Teaching English, updating website, planting trees, and doing farming with local people

Solidarités Jeunesses Vietnam project

Project title: Teaching English, updating the website, planting trees and

doing farming activities with local people in Nam Dinh province.

Local partner: Xuan Thuy National Marine Park.

Location: Nam Dinh province (150km from Hanoi)

Duration: At least 4 months.

Participation fee: 200 EUR/month including food and basic

accommodation in Nam Dinh province.

 

1. About SJ Vietnam:

SJ Vietnam operates through a network of national non-profit organizations and partner organizations in Europe, The Middle East, Asia, Africa, South and North America, and Australia.

It organizes short and long-term international workcamps, actions of social

integration, training activities, international solidarity actions and runs small

Youth centers in Hanoi. SJ Vietnam is a full member of UNESCO – CCIVS and NVDA.

Through these actions, SJ Vietnam aims to promote:

-The voluntary participation of all, particularly young people and those in social disadvantaged situation, in local, national and international life.

- Local development that takes into consideration the needs of the individual, the environment and the cultural heritage into consideration.

-The breakdown of barriers between generations, cultures and nations.

-A concrete construction of peace. SJ Vietnam mobilizes young people themselves to bring the values of tolerance and respects for all human beings without any political or ideological cleavage. The management of the organization and all our activities are open to all young people without any discrimination: we select our volunteers only based on their motivations. For each activity, national or international, we try to have lowest cost possible to be accessible to everybody.

Basically, the activities of the hosting projects which are organized with volunteers are work camps (renovation, masonry, carpentry, joinery, teaching, children activities, environment protection, painting, art performance, etc) and local development (short and long-term projects).

 

2. About Xuan Thuy National Marine park

Xuan Thuy National Marine Park, 150 kilometers south-east of Hanoi, was designated as Vietnam’s first Ramseur (an intergovernmental treaty signed in Ramseur, Iran, in 1971 which provides the framework for national action and international cooperation for the conservation and wise use of wetlands and their resources) site in 1989. The core zone of the park has a total area of7,100 hectares and the buffer zone has a total area of 8,000 hectares. In 2003 Xuan Thuy Natural Reserve was approved by the Prime Minister as a national park. The park is considered to be a typical wetland ecosystem of national and international importance. In addition to a high bio-diversity, Xuan Thuy national Park is also known as an important platform for migratory birds including the black-faced spoonbill, one of the worlds’ endangered species, other important marine species and mangrove ecosystem.

About Giao Thien commune, Giao Thuy district, Nam Dinh province:

The national park is located inside Giao Thien commune. Nam Dinh province is near the sea of Indochina. It is a famous area for the high quality and important production of rice.

In the park there are endangered birds species such as the Blackface-spoon billed as well as mangrove trees. There is also growing gracilaria which is exported to other countries.

 

3. Work description:

The volunteers will have an orientation week on their arrival. During thisweek the coordinators will provide them the working schedule.

During the project the volunteers will be cooperating with the staff of the National Park.

The volunteers should consider that a part of their activities will depend on the weather. Therefore, they should be flexible and ready to adapt to a planning change.

Volunteers will take part in different projects of the park such as rice harvesting, honey making process, growing mushrooms (depending on the season). All along their voluntary work they will support the local staff.

The volunteers will have the opportunity to have social activities with the locals by organizing trainings and English classes.

The locals need to know about the technique to feed shrimp and to take care of poultry.

 

4. Objectives:

Global warming is a current and serious issue. It affects in priority nature and landscapes but also human beings and their environment.

The process of preserving the environment is still very slow in Vietnam. In order to accelerate this process we would like to raise awareness of locals by hosting volunteers in Xuan Thuy National Park.

By working in Xuan Thuy National Park the volunteers will discover a bird sanctuary and have the chance to observe them from a migratory point.

During their project, they are expected to raise environmental awareness to the locals which can be challenging in Vietnam. They should think about the way and methods to explain before coming to their project.

