VMU Kaunas Botanical Garden is a state budgetary organization. Presently, VMU Kaunas Botanical Garden consists of five sectors: Medicinal plants, Dendrology, Pomology, Plants Pathology, Floriculture, and service subdivision. It occupies the area of 62.5 hectares. Approximately 7.000 different plants comprise the collections and expositions that are open for public attendance and cover the area of about 30 ha. The number of visitors is 40.000 per year.
Our goal is to extend the functions of the Botanical Garden and make it more open for public education. Large collections of plants that are gathered in VDU Kaunas Botanical Garden are an invaluable treasure of Lithuania. The Botanical Garden together with its botanical expositions and collections, the Greenhouse, a big park and an interesting pond system have a big potential not only for plant research but also for all modern forms of interactive education, cultural tourism and community use.
The principal aims of the organization are:

• Create good conditions for workers and the unique space for visitors;
• Ensure garden management that promotes biodiversity conservation;
• Develop botanic garden as a centre environmental education;
• Develop a network for scientific research and horticultural activities;
• Built effective management of resources;
• Promote botanic garden as a tourist attraction;
• Build and implement a policy on collaboration to assist capacity building for botanic garden and other partner organizations and institutions throughout the world.

Kaunas Botanical Garden was founded in 1923 in a former estate with a large old park in Aukstoji Freda. Now, Aukstoji Freda manor and the park are the cultural heritage objects. The distance from Kaunas city centre to Botanical Garden is 5 km.
Kaunas is the second largest city in Lithuania and  the fourth in the Baltic states. It is situated in the center of the country.  Kaunas is 100 km away from Vilnius and 200 km from Sea port Klaipeda.
Major international routes, such as the Via Baltica pass through here rather than Vilnius.
Population – 415.800. Ethnic Composition: 80% Lithuanian, 8,8% Russian, 0,7% Belarussian., 0,7% Ukranian, 0,6% Polish, 0,1% Latvian, 1,5% others.
Kaunas is industry and cultural center of Lithuania: 8 high schools, a lot of museums, six theatres.

About half of their working time volunteers will be giving help in the garden’s territory doing horticultural work. Even manual work in the garden requires some special knowledge, so volunteers will have an opportunity to learn various methods of work while assisting the garden’s specialists:

• digging plants, tree cutting, grass cutting, pounds cleaning, labyrinths building, green classes preparing – 50% of the working time

Apart from the above mentioned tasks volunteers will have a possibility to work together with Vytautas Magnus university students and pupils from neighboring secondary schools:

• Organize students-volunteers meetings and joint actions together with Vytautas Magnus University student council. Write environmental articles for the University newspaper. Promote volunteering and nature love as part of the informal learning – 20% of the working time
• Organize working bees (collective help) and other environmental actions together with the administration of the garden, pupils (teachers) from local schools and other volunteers – 20% of the working time
• Help to realize ideas of having sporting festivals and cultural events for kids in the garden. This idea is planned together with local schools too – 5% of the working time
• Create and maintain online EVS diary on the website of the garden – 5% of the working time
• Contribute to working bees, student and cultural events at the botanical research station in Utena region (part of the Botanical garden of Kaunas)
• Participate in fairs organized by the garden, create and sell souvenirs, promote the garden in the context of EVS

Volunteer will be free to initiate other actions of environmental protection together with friends, local pupils/students or other EVS volunteers. We hope that the volunteers will be full of creative energy and will help to make the garden even more attractive and efficient. At the end of the service the volunteers will be asked to write opinions in their language about their work for the garden’s internet website. All the tasks are planned to encourage volunteers’ communication with the local community, their will to learn and work in diverse social environments.

Examples of the volunteers’ daily work schedule:
Example 1 (Monday)
9.00-10.30 - Work planning for the week
10.30-12.00 - Collecting the garbage in garden’s territory
12.00-13.00 - Lunch
13.00-17.00 - Working on computer with diary info
17.00-18.00 - Communicating with the tourists (if needed) or Friends club (meetings with secondary school students, volunteers)
18.00 - End of the working day

Example 2 (Tuesday)
9.00-12.00 - Working outside with a specialist
12.00-13.00 - Lunch
13.00-17.00 - Preparing for educational activities
17.00-18.00 - Communicating with tourists (if needed)
18.00 - End of the working day

Example 3 (Wednesday)
9.00-12.00 - Photographing of plants, cultural heritage
12.00-13.00 - Lunch
13.00-15.30 - Preparation for presentations
15.30-17.00 – Ideas’ evening
17.00-18.00 - Communicating with tourists (if needed)
18.00 - End of the working day
19.00 - Friends club (Secondary school students, volunteers)

Example 4 (Thursday)
10.00-12.00 - Communication with people, visiting schools
12.00-13.00 - Lunch
13.00-18.00 - Preparation of informational publications about the garden or volunteering
18.00-19.00 - Friends club (VMU students, volunteers)
19.00 - End of the working day

Example 5 (Friday)
9.00-13.00 - Entertainment for visitors /or Collective help/
13.00-14.00 - Lunch
14.00- Working on the volunteers’ initiatives (meetings with students, EVS volunteers and their common actions)

Volunteer profiles and recruitment process:
We would like to receive volunteers who would:

• Be passionate to explore nature and Lithuanian culture.
• Preferably have knowledge of English/Russian.
• Be patient and motivated for every day work.
  

VMU Kaunas Botanical Garden is open for all volunteers who are motivated to work, are flexible, communicable, able to adapt to various situations. All applicants will be considered and evaluated based on how well they suit the general profile of an EVS volunteer and the requirements of the host placement in particular. Primary selection process will be conducted by the sending organization, later by the host organization together with the coordinating organization.