EVS (European Voluntary Service)Since 2006 Fair Trade Hellas hosts volunteers from all over the world and sends Greek volunteers abroad on long-term EVS programs (2-12 months). EVS is a learning process which aims at personal and professional development of the volunteers. It promotes active citizenship, solidarity and mutual understanding among young people. Within 4 years, 14 young people from Greece have participated in voluntary projects in France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Turkey, Poland, Lithuania as well as in Peru and Venezuela, while Fair Trade Hellas has hosted 29 volunteers from Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Turkey, Austria, Sweden, Czech Republic, Belgium, Finland and Egypt. This program covers all expenses cornering accommodation, food and transport, while language courses are provided. The EVS program is not addressed to young people with particular knowledge, studies or experience, but mostly people that are motivated to offer and ready to adapt their everyday life to conditions which are not always easy but they can teach them a lot. In Greece, the program is coordinated by General Secretariat for Youth, with which Fair Trade Hellas collaborates as it is an accredited sending and hosting organisation.
SENDING There are several working domains: manual work, art and culture projects, intercultural activities for social inclusion and against racism, working with disabled or elderly people, youth centres projects in disadvantaged areas, leisure activities, unemployment, youth leisure, environmental projects, gardening etc. To start with, the future volunteer can meet Fair Trade Hellas, which will inform them on the aims and the actions of the voluntary program and answer their questions. The preparatory period can last from 3 up to 8 months, depending on the application deadlines (01/02 - 01/04 - 01/06 - 01/09 - 01/11). You can be informed on projects outside Europe or on short-term projects through our newsletter. If you are interested in participating, you can contact Fay at volunteers@fairtrade.gr. HOSTING Since 2006, Fair Trade Hellas hosts volunteers during at least 6 months for the support of its non-profit shop and the office tasks. Fair Trade Hellas is located in the heart of Athens. The address of the worldshop is 2, Veikou st., in an ideal position, 3' from Akropolis metro station and 2' from Dionysiou Areopagitou, one of the most busy and touristic pedestrian streets of Athens, and 15' on foot from Syntagma Square, the central square of the city. Athens is one of the most developed and visited capitals in Europe and growing awareness and interest of Greek society in the developing world and issues of poverty and inequality is observed. Consequently, an alternative popular movement within Greek society is growing that opposes the economic and political exploitation of the developing countries. The concept of volunteering and charities in Greek society is still very weak. Anyway, we can say that it is growing and becoming more and more popular, especially among the youth. Programmes such as EVS have been increasingly successful in Greece. Greek society is becoming more aware of the fact that poverty can be more effectively tackled through a sustainable development approach rather than through global philanthropy. The EVS volunteer in FTH will have the chance to work with a team of motivated young people. Although the organization is periodically facing difficulties due to the Greek social and economic situation, the volunteer will have the chance to be involved in activities that demands energy and enthusiasm but are inspiring, motivating and source of the energy and the enthusiasm demanded. Volunteers will be having the chance to learn about the idea of Fair Trade and ethical consuming and to take initiatives for projects and activities inside the organization. Fair Trade Hellas can offer to a young volunteer the opportunity to work in a creative and modern environment rich in different ideologies and rse intercultural background but based on the simple and specific rules that everyone inside the organizations are asked to respect. Moreover being in contact mainly (but not exclusively) with young people from Greece they will have the possibility to get to know deeply the Greek culture and to achieve a more multicultural way of living and thinking. Language lessons will be offered on a periodical base for all the duration of the project. In conclusion, the volunteers are going to have several learning opportunities through non-formal and informal educational activities. Far Trade Hellas offers a peculiar mix of learning experience: it is an organization that links informal education together with market rules and among these two extremes creates a wide range of opportunities for implementing activities.
Every volunteer has something to offer for an association like FTH that cover several range of activities. The volunteer will mainly work side by side with the responsible of the world shop and will help in the constant involvement of local volunteers. He/she will be involved with the organization of indoor and outdoor activities such as festivals and educational meetings. He/she will help in the periodical update of the website and will help with some administration tasks in the organization.
