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Program Description
Strawberry Fields Eco Lodge: Volunteer Program
Description
SFEL combines an Eco-Lodge, Restaurant, Farm and Permaculture Design training center. It also offers a series of Cultural Immersion Programs, giving an in depth view of the fascinating local Konso culture through lectures, workshops, community based activities and trekking trails, all lead by Konso community members.
SFEL serves three kinds of people:
Firstly and foremost, the local community the decent hardworking folk of Konso, who live a life of constant toil and hardship in the arid basalt hills of Konso in the Great Rift Valley. They built SFEL by their hands and their sweat, and it is an asset of their community.
Secondly, there are the tourists who come to sit around and indulge themselves in a haven of peace and stunning scenery (and empty their pockets to benefit our project and its objectives).
Thirdly there are the volunteers, who come to put skills and energy into the project, to help us with what work needs to be done on the ground, be it administrative, labor, skilled trades, training for local people, teaching or whatever the volunteer has to contribute. Volunteering is not a way to get a free holiday. We will be accommodating you in order that you contribute to the projects objectives as outlined in the SFEL Project Profile and Mission Profile. So dont come along to hang on! We ask a fee of USD 50 per week to cover your living expenses and help keep the project ticking over. And for those with institutional support we ask a fee of USD 100 per week.
Volunteers at SFEL can do a number of activities which help to support the project and further its objectives of promoting local community development and empowerment through the furtherance of education and the promotion of Permacutlure. Activities may include the following:
* Teaching English language (or other subjects) to local kids
* Giving football training to / playing football with local kids
* Assisting with the operation of our on-site Permaculture demonstration farm
* Assisting with our Permaculture implementation programs in local primary schools
* Assisting with on-going construction and maintenance tasks on the project site
* Developing their own mini-projects: (e.g. solar-cooker construction, wood saving stoves, compost toilet designs etc - developing appropriate technology for the local situation which can be replicated and promoted locally.)
Highlights
Ethiopia is a land of cultural, historical and ecological depth unrivaled on the African continent. The great plains of Abyssinia sit atop two massive highland plateaus, cloven, as a coffee bean, down the middle, by the Great Rift Valley. From the sweltering dry deserts of Somali Ogaden in the east, The Sudan in the west and The Danakil in the North (where Africa crashes into Arabia), the land sweeps up, rising through semi-arid lowlands and pockets of tropical jungle, to montane forests and alpine pastures, on the slopes of the Simien, Bale and Ghugi mountain ranges, all of which top 4000m, and all of which are home to numerous endemic species of flora and fauna.
The reality is in stark contradiction to the common western perception of Ethiopia as a barren wasteland riven by poverty and starvation. And yet, being surrounded by deserts on all sides, Ethiopia has always been culturally, politically and ecologically isolated, giving it a unique flavor in every sphere. From the ancient mystical Orthodox Christian heritage of the north, to the exotic tribal diversity of the south and the vibrantly hospitable Islamic culture of the east, Ethiopia offers a spectacularly unique collage of culture, flora, fauna, language, religion and people, all quite unique and almost completely undiscovered. No fewer than 87 distinct languages are spoken, belonging to four major linguistic groups.
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