exchange textbook
Project
Youth Volunteerism for European Legacy
of Culture and Nature
Hnutí Brontosaurus 2009
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The international exchange textbook came out from the international exchange, which took place
in the Czech Republic from 22. to 28. 9. 2009.
The main aim of the exchange was to innovate and inspire everyday work of the organizations
working with young volunteers in order to preserve nature and the cultural heritage.
- Volunteers work for the medieval village (open-air museum in Modrá U Velehradu)
- Meeting, connecting, exchange of information, experiences and best practices during the
spectacular action organised at the occasion of the 35th anniversary of the Brontosaurus
movement- “Dort pro Brontosaura 2009”. This was a traditional event, which takes place
every five years. About 400 members, ex-members and friends of the Brontosaurus met
here to celebrate.
23rd Introduction Day – official welcome and introduction of personal introduction of all
participants (small games), preparation of posters introducing each organization (creative
workshop), excursion of the eco-centre Švýcárna, visit of nearby museum of steelworks, collective
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preparation of intercultural dinner, festal opening of posters display, introduction of organizations
and best practices.
24th Outdoor Experience – guided excursion to Protected Landscape Area - Moravian Karst.
Excursion to city Brno with native guides. Transfer to Archaeological open-air museum Modrá u
Velehradu.
25th Museum Modrá – excursion at the open-air museum Modrá, opening ceremony of “Dort pro
Brontosaura” event, introduction defile of all participating segments of Movement Brontosaurus.
Concert of Czech folk group “Nestíháme” as a part of the “Dort pro Brontosaura” event.
26th Volunteer Day – volunteer work for municipality Modrá, BAZAAR I. – experience exchange,
workshops, discussions, forums, presentations, games, introduction of international projects.
Expert seminar about energy savings, alternative sources of energy - lecturer RNDr. Jan Hollan;
Brontotalent – competition of amateur talents; Birch Awards – acknowledgement for
Brontosaurus volunteers; Campfires – singing with guitars at the fire.
27th Cake Day – BAZAAR II. – experience exchange, workshops, discussions, forums,
presentations, games, introduction of international projects. ArchaeOlympiad – extraordinary
competition for teams. Workshops – art, old crafts, games, juggling, singing, dancing, theatre and
drama. Fair of NGOs and Brontosaurus locations. Cimbalom music. Brontobiograf – projection of
movies made by Brontosaurus volunteers. Round table – panel discussion with politicians with the
theme “Nature protection and volunteerism as a value for Youth”. Final ceremony – proclamation
of Ekofór (Ecological cartoon competition) winners. Brotosaurus awards. Cutting the cake.
Concerts of bend “Žamboši” and Burana Orchestr. Night game.
28th Evaluation Day (20 participants, 4 organizers, 1 guide) Evaluation of the project. Discussion
about future co-operation. Signing of partnership in new project organized by Hungarians.
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Prezenten organizations and there programs.
1. Hnutí Brontosaurus
In past few years, Hnutí Brontosaurus has also been expanding its activities abroad; we
provide assistance to monasteries and schools in Ladakh, India, and help to protect Czech cultural
heritage in Banat, Romania.
This balanced combination of rewarding voluntary work, education, new experiences and
good fun is what has been attracting high school and college students (as well as working parents
with children) to our diverse array of programs for over 35 years.
Akce příroda (Project Nature) is a program focused on weekend trips where volunteers
landscape precious orchid meadows, maintain educational nature paths, help organic farmers with
their farms, plant native species of trees in local forests, clean springs, help in shelters for hurt
animals, renew alleys, etc.
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Akce památky (Project Historical Sites) is a program offering help to conserve old castles,
renew and restore small, local sights in the country, and maintain chateaus and churches.
During the Summer break, the Prázdniny s Brontosaurem (Holiday with Brontosaurus)
project offers similar activities, spiced up with outdoor education.
Project Nature offers active lifestyle choices and the inspiration needed to make the world
a better place to live. For many people, the organization becomes part of their way of life; for
many of us, taking part in weekend events is more than just a matter of spending time in a
pleasant and useful way. During our events, we do our best to adhere to optimum environmental
practices: we save energy, prefer public transport services, and we don't waste material and/or
food, etc.
The trips and events are organized by young people themselves; the head organizers take
part in courses and seminars to learn how to organize the trips.
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Examples from long-term Brontosaurus work projects
Before WW2, the majority of inhabitants of this region were German. They lived diffused
throughout the countryside. Most of the time, the German residents worked on and improved
their surroundings. Having been dislocated after the end of WW2, they left behind many sites in
the countryside. The unfortunate fate of these sites in later years demonstrates that the new
inhabitants did not quite feel at home there. But that is not the whole story.