It is expected that the volunteers will have a better understanding of environmental issues in Vietnam at the end of their voluntary work.

The volunteers will also teach English weekly to the local staff of the National Park to improve sustainable tourism in this area. The volunteers should focus their classes on topics related to tourism (they can bring some material from their country).

The volunteers will be working and living with locals (in the case that they asked for homestay). They will not only learn and share experience about environmental topics but they will also learn about Vietnamese way of life which involves food, language, customs...

They will probably go through a cultural shock on their arrival. We advise the volunteer to get information about Vietnam before coming to facilitate their integration in the community.

 

5. Duties and responsibilities:

1. Website management of Xuan Thuy National Park.

2. Environmental activities in the National park such as planting and taking care of trees, cleaning river bank, collecting rubbish, or finding solutions to make the park cleaner as well as ways to protect its diversity.

3. English teaching for the staff of National Park.

4. Create a friendly environment.

5. Help locals to raise their attitude about the importance of protecting the environment

6. The volunteers will have homestays so that they should act like the famous saying “when in Rome, do as Roman do”

7. Support the staff to promote the park.

8. Promote SJ Vietnam activities.

 

6. Work arrangements:

- Working place: Giao Xuan, Giao Thuy district, Nam Dinh province.

- Working hours: at least 6 - 7 hours/day from Monday to Friday. Sometimes in the weekend as well (working hours are flexible).

- Accommodation: 2 possibilities will be offered to the volunteers (to be discussed before the project starts), homestay or private room at the main office. In case of homestay the volunteers should be aware that most families do not have any basic English knowledge. However, it will be a great experience and opportunity to discover Vietnamese lifestyle. The volunteers will have their meals with the family. They will have to support the family in basic tasks such as the preparation of food. The volunteers will have to commute everyday from their homestay to the National Park Office. Most of the time the staff will provide bicycles for the volunteers. In case of private room at the main office of the National Park, the volunteers will have their own private bedroom. They might have to share the bathroom and toilets with other resident of the buildings or visitors (it will be confirmed before the project starts). The food will be provided at the site of the project (there is a dining room in a building next to the office).

- SJ Vietnam will help to volunteer to integrate as fast as possible with Vietnamese lifestyle. One of the long term coordinators will take the volunteers to the National Park and stay for one week to arrange working hours, accommodation or others.

 

7. How go to Xuan Thuy National marine park project ?

One of the coordinators will go to Giap Bat Bus Station in Hanoi with the volunteers and take them to the project site in Nam Dinh.

Note: Bus ticket cost is extra and should be paid by the volunteer. The fare is around 50.000 VND one way (about 2 €).

 

8. Qualification and experience:

- Good English skills (basic Vietnamese skills is an asset)

- Good communication skills

- Independent

- Flexible

- Open-minded

- Previous experience in voluntary work in the environmental field if

possible

- Hard working (Harvesting rice can be tiring and repetitive)

- Good manual skills

- High motivated

- Can handle challenging situations

 

8. Participation fee:

200 EUR/month includes food, transportation and basic accommodation in dormitory of the center. Volunteers will pay all their participation fees one time for their sending organizations or directly to banks and fees will be transferred for SJ Vietnam before volunteers come to Vietnam. Volunteers have to bring the receipts for SJ Vietnam.

If they do not pay their participation fees before coming, they will be in the waiting list. They can stay longer or less than couples of months but they are supposed to pay for the whole months and may be a half as well. For example, if volunteers stay for 3 months and 10 days, they are supposed to pay for 3 months and a half (it means they will pay 700 EUR); if they stay for 3 months and 20 days, they are supposed to pay for 4 months (it means they will pay 800 EUR).

If volunteers have holiday in the middle of their voluntary durations, the holiday duration will still be considered as their voluntary time so volunteers are supposed to pay for the holiday duration. If they have holiday after finishing all voluntary work with SJ Vietnam, they do not have to pay for that. Following is the address to transfer fee: