News
15.02.2010 : Spennandi sjálfboðaverkefni í yfir 100 löndum. Heill heimur af tækifærum!!
Íslenskum ungmennum stendur nú til boða að taka þátt í sjálfboðavinnu í yfir 100 löndum víðsvegar um heiminn árið 2010. Þetta eru verkefni sem tengjast t.d. umhverfismálum, uppbyggingu svæða, fornleifarannsóknum, undirbúningi menningarviðburða eða tungumálanámi og vara í tvær til fjórar vikur. Í vinnubúðunum starfa átta til tuttugu manns frá mismunandi löndum en auk þeirra eru einn til tveir hópstjórar sem skipuleggja verkefnin og halda utan um þau. Gert er ráð fyrir því að þátttakendur hafi einhverja enskukunnáttu.
Verkefnin eru margs konar og sem dæmi má nefna gerð göngustíga í þjóðgarði á Ítalíu, byggingu skóla fyrir börn á hálendi Kenýa, skipulagningu listahátíðar í Englandi eða aðstoð við viðhald á regnskógum í Brasilíu. Þetta eru aðeins örfá dæmi um hvað er í boði en hjá SEEDS má finna upplýsingar um frekari verkefni, ráðstefnur og ungmennaskipti sem fara fram sumarið 2010. Frekari upplýsingar má finna á vefsíðu SEEDS
http://www.seedsiceland.org/contact-seeds-iceland-is.html
Áhugasamir hafið samband við skrifstofu SEEDS í síma 8456178.
Icelanders have now the possibility to take part in voluntary service projects in more than 100 countries all around the world during this 2010! There are different types of projects related to environmental protection, renovation or construction works, archaeological research, organisation of cultural events or festivals, as language learning. The projects usually last for 2 up to 4 weeks and groups of 8 up to 20 International volunteers from several nations take part, with the coordination of one or two project leaders. Basic knowledge of English is usually needed.
There are different types of projects and works as maintaining and marking hiking trails in an Italian National park, building class rooms for children in Kenya, helping in the organisation of a music festival in England or giving a hand saving the rainforest in Brazil. They are few examples of hundreds of projects all over the globe offered by SEEDS in Iceland. For more information on the projects, other Seminars or Youth Exchanges during this summer, please visit us at
http://www.seedsiceland.org/contact-seeds-iceland-en.html
Additional questions, interest in particular countries or projects, please call us at 8456178.
02.02.2010 : SEEDS at Útþrá - February 9, Hitt Húsið (Reykjavík)
SEEDS will participate at the 2010 edition of Útþrá! The event organised at Hitt Húsið is a showcase for Icelandic youth to learn about the possibilities to make experiences abroad!
Different organisations have the opportunity to show their programmes and to present to Icelandic yooungsters different exciting opportunities in the fields of education, internships, jobs, voluntary service, etc.
SEEDS has attended Útþrá since 2006 and we are looking forward again to being there!
Hitt húsið is an information- and culture centre for young people, aged 16-25 years old. It is run by the Youth and Sports Council of Reykjavík City. Hitt húsið is located in the city centre, at Pósthússtræti 3-5.
The main goal of Hitt húsið is to:
- Offer young people facilities and assistance with turning their ideas into reality
- Counsel and give information to young people, in cooperation with professionals and associations that specialize in that field
- Reflect what's going on in the creative art life of young people at any given moment.
For more information on Hitt húsið please go to http://hitthusid.is/
Spennandi tækifæri erlendis fyrir 16-25 ára!
Á Útþrá 2010 býðst fólki á aldrinum 16-25 ára að kynna sér þau fjölbreyttu tækifæri sem í boði eru varðandi nám, leik og starf erlendis.
Kynningin fer fram þriðjudaginn 9. febrúar á milli 16-18 í Upplýsingamiðstöð Hins Hússins, Pósthússtræti 3-5.
15.01.2010 : SEEDS is selecting the upcoming EVS volunteers!
SEEDS is making the selection for our long-term volunteer projects through the European Voluntary Service (EVS) this year!
If you are interested, please contact us, we will give you details about the projects and inform you about the procedure to apply and the deadline to do so!
For more information on the European Voluntary Service, please visit:
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth-in-action-programme/doc82_en.htm
or
For more information on our donor, the Youth in Action Programme and the Icelandic National Agency for the programme please go to:
http://ec.europa.eu/youth/youth-in-action-programme/
For more information about our EVS projects please visit:
http://www.seedsiceland.org/volunteer-evs-iceland-en-p0.html
or send us a message to evs (at) seedsiceland (dot) org
04.01.2010 : Happy new year! Happy 2010 from SEEDS Iceland!
Dear friends,
May you have blessings, happiness, success, peace and love for all the new year ahead!!
SEEDS - Iceland
21.12.2009 : SEEDS Iceland wishes you Merry Christmas!
Time for friends and family...
Time to thank and hope...
Time to share and love!
SEEDS Iceland stormily wishes you a Merry Christmas and warm holidays!
07.12.2009 : Workshops at schools - Wallet from milk boxes in Ártúnsskóla, Reykjavik
Volunteers from the SEEDS team, Ed and Lukas, went to the Artunskoli, twice in December, to give a class on reducing, reusing and recycling the waste we produce every day.
The lesson was a great success and both, the children and the SEEDS team had a great time learning something about creative ways to recycle.
This was the start of such lessons given in a class by SEEDS, but we hope to continue the project in other classes and other schools. The aim was to raise awareness about environmental issues, and to show what we are able to do to protect the environment, through the small choices and decisions we make every day.
18.10.2009 : SEEDS 45. Reykjavík & Reynisvatn (2)
Last week we finished our workcamp which brought us a lot of memorable moments and interesting experiences.
The location of the workcamp was the capital of Iceland, Reykjavík, which is the northernmost capital in the world. The project site was in an eastern suburb of Reykjavík, called Grafarholt, centred around the lake Reynisvatn. Grafarholt is a very new, rapidly improving residential area of Reykjavík. The area of Reynisvatn is a beautiful nature reserve area with hills, with a recently planted forest and with a lake which lies right next to Grafarholt. The lake and surroundings provide excellent place for recreation and leisure with its nice hiking paths and spectacular nature. The lake itself is also a very popular spot to fish for trout.
Our accommodation was in Vatnsstígur in downtown Reykjavík. The temporary participants, who were EVS volunteers from SEEDS, were staying in their own apartment in Fellsmúli.
The topic of the workcamp was construction of a recreational spot for schoolchildren, hikers and for families. These spots have been built to motivate people from the surroundings to spend their free time outdoors in an active way. The work was led and supervised by our local host who also lives in this area. During the construction we used only natural materials like stones, gravel and turf which was cut and transported to site beforehand.
The job started every morning around nine. Usually our host came to pick us up and brought us to the site which is just about 10 kilometres far from the centre. On a daily basis two of the temporary volunteers joined us and they were also picked up on the way to the work site.
The lunch during the weekdays was given by one of the local schools in Grafaholt. The breakfasts and dinners were always prepared by the volunteers.
It was always a very important aim for our host and also for us to get in more touch with the locals and to try to involve and encourage children from the area to take an active role in the construction of the site which helps to improve the feeling of ownership from their sides. On Friday mornings we had the chance to talk and introduce our job and volunteering to some classes. It was always fun to speak about our adventures and the nice time we have as volunteers. Motivating a younger generation to volunteer in Iceland is very important as there is such a low number of Icelandic volunteers.
The free time activities during the camp were really various due to the very advantageous location of our accommodation. Downtown Reykjavík provides plenty of nice events both weekday and weekends all over the year.
As a closing of the camp our host took our volunteers for an amazing excursion to the Golden Circle and an international evening was organised which became a kind of traditional event for all of our camps during the last years within Seeds.
Thank you for your cooperation!
03.10.2009 : SEEDS 44. Nordisk Panorama & Reykjavík
The Nordisk Panorama Five Cities Film Festival is an important event in the film industry in the Nordic countries. It brings Nordic shorts and documentaries together in competition, shows films by new directors and provides a great opportunity to start a career in this field.
The festival takes place each year on rotation in one of five nordic cities: Bergen, Århus, Oulu, Malmö and Reykjavík. This year Reykjavík was the host for the 20th anniversary of the festival.
Our group was staying in a hostel in the centre of the city, just a few minutes from the cinema Regnboginn, the main venue where the festival took place.
Our group had really important tasks during the festival. This was great for motivation and experience in the organization of events. Before the opening, we prepared the cinema to receive the guests, this meant cleaning up, preparing bags with information, organising and decorating the place. We also had training about the procedure for the screenings during the festival. In each of the 4 screening rooms one of us was responsible for controlling the entrances and also communicating any problems with the sound or image to the projection team.
Other tasks were helping in the festival bar, giving information on the info desk at the entrance of the cinema, giving tickets to guests with passes, transporting films from place to place, and picking guests from the airport.
The gala dinner, when the festival's awards were delivered, was the highest point of this event. We were also guests and could meet several directors and film production people and enjoy the night with our hosts and guests.
During our free time we could enjoy the swimming pools and also had the opportunity to go to the Blue Lagoon after the the festival had finished.
Part of this workcamp was also environmental work in Reyknisvatn. We were working in a recreation area in a small forest, learning about Viking walls and
having contact with the local community in the school. We had just one day of work in the area but was a great opportunity to meet more people and learn about Viking Walls and other traditional methods in landscape architecture.