The situation of these local sights started to change about 30 years ago and has been
changing significantly since 2002, when members of Brontosaurus under the guidance of
specialists renewed three local sights: two springs and one cross. These sights were reminders of
the famous past of this region, especially of the spa tradition closely tied with the name of
Vincenz Priessnitz (1799 – 1851). Every year during the
summer holiday more sites got renewed, especially
springs, with local people getting more and more
involved. In 2005, when Brontosaurus were opening the
new Vincenz Priessnitz natural path, next to a thousand
people visited the event, and the Path has been very
popular ever since.
Alleys of Pečín
In Pečín, Brontosaurus volunteers are helping with planting an alley, they plant trees that
are typical for indigenous forests and game refuges of the Orlické hory.
Originally, there was no alley in this area. There used to be a forest, but it was gradually cut
down and became a pasture.
However, open countryside with pastures presents a great risk of quality soil erosion. Also, it
doesn't offer enough hiding and nesting places and food for birds and other animals.
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The planting of an alley in this area will help to solve these problems. It creates a natural
biocorridor for game and, in winter, it protects the road from getting snowed under.
The voluntary work itself does not only consist of planting the alley. We regularly return to the
area to help protect the saplings from wild animals, and we make sure that the saplings don't get
overgrown by grass or broken by wind.
We also look for other places in the area that would benefit
from planting trees, alleys and game refuges. Furthermore, we are
trying to negotiate better and wider protection of a forest in
Zdobnice pod Pečínem valley, which is a very distinct and important
natural site. Young people working here would like to, with help of
experts, negotiate a change in forest management, so that the local
country is preserved in its present state. We have also been planting
an orchard with indigenous fruit trees in this area.
Everything is going very well and we are glad that the range
of activities, which started with the planting of one alley, has been
continuing to grow.
It's been two years since Brontosaurus members started helping Centum ekologické
výchovy Dúbrava (Environmental Education Centre Dúbrava) to beautify their neglected gardens,
so that they can function as a live auditorium for children and a place to go and relax for both the
visitors to the Centre and the public.
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2. PRELES
Preles is a non-governmental non-profit
organization whose aim is to educate and
connect young people of different life
conditions and social backgrounds by making
them working together to help and protect
nature or by spending free time in creative way
far away from civilisation. It is also aiming to
improoving life in cities generally. To achieve
that, Preles run different projects presented in
this text as an example of youth volunteer work
which has succes and makes important
contribution to society in general.
Preles was founded in March 2008 by 5 young people after they succeded in their first project
called „Park that connects“. This project was launched in automn 2006. The goal of this project
was to connect lighly mentally disabled people with young students by common work on
revitalization of a historical park in village Ladce. The project lasted four month and was supported
from a Youth grant program of EU.
Since Preles is founded, its annual activity is organizing an outdoor camp called Preles. It was
helded for the first time in 2007. This camp is targeted to
young people who come from foster families as well as to
young people living with their biological parents. It aims to
create space where they can get to know each others life
stories and life conditions which leads to their better
integration but also to showing them how to spend free
time in alternative ways, to learning them about nature
around them andits protection. Participants of the camp
were sleeping in tents, making trips to nature and doing lot
of creative activities. Thanks to small number of
participants these camps have chamber, almost familly
atmosphere which contributes to succession of this project.
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These exchanges are organised for young people who want to improve their organisation and
communication skills in creative and nonviolent way. Each exxhange is focused on different topic.
So far there has been organized two exchanges by Preles – one has been connected to
volunteering and the way of sharing abilities between different communities, the second one has
focused on theater and art as a mean of communication. The exchange usually consits of activities
prepared by organisators as well as of empty space serving participants to prepairing up
workshops on their own. That’s how they can improove their skills. In addition there are 3
„outdoor days“ which give possibility to participants to get to know each other by disscussing
freely and simply being together in nature. The age of participants is usually between 15 to 30.
They come from different EU countries or their partner countries(i.e. Slovakia, Hungary, Czech
Republic, Greece, Turkey, Latvia, Bulgary and Romania). Altogether each exchange hosts about
60 young people and it is supported by grant programme Youth in action of EU.
Last example of Preles volunteer projects is a long-term project which is aiming to build a
high rope center in Žilina, the capital city of Žilinský region. Preles wants to create a playground
where young people could spend their free time, learn to overcome their fear and exceed their
limits.
Preles got the knowhow for this project thanks to four organisators who had already
experience with similar projects. Building of the high rope centre was enabled thanks to
cooperation with the City hall and financial support of TESCO grant programme. It was finnished
and opened for public in September 2009.
