Walden (ITA-39)


Type: Human Rights: Children Rights - Country: Italy

Brief description and main aims

Walden Institute was founded in 1993 and since its creation the cooperative has managed various projects. Today it manages 2 housing communities for minors, one shelter for mothers and minors and the school assistance service for children affected by autism spectrum disorder. All services are located in Menfi and Sciacca (Agrigento, Sicilia).

The cooperative has always worked in the social sector focusing on knowledge, the
experience of daily life, in order to remove the obstacles and in that way strengthen and consolidate the various cognitive and formative processes.

Main Activities

Since 2013 the cooperative has decided to join the International Volunteering projects with the aim of providing minors and mothers of various structures a possibility to get closer to differentcultures and traditions. This is an opportunity to help them grow and, at the same time, transmit to the volunteers an experience that serves as personal and professional growth.

Volunteer tasks

The principal tasks volunteers will carry out are:

• After school activities (homework, lessons of foregin language, teaching workshops)
• Recreational workshop: cooking, theatre and music
• Linguistic workshop in mother tongue
• Organization of events: Christmas, carnival, Easter
• Management of daily life in the community or in the shelter: preparing food, cleaning of the rooms and the common areas, taking care of children
• Helping the user of the centre to get to: doctors, hospitals, gyms, swimming pool, trip to the sea 

Volunteer requirements / Skills

The volunteer should be:
  • Motivated to work with kids and women who come from different social background, survivors of abuse and mistreatment
  • Open to learn
  • Flexible to organized in order to manage working hours and activities
  • Respect the rules
  • Proactive and creative to organize an activity
  • Ready to live in a small traditional town and to share living spaces

Location

Sciacca is an Italian town of 40 538 in habitants in the province of Agrigento in Sicily. A maritime city, tourist and thermal, rich in monuments and churches, Sciacca (the most populous municipality in the province after the capital) is known for its historical carnival and its ceramics. 
 
The town of Sciacca is located on the coast of the Sicilian Channel between the mouth of the 
Platani and Belìce rivers, about 65 meters s.l.m. Is 2 hours from Palermo. 
In Sciacca, the climate is warm and temperate. In Sciacca, in summer it gets much less rain than in winter. The climate has been classified as CSA according to Köppen and Geiger. The average temperature in Sciacca is 18.1 ° C. The average annual rainfall is 474 mm.

Hosting Situation (Board and Lodging)

he accommodation will provide by Walden in a house in the center of the city 10 minutes walking 
from the Cooperative. 
The house is provide with 2 double rooms, 1 kitchen, 2 bathrooms and 1 leaving room. 
The volunteers will live with 1 volunteer from Portugal from the European Volunteer Service. 
The volunteer will receive 85€ to buy money for eat and the lunch will be provide buy the center .

More Information

The volunteer needs to bring allot of desire to give a happier experience to the childrens from 
Cooperative Walden.

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