Project of the MEM-young “Meet your neighbour”

Hanging out and working at the voluntary camps at the Balkans

The movement of the ecologists of Macedonia-young, within the project “Meet your neighbour”, will organize participation at the voluntary youth camps, which are taking part this summer in our country and in more than 85 countries in the world. All secondary school pupils and students who are older than 18, who know English and who have a wish to hang out can participate at these camps, meet young people from the other countries, examine the foreign culture and customs and contribute with their voluntary effort for the creation of some work. The camps will take part during the whole summer and will last for 2 or 3 weeks, and 15 to 20 young people will be able to work in one camp. In them they will work on different topics and will learn about different areas such as ecology, music, film, social work, work with children, architecture and others. In the camps the young people pass the morning in voluntary work, and in the afternoon they are free. The weekends are used for excursions for getting to know the host country, but also for learning the language, customs and culture of the home population. At the Balkans this year there will be camps in Macedonia, Bulgaria and in Serbia and Montenegro. In the countries throughout the world there are annually about 2,000 camps.

In Macedonia there will be three voluntary camps, in Dojran on which there will be work on organizing the beach and is open for young people from Southeast Europe, on Pelister, where they will research the fauna and flora and the camp Orbelius, open for young people from all over the world. The financial means for accommodation and food for the young people will be provided by the Youth net of Southeast Europe, and every participant will pay his own travel expenses.

“The applying is done in the Youth Centre in Bitola and in the headquarters of MEM in Skopje. Everyone interested can call our telephones 3220-518 and 3128-075 or the e-mail demmladi@dem.org.mk . The application is sent to our associates in foreign countries, who organize the camps and then expect an answer from there about the participation of the candidates. This year we’ll meet the neighbours at the Balkans, that means our young people will visit the Balkan camps”, says Cvetan Nikolovski from MEM.

S.M.