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3. European Youth Forum
(Europejskim Forum Młodzieży)
Our first aim is to establish the European education, the transfer of accurate and timed
information about the process of integration in order to prepare local society for EU membership.
Secondly, we are encouraging young people to develop interests outside their society and
social inclusion.
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What are people in this association doing?
EFM works with many government bodies, local government, diplomatic, school clubs, and
European non-governmental organizations in the country and abroad.
Among others are these the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland,
Ministry of Labor and Social Policy, Ministry of National Education , Embassy of Poland in the
European Union, Office of the Committee for European Integration, Rural Support Foundation,
The program of the European Union "Youth", County Kłodzki, Town Bystrzyca Kłodzko, and the
European School Clubs
International cooperation
We maintain and develop cooperation with several non-governmental youth organizations, both
including countries of the European Union, and with an area not belonging to the communities.
Projects
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4. Crystal foundation
Crystal Foundation a non-governmental non-
profit organization which focuses on representing and
protection of the interests of youth with material
disadvantages. These aims are fulfilled by organizing
free time activities and events, which help to develop
their personal qualities, education and skills. It also
provides free internet usage for disabled youth in the
region.
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about his country and prepared special national food. They visited two institutes. One of them was a
children care house in Mragowo, the other one was Children home „Keja” in Biskupiec.
Evaluation
The project created space for exchanging information between the organizations, which focus on
working with volunteers, and/or children from all countries of the Visegrad area (The Czech Repuplic,
Hungary, Poland, Slovakia,).
It enabled to identify situation in each country, and ensure exchange of information about activities
implemented by the participating groups. We could share examples of best practices and that especially
with reference to protecting natural and cultural heritage.
Due to the project activities, the motivation and competence of the participants rose, which lead to
the successful goal of the project.
The project enabled the creation and development of the cooperation between volunteer
organizations of the Visegrad countries as well as the environmental education during free-time activities.
We also signed partnership with Hungarians for new project 'Youth in Action' Programme, Action
4.4., the last day of our project.
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Description of the project of the future cooperation:
Kristály Foundation chose Media literacy of young people as the theme of the planned
programmes. The title of the project is W.E.A.R. – Watch, Evaluate, Ask and Read. The main objective of
the foundation is to educate youngsters about media and the massive information flow that characterizes
the every day life, where influencing is a key issue even in simple situations like shopping in a supermarket.
Youngsters have to learn to differentiate and select their sources of information carefully in order to be able
to fully trust them.
The programme will consist of several activities most of them will aim at challenging the
participants believes, ideas and opinions in order to make them consider and think about their choices, to
be able to explain the ideology behind it. The venue will be Nyírbogdány, Hungary the headquarters of
Kristály Foundation. The premises allow the participants to fully commit themselves to the programme and
various tasks during the implementation. The project will necessitate the use of computers, internet and
other media tools which are available. Accommodation and full catering will be supplied in the town of
Nyírbogdány as well.
The number of participants will be 30. Four countries will be represented besides the host country,
Hungary. From each country 5 students between the ages of 16-20 will be involved in the program
accompanied by 1 adult teacher to assist the coordination and implementation of Kristály.
The creative and innovative element of the project will be producing a documentary with cutting,
editing and finalizing it about a given topic. This will also be the major output of the project which will be
disseminated among the civil society organizations and schools related to them in order to multiply the
results.
The envisaged impact of the project is for the youngsters to be able to form and express their
opinion regarding key issues in world politics, to be able to define and rank information sources
evaluating their messages.
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Contact data
Czech republic
Poland
Hnutí Brontosaurus Europejskie Forum Młodzieży
Hvězdová 10 Plac Wolności 5/5
602 00, Brno 57-500 Bystrzyca Kłodzka, Poland
Tel. +420 544 215 585 NIP: 881-12-03-505 Tel. +48(74)8110223
e-mail: hnuti@brontosaurus.cz Tel./fax. +48(74)8111399
www.brontosaurus.cz e-mail: efm@efm.org.pl
www.efm.org.pl
Slovak republic
Preles Hungary
OZ PRELES Crystal foundation
Gaštanová 48 1. Sényői street Nyírbogdány 4511
010 07, Žilina Tel. Youth Centre: +36-42/232-074
Tel. +421 910 399 294 - Vlado Randa E-mail: kristalyalapitvany@vipmail.hu
e-mail: preles.oz@gmail.com Web: http://kristalyalap.uw.hu
www.preles.sk
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Many thanks to the Visegrad fund,
which enabled all of this. It was a
valuable experience for all of the
participating organizations and
countries. We were able to share and
improve in our volunteer work and
we will continue in the cooperation.
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