On the last night we organised an international evening where we could show some food and music from our countries to the rest of the group.
30.09.2009 : SEEDS 18. Fljótsdalshérað - Icelandic North-east (2)
This story is written by the volunteers of the workcamp in Vallanes.
A camp full of self-harvested potatoes, barley and other vegetarian stuff.
Once upon a time, in the Court of Vallanes, lived the Master and his young Assistant. This was in Iceland, although they had Spanish and Estonian roots, respectively. Belonging to the Court, there were also the Count of Belgium, the Countess of Italy and the Marquess of Holland.
The potato harvesting season was about to end and to celebrate this, a big festival took place every year. To take part in this festival a lot of friends from far-far-away were also there: the Princess and Queen of Germany, the Danish Mermaid, the Japanese Geisha, the Maia Princess and the dirty-dirty-dirty French Girls.
One of the last days of harvesting, something terrible happened. The terrifying monster known as "the Goater" assaulted the fields and some peasants were injured/goated. Besides, one of the dirty-dirty-dirty French Girls (actually, the dirtiest), who happened to be there on inspection, was kidnapped.
After this awful event the whole Court was horrified and decided to lock themselves in a shelter called "the Yoga House". They spent some days there, surviving only on barley, beer, National Booze and other vegetarian stuff. The first days were nice, and they amused themselves with Tango dancing, pass-the-barkel game and Jungle Speed. But as time went by, the situation was becoming more and more desperate. Meanwhile, the worried Master spent his days experimenting with some alcoholic beverages in order to give enough strengh to his court to fight the Goater. He finally found his best cocktail and decided to call it "S*x On The Field" (yes, due to so much contact with the dirty-dirty-dirty French Girls, the Master was becoming quite dirty too). Indeed, the ingredients of such an alcoholic piece of art were:
. distilled organic potatoes
. some barley grains
. turnip juice, and
. a little potato stuck on a toothpick as decoration.
When the Court tasted this masterpiece, a wave of joy and happiness invaded them. Their satisfaction was so great that they even started to see kind of funny lights in the dark sky. At that very moment, they suddenly felt so brave and strong that they decided to go again to the fields and fight the monster together. So the very next morning they went to the fields and remained hidden until the monster appeared. They performed such a devastating attack over "the Goater", throwing potato baskets at him, that the monster, badly injuried, was forced to retreat. However, the Court found a trail of the monster's thick blood and used it to discover his den behind the Heggifoss waterfall. There they rescued the dirty-dirty-dirty French Girl and finished off the monster. So hungry they were, they brought this huge piece of meat back home.
In this way, the potato harvesting festival could finally be celebrated and a delicious roasted Goater was served that eased the craving for meat that the Court had been suffering.
Therefore, the kingdom of Vallanes could harvest potatoes, turnips, cabbage and barley happily ever after.
29.09.2009 : SEEDS 22. RIFF - Reykjavík International Film Festival
This year as well as in past 2 years, the SEEDS volunteers have participated in Reykjavík International Film Festival (RIFF) which, for the time being, evolved into a huge event. So big in fact, that there were 106 films presented this year, varying from Icelandic shorts to environmental documentaries, and the director Miloš Forman came to Iceland as an honorary guest.
There were almost one hundred of volunteers participating on RIFF in total, both Icelanders and foreigners and they were responsible for several jobs: working as attendants in the cinemas, working as projectionists, supporting the festival coordinators as runners and finally working on the central information desk. Every participant had been assigned one of those duties and even though their jobs changed from time-to-time, they mostly stayed on the positions they preferred. And because all the our volunteers were very hard working, responsible and enjoyed their festival duties, the festival crew were very happy about their work and highly appreciated their job. Thank you for this!
As the film festival was 10 days long, the volunteers had 9 working days and 3 free days (1 during the festival and two around). For the free time, the volunteers had their own festival passes, allowing them to obtain a ticket for any movie and they were free to attend most of the extra events of the festival. Those “special events” were usually parties, but also some more unusual happenings like discussions with directors or a “zombie movie” screening in a swimming pool. The campers used these possibilities extensively and when not involved directly in festival events, they explored facilities of the Reykjavík centre, as well as its night-life. We provided the participants free swimming pool tickets and the volunteers happily used them to increase their physical condition after exhausting nights.
Last day of the workcamp, the “Golden circle” excursion took place and it turned out to be an amazing experience, thanks to a brisk autumn weather, clear sky and cheerful mood in the group. And because we were VERY lucky, the norther lights have shown above the Reykjavík on the last evening, as a goodbye and thanks to all RIFF volunteers. Thank you too, guys!
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