Build a Rural Innovation HUB with us!
Team volunteering opportunity
Dates: 2-22 May 2024
(including travel days)
Location: Kerkakutas, Hungary
Organiser: Szatyor Association in cooperation with the
Common Horse Community
WHO CAN APPLY:
- Young people (18-30)
- Legal residents of Europe
- with a curiosity and enthusiasm to learn about eco-construction, willing to get your hands dirty and open to a communal experience
This project will involve 15 volunteers.
To minimize the project’s carbon footprint, we invite participants to choose green travel options such as buses, trains, or shared cars, making the journey to Kerkakutas as eco-friendly as possible.
OUR STORY
Our aim is to bring closer the rural and urban lifestyles and create something that supports the shift needed for a truly sustainable society that includes more peaceful coexistence with nature, community cooperation and personal fulfilment.
If you like our initiative, come and support us in the development of our Rural Innovation HUB project in a small, rural village, Kerkakutas, Zala county, located in the the western part of Hungary, in the Kerka valley. Kerkakutas is close to the Slovenian, Croatian and Austrian borders, just a few kilometres from the Őrségi National Park, Hungary’s youngest national park.
We are a group of 9 enthusiastic young people, who participated an innovation programme to become community facilitators, and as a result of the 1.5 years spent together in the project, we decided to build our own community, called the “Common Horse”. Our community seeks to create opportunities for its members and associated individuals to learn about themselves and their goals in a true community.
Our aim is to develop a Rural Innovation HUB in Kerkakutas, where one of our members Mátyás currently lives with his family. We imagine this HUB as a meeting point for our own community, but we also see it functioning as a community office, a venue for trainings and camps, and where we could create a nice, liveable common habitat.
THE VENUE
Kerkakutas is a little village with 80 inhabitants, where our community property is located. We have been working on regenerating the natural environment around it, to create a nice, liveable community human habitat. The property is 4200 square metres with an old piggery, two barns, stables, workshop, wood store, vegetable garden. To check the drone video about it, click here
Our community goal is to create a HUB, where we can party, work, do the gardening and relax together, while we are planning innovative project ideas and implement them.
Please be aware, that the camp is located in a quite simple village without any shops or pubs. We have "nomadic" circumstances, so there is mud when it rains, and the weather is pretty unpredictable in May so it can be hot or cold as well, with showers of rain.
Please also note, that
- we will work with mud, wood, bricks, soil and stone, which can be physically demanding;
- you have to have sturdy boots that are suitable for this work;
- we will use outdoor showers, compost toilets.
- the closest shop is 5 km away, what you can reach with our community bikes, but we will arrange shopping regularly.
WHAT WILL YOU DO?
With this camp, you will have the opportunity to gain insight and experience the processes of physical design, community building and contributing to the realization of our dreams.
Permacultural approach: We organize the community and the area according to the principles and ethics of permaculture. In the camp, you can learn the basics of permaculture as part of the practice.
During the camp we will focus on biomass management, soil and garden cultivation, habitat creation, and recycling of remaining building materials.
Community building approach: During the camp we will emphasize the practices of community building methods, like the way of council, sharing circles, facilitation, conflict resolution and non-violent communication.
Developing the ‘Rural Innovation HUB’:
In the camp, we will work on establishing the foundations of community coexistence. One of our member’s family currently lives in the almost half-hectare area, with several buildings, which are suitable for community accommodation, community offices and joint workshops. Our goal is to make the area suitable for accommodating larger groups who want to get away from the noise of the world and want to experience the basics of community coexistence.
During the camp you can participate in the following activities:
- cultivating, watering and harvesting the community garden
- creating new beds, building a spice spiral
- collecting, organizing and recycling used construction and wood materials found in the area
- construction of a garden pond
- community planning and designing of outbuildings
- establishment of a community office
- land management (pruning, digging, waste collection, biomass treatment)
You can get acquainted with working with wood, stone, clay, which can be useful almost anywhere in the world.
Cooking: Taking part in the kitchen tasks, cooking, and preparing the lunch.
PRACTICALITIES
Accommodation
- Bring your own tent, if you don’t have any, we have some other alternative sleeping options: like a caravan, a big tent and a hay-barn
- Bring a warm(!) sleeping bag and mattress (May can be quite chilly in the morning)
- Please note we will use outdoor showers and compost toilets.
Food
On working days, we will prepare 3 meals a day together, mostly vegetarian but occasionally we will provide local sourced meat. On the other days you will need to take care of your meals, but you can use the common kitchen, which is equipped with gas stove, fridge and oven.
Location
Kerkakutas is located in western Hungary,
- 280 kms from Budapest
- 222 kms from Ljubljana
- 158 kms from Graz
- 167 kms from Zagrab
The closest town is Lenti.
Travel
Will be arranged individually and reimbursed by Szatyor Association. Travel from Budapest airport, train station to the local train station is individual. We can help organize this, but we can only collect you at the local train station.
Travel costs
Travel costs will be covered by the European Solidarity Corps program up to 275 Euros, if you come with train or bus then it can up to 320 Euros.
Insurance
Volunteers are insured through the ESC’s Henner insurance scheme. Please make sure to have your valid, blue EU Health Insurance card with you. Hungarian volunteers should have their own TB insurance.
YouthPass
You are entitled to receive a YouthPass certificate.
Pocket money
You will be granted 5 Euros/day pocket money.
Passport and visa in Hungary
Hungary is part of the Schengen area, easy to enter for EU citizens with a passport or an ID. We can host only European residents in this event.
Currency and banking:
The currency is Forint (HUF). 1 Euro is about 380 Forint. (1l milk = 300 Forint, 1beer = 350 Forint, 1kg bread = 700 Forint) There are possibilities to exchange money in bigger cities, but you can pay with credit/debit cards in most shops. You have to have a European Bank account or a Wise/Revolut account where we can transfer you the reimbursement and the pocket money.
Electricity
Hungarian electric system operates on 230 Volts, 50 Hz, with round prong European style pugs.
Weather
Spring can be pretty unpredictable in Hungary with a lot of sunshine and showers of rain. The temperature is usually between 17-24 degrees, but evenings can be a bit chilly 6-10 degrees.
WHAT TO BRING:
-
- comfortable clothes/shoes that you do not mind if they get dirty (in the garden, while working with mud or doing some other work. Best to bring sturdy boots that are safe to work on a construction.
- hat, sun cream, your own water bottle, working gloves, rain jacket
- mosquito and tick repellents
- tent, sleeping bad, sleeping mat
- towels
- headlamps
- your own mug, knife, water bottle
- EU Blue social security card, masks
- special medication, documents, if you might need them
DO NOT BRING:
- jewellery, electronics
- pets, animals
