
EVS VACANCY
IN MURCIA (SPAIN)
VOLUNTEERING IN AN AGRO-ECOLOGICAL PROJECT
Innuendo GLOBAL was founded in January 28th, 2014, and arises from the former Innuendo Cultural Youth Association (2000-2013). Its aims are: to contribute to the creation of a more fair, sustainable, solidary society and to create opportunities for all the people, especially those who are more vulnerable. Our main areas of involvement are environment, decent work, social inclusion and equality, coexistence among different people, ethnic groups and cultures.
The association’s activities follow four basic pillars:
- Environment:
◦ Promote, motivate and spread, through any media, cultural or educational activities or initiatives that are considered to be ecologic.
◦ Support and / or promote comprehensive life projects that are ecological, sustainable, self-sufficient.
◦ Develop activities in order to promote the implementation of sustainable, ecological and rural eco-efficient productive systems
- Decent job:
◦ promote to the adults and young people our idea
◦ train and help them to be able to perform the different activities that can assure them economic support.
◦ Facilitate to the young people the access to employment in the region.
- Inclusion and social equality:
◦ Educate and make people be more aware of values such as solidarity.
◦ Encourage the integration of people with disabilities and with functional diversity, especially young people.
◦ Encourage the integration of migrants and cultural minorities.
◦ Prevent situations of inequality of women in the workplace and in society in general.
- Culture
◦ Perform all kind of cultural activities (forums, competitions, language courses, concerts, projections, lectures... ) for the benefit of citizens, especially for youth.
◦ Promote learning languages and understanding between nations.
Innuendo Global is composed by volunteers, with critical awareness, which belong to our neighbourhood and are aware of the social, cultural and political reality of our surroundings.
Our activities are aimed to young people and adults in our area, especially those who have some special needs due to their socio-economic status. Currently we are mainly developing cultural and environmental activities, such as maintenance and development of a vegetable garden and indigenous fruit trees through the project "La Revolica", forums , lectures, etc.
FRAMEWORK OF THE PROJECT
The volunteering project will be developed within the agro-ecological project "La Revolica" (initiative of socio-economic inclusion and food sovereignty). It will take place in a semi-rural setting in the municipalities of Santomera and Puente Tocinos, both districts belonging to the city of Murcia. Santomera is in the Southeast of the region of Murcia. The city of Santomera is located between Murcia and Orihuela, both about 10 Km away from Santomera. Murcia and Orihuela are the most important cities in the area. The municipality of Santomera has an area of 44,2 km² and it´s located 35 metres over the sea level. The services sector is a predominant economical sector in Santomera. Since 1997 Santomera is known as an area of the lemon trees in Europe due to the high quality of lemons as well as its high level of production.
The agro-ecological principles in which "The Revolica" project is based on are:
1. The support of biodiversity.
2. Recovery of the traditional cultivation systems.
3. Healthy food production to ensure quality and food sovereignty.
4. No use of products that come from chemical synthesis.
5. No use of transgenic seeds.
6. Crop rotation.
7. Reuse of waste.
8. Rational use of water.
The frame of action is located in the suburbs of Murcia. We have focused our actions in towns like Santomera, Puente Tocinos or El Palmar. These are semi-rural places where young people most need an accompaniment that permits them to develop their skills and let them find new ways of personal growth through culture, environment and decent job. These are means that enable them an access to their rights as part of their European citizenship, protected by the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. Therefore in recent years we have built a network with other associations and groups that are working for the rights of youth.
In these semi-rural municipalities the agriculture and canning industry is the economic engine of the area and because of that it is an attractive area for migrants of different nationalities and ethnic groups (Roma people, non-roma people, Maghrebi, North African, Central African, Latin American), trying to live together, usually with very limited and very few cultural and recreational options offered by the local authorities.
ACTIVITIES
1. The activities that our volunteer will develop are: Support for creating events like film club, exhibitions and educational talks. The volunteer will be like a connection with other organizations that are working in the same sector to strengthen the social structures. The volunteer will be carry out talks in high schools in our community to present his experience in the European Voluntary Service and will be supported by the people in charge of that in our Association.
2. The role of the volunteer will be supporting an Innuendo's youth, as well as being a support for work that is necessary to do in the cultivation yard (planting, weeding, pulling weeds, watering, harvesting...). We consider sharing culture and identity between Spanish people and foreigners (SVE) as an enrichment.
3. The volunteer will have the chance to learn about the essential aspect of our culture trough his/her relationship with the people that he or she will work with, the organization he or she will cooperate with and the user that will be participating in those activities.
The volunteers will acquire team work competences as well as new tools to manage the organizations and the youth associations trough the cooperation between the volunteers in the activities he/she may take part.
In addition, the volunteers will develop communication competence with other Young people, as well as the will learn basic aspect of ERASMUS + programme, carrying out seminars and workshops about EVS in the secondary schools of the Region of Murcia.
The volunteers will have the opportunity to get trained in both theory and practice on organic farming in order to be able to handle their own yard.
We will train our volunteers on how to take care of “Spanish chickens” in a henhouse (endangered), bred according to ecological parameters.
We will show different methods and techniques to reduce our ecological footprint, from a no-centric and permaculture approach. Finally, the volunteers will learn new language: Spanish.
PROFILE OF THE VOLUNTEER
Although primarily we will attend to the volunteers' motivation and maturity on our part we will evaluate as positive the bid from people who exhibit a higher environmental awareness and social engagement, nature lover , who are attracted to and like agroecology farming.
Many of the activities undertaken will be physical, outdoor, in contact with the soil. We will value positively the interest in agriculture, though it is not an essential aspect. In the selection process will value equally both genders and won't ask for a photograph as a criterion for the final selection.
The desirable profile of the volunteers (not excluding other profiles) will be based on the following selection criteria: We will mainly look for the motivation and maturity of the volunteer, from our side we will assess as positive, the candidacy of those that exhibit a higher environmental awareness and social engagement, nature lovers , who are attracted by the agro -ecology and like farming. As many of the activities undertaken will be physical, outdoors and in contact with the soil, we will also evaluate positively the interest in agriculture, though it is not an essential aspect for the selection.