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WORLD IN A SHOPPING CART
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This project is funded by the European Union
FRAMEGeneral Objective
Target Groups
The program
Partners
Special objectives |
Volunteering 2011: Global Strategies for Global ChallengesThe Youth Volunteering Movement answering the challenges of Sustainability, Social Inclusion and MDGs At the occasion of the forthcoming International Year of Volunteers +10 and European Year of Volunteering in 2011, and answering the Youth in Action 3.2 Call for Proposal “Youth in the World”, the international network CCIVS has submitted the Volunteering 2011 project. Fair Trade Hellas is one of the partner organizations from all over the world, participating to this project aiming at developing interregional exchanges while addressing the network’s capacity to answer some of the most pressing challenges of our times through stronger thematic cooperation. The programme, taking place during one year stated in December 2010 will follow two main strategic lines:
a) Interregional Cooperation:On one side, the organisations involved, representative of the voluntary service movement in the different regions, will have the opportunity to develop stronger relations, compare practices and implement new interregional exchange projects involving a wider number of partners.
Project phases Phase I. – International Congress of Voluntary Service - December 2010, Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.
Phase II. – Interregional Thematic Working Groups Meetings – Spring 2011 - Different regions.
Phase III. – Interregional Youth Thematic Study Camps – Summer 2011 -Different regions of the world.
Phase IV. – Long-Term Global Strategies Seminar – Stuttgart, Germany. |
«CHIC AND ETHIC»September 2009 - July 2011 The programme aims at improving the living and working conditions in the fashion industry and reduce its devastating impact on the environment. The programme has been created by a team of 6 fashion designers (of clothes and accessories) that will have the opportunity to be trained on the principles of fair trade, to meet and work with designers from Romania, Italy, Lithuania, United Kingdom, Poland and Turkey and create clothing pieces through a fair and ethical procedure. In July 2010, 18 designers from the countries involved attended an international workshop on "recycled fashion" held in Athens by Fair Trade Hellas.
These “ethical” designers, who support the initiative, presented their creations with great success at a fashion show that was held in Bucharest in June 2011.
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Educational ProgramsSince 2006, Fair Trade Hellas implements educational programs in schools, museums, cultural sites, within its non-profit store, and in open air areas. The programs aimed at school or university students of all ages, but can be adapted to other groups if requested. The educational programs are based on innovative experiential methods of informal development education. Development education aims at raising awareness to all of us especially young people, about the principles of fair trade, ethical consumption, global poverty and human rights.
Namely, during the current academic year, Fair Trade Hellas will implement training sessions to secondary school classes under the European Program of World in a Shopping Cart. Interested teachers can contact us at volunteers@fairtrade.gr
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Sustainable development in cultural diversity: Europe-Asia Bridge for youth empowerment.December 2009-December 2010 Association EstYES as a coordinator. This project, coordinated by the Estonian organization EstYES, brought together 15 youth organizations from Europe and Asia with the following objectives:
- Empower young volunteers, It addresses directly two main priorities that are Mobilization vis a vis sustainable development and cultural diversity. and subsequently two more indirectly working with people with fewer opportunities and boost participation of youngsters. It foresees four main group activities:
- a starting seminar, done in Cambodia in February 2010 attended by two participants of Fair Trade Hellas. The results achieved with this project are: creation of multipliers, participation of less privileged youth, production of a handbook on sustainable development in cultural diversity, empower youth and foster international mobility, fostering of a broader cooperation between Europe and Asia in the field of sustainable development and youth and bridging the gap of experience and expertise that existed improving capacity of Asian organizations.
The dissemination of the results will take place in the nexth months. You will have the chance to doenload the produced Handbook on sustainable development from our site.
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«YOUNG ETHICAL CONSUMERS in the FIGHT AGAINST WORLD POVERTY!»In March 2010 we held an international seminar in Athens, co-financed /funded /sponsored by the European Youth Foundation of European Council. The seminar’s aim was the introduction of the moral duty notion, as an instrument to fight global poverty, and the training of participants in organizing awareness campaigns that inform their peers about the strength of selection they have as consumers.
Twenty-eight young people between 18 and 30 (from Albania, Austria, Britain, Bulgaria, Germany, Greece, Italy, Kosovo, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbia and Sweden) participated for 5 days in the seminar and created the electronic Guide “Paths to Alternative Consumption”. |
A.G.I.S.: Active Greeks for International ServiceDecember 2009 - December 2010Financed/ Funded/Sponsored by the European Youth Programme - AMICUS
Fair Trade Hellas is the organization in charge of the management of the European pilot project AMICUS , concerning the institution of «civil service» (social service). Fifteen young people from Greece will have the opportunity to invest 3 to 5 months a year in a program of social service abroad (France, Spain, Italy, Poland, Estonia), while Greece will perform research and will properly promote the event.
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