📝 Detailed information
🏢 About the local organisation
Renovated by volunteers from all around the world during international work camps, La Maison des Bateleurs has been an international hosting center for 20 years, which witnesses rich cultural meetings and exchanges. Located in the town of Montendre, a small charming village amongst the pine trees, la Maison des Bateleurs is an ideal place to welcome you. It comes to life with the daily presence of volunteers and wants to be a place which promotes openness and a social and cultural mix. Sustainable development is a current theme that is meant to be transversal. On a daily basis with volunteers, we strive to set up eco-citizen attitudes and carry out activities that contribute to this (produce own food, prepare meals, sort waste, recycle, adopt methods to save energy, etc.). This is why MBSJ has been an environmental center for several years: a phytosanitary basin, dry toilets, a compost, an organic garden, the use of surrounding natural resources, are just a few example.
💼 What the programme involves
During this project, you will participate actively in the life of the house and different activities: collective life (cooking, cleaning, organizing, etc.) intercultural exchanges (mingling with the local population and the volunteers of the association), etc.
The aim of this project is, thanks to exchanges and intergenerational knowledge transfer, to awaken you and raise awareness about sustainable development and to make you participate actively in all the activities of the environmental center, especially in the vegetable garden. In the summer it is a question of watching what has been sown and harvest the fruits of the spring (tomatoes for example); in autumn, te maintenance of the garden is also the harvest period (last crops of August and September and those of autumn such as cabbages, squash, etc). In winter, it is also time for sowing as well as cleaning (tearing off the seedlings of vegetables that no longer produce, picking up dead leaves, etc.). The work will consist mainly of the maintenance of the vegetable garden of MBSJ (sowing, transplanting, binage, watering, harvests) “in square” so that you can own a small space of soil. You will then make preserves to maximize the harvest, to promote its consumption and to avoid wastage and losses. In addition, you will participate in the maintenance of compost bins (according to various processes: vermicompost, windrow, and implementation of compost according to agroecological principles), phytosanitary basin, hen house (harvest of eggs from the garden during the preparation of meals) and bamboo.
🏠 Accommodation on site
collective, mixed, and/or individual rooms at La Maison de Bateleurs. The meals will be prepared in turns by teams (Families and international volunteers present).
📍 About the location
Location: Montendre, Charente-Maritime, 75 km from the sea, between Bordeaux and Angouleme.
Leisure activities: The goal is to exchange rich cultures with the locals and the association of Montendre. You will participate in the national heritage days (opening all the heritage buildings in France). Tours of the region will be organized collectively according to your desires: visits to the cities, the ocean, museums, etc. Activities with the welcome center will be offered regularly: pizza nights, evening games, etc. It will also be an opportunity to discover the inner workings of Solidarités Jeunesses.
ℹ️ Additional information
Participation fee: 50€ for children under 10, 100€ for participants of ages 11 and up