, etc.
  We also started a little seed-bank, having old varieties of vegetables, especially from Sicily, and we also preserve ancient and rare varieties of fruit trees from Sicily, so occasional activities could be harvesting, curing and storing seeds correctly, or grafting fruit trees.
  
  
  We welcome help caring for our animals and need help building areas for them. Also depending on the season our plants have to be watered or we need help planting or harvesting. Outside of hours dishes have to be washed, food has to be prepared etc.

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  Languages spoken

  German: Fluent
  English: Fluent
  Spanish: Fluent
  Italian: Fluent

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  Accommodation

  You can either camp on our property, so sleep in a tent or in a hammock (in summer). Or you could also stay in our campervan when it’s free. There is a compost toilet and electricity point at the campsite. 20 meters away, there is a house that is a common a shared space, with kitchen, hot water, shower, toilet, electricity, and everything that is necessary in a house. Temperatures outside range from 20Cmin-45Cmax in summer, 5Cmin-20Cmax in winter. The campsite and everywhere else on our property have an amazing view on Etna. We dont have wifi, but we have a good phone coverage and can give you hotspot from time to time when we are around.

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  What else ...

  Just contact us for any further info. Thank you :)

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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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  Space for parking camper vans

  We have space for a campervan on our property.

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  How many Workawayers can stay?

  More than two

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  My animals / pets

  We have two turtles right now

  We have two sheep right now

  We have 14 chickens and a rooster right now

  We have 14 cats right now

  We have 13 dogs right now

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