International workcamps

Have you ever wanted to find yourself in an intercultural environment and renovate objects of local heritage?
Have you wanted to enliven the area by making new acquaintence and sharing experience? To engage the locals in a project based on solidarity and contribution?
Then come to us and take part in the International Workcamp!

Association of the Beaumotte Centre

The Centre of Beaumotte is an association of youth and popular education found in 1979 with one of the major goals of which is to establish society based on solidarity where everyone has a chance to be the master of their own lives. The centre aims to achieve the following objectives:

dissolve social and cultural boundaries and promote civic consciousness and active participation;
strive against the society of individual consumption and propagate the idea that every potential is a source of experience;
create alternative meeting spaces for people of different cultures, generations and social backgrounds in order to give a boost to social and collective transformation.

In order to achieve that the Association of the Beaumotte Centre, a regional delegation of Solidarités Jeunesses, fulfill the following functions :

promoting «the heart» of the association – the meeting centre
offering training courses
welcoming international volunteers and promoting international exchange
participating in the events focused on socio-professional integration involving local communities
hosting teenagers
receiving individuals or groups for a short period stay within the facility
providing youth workcamps for international volunteers

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For more than 35 years Centre of Beaumotte, which is situiated in the Franche Comté region, has been arranging workcamps for international youth volunteers focused on a particular field of work – restoration of objects of local heritage.

Since 1979 more than 130 villages have received benefits of this work.

Numerous communities throughout the Franche-Comté region expressed their confidance in our actions and claimed that the popular education which we attempt to provide gives a real opportunity for people.

What is a workcamp ?

International workcamp is a place where local meets foreign. Above all, it is a chance to experience the interculturality. Here everybody is able to reconsider their beliefs and convictions and to learn living and establishing peace together.

International workcamps comprise from 10 to 15 people of different nationalities who participate in projects designed to improve the local community: particularly, Centre of Beaumotte specializes in restoration of rural objects of local heritage with the help of masonry.

International workcamps may last 2 weeks for teenagers and up to 3 weeks for adults.

During the workcamps the participants are accompagnied by 2 or 3 workcamp leaders chosen by our association.

A technical supervisor along with the local city hall is responsible for providing the work and technical support.

A coordinator will accompagny you throughout this unusual project.

Why do we organise international workcamps ?

The workcamps serve as a means to provide popular education where everybody is able to learn about country’s history, environment, sustaianable development of local communities and to grasp the notion of solidarity.

By engaging the youth in renovation projects the workcamps allow to bring dynamism in the life of local communes. Moreover, they also provide an opportunity for local youth to meet their age-mates from abroad.

It is certain that foreign volunteers bring some vitalization to local villages and its inhabitants, who, in their turn, come and join this melting pot of cultures and step-by-step start investing into the project: they receive the volunteers in their homes, let them take a shower or wash clothes, have a dinner together, help them during the workcamp... Thus, international workcamps encourage active involvement of local population in communal projects.

Revaluate the heritage within your population and the input that everone make in it preservation
Create alternative meeting spaces for people of different cultures, generations and social backgrounds
Present your country and your community within this exceptional project

The community is responsible for :

supplying the participants with the tools and materials needed for the workcamp
providing a room and bunks for sleeping
providing a kitchen with all the necessary utensils
involve the locals in the project so the participants will have access to shower, washing machine, transport and have a chance to go sightseeing

Participation in a workcamp – € 2000 + €50 fee for the centre.

Examples

Esprels 2011 / 2012

15 participants
3 workcamp leaders
10 nationalities

This 16x2 m wall is the result of 2 workcamps conducted over the course of 2 years. The goal was to secure the pathway.
The volunteers were mainly engaged in masonry (making lime, cutting stones).

cutting stones

HUGIER 2015

12 participants
2 workcamp leaders
8 nationalities

The volunteers involved themselves in restoring a 17 metre long wall surrounding a church.
Having disassembled the wall, they rebuilt it by rearranging the same stones into flat rows and covering each level with lime mortar. As a result they have constructed a dry stone wall identical to the previous one.

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Cirey-les-Bellevaux 2014

10 participants
2 workcamp leaders
9 nationalities

The objective was to renovate a wall surrounding a cemetery (about 30 metre long).The volunteers started by dismantling the wall, whereafter they layed out the layers of stones and covereved them with lime mortar.

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