Project environment

Our organisation's activity is mainly realised in Budapest, capital of Hungary, a busy and lively city full of cultural and entertainment opportunities. This city of 2 million inhabitants has several universities and hosts hundreds of foreign students as well.

The office is situated in the hearth of the city, can be reached by metro and by the most popular tramline of Budapest. It is on the 3rd floor of a nice old building where the two employees (Tünde and Kati) work together with the volunteers. It is equipped with computers, Internet, telephone, fax. etc. The office has a main room as a workplace where also small gatherings and workshops can be hold. It has also a kitchen, a bathroom and a hall.

The volunteers are mostly hosted in a flat with 3 rooms closed to Keleti Railway Station. It takes about 20 minutes on foot to reach the office, or 10 minutes by public transport. The flat is fully equipped. The volunteers have separated rooms.

All programs is realized by a warm, cheerful, young community in which EVS volunteers can accommodate themselves and initiate new direction in the frame of the yearly topic. Volunteers can cook, travel, work, learn, celebrate, have fun together with Hungarian and international youth.

The volunteers receive monthly passes for public transportation but there is also an opportunity of using the bike. The volunteers should prepare their own food. There is cooking opportunity in the office as well (fruit and vegetable market is close). Hungarian language training is partly provided by a paid language teacher (in small groups) and by volunteers.

The EVS projects can also involve some travelling (in Hungary and to abroad as well).

Proposed activities for EVS volunteers

Messzelátó Association chooses each year a topic that defines the focus of its activity for the whole year. For 2010 and 2011 this topic is "sustainable urban living". (For next years topics please visit our webpage.)
Messzelátó is an organisation which is constantly changing and is always open for new ideas, new projects. For that we prefer volunteers that have their own dreams, ideas, who are creative, are ready to make decisions and are able to work alone as well as in groups. We encourage them to realise their own project ideas and to develop as much as possible. For that the employees of the association are like "mentors" for them.
The working language is English, but if the volunteer prefers to learn Hungarian we are open for a Hungarian-speaking office as well. Working hours are usually flexible depending on the projects.

Activites can be personalized for the volunteers. There is the opportunity to work all the time in our office, but also to volunteer for other organisations. It is possible to work in community gardens with your two hands (in Budapest and outside of the capital as well) and also to organise some travelling projects. It all depends on the voluteers.

Volunteers can participate in our existing projects as well as in new ones designed by themselves. The target group for our programs vary, mostly they are students or middle-aged people. Some examples of our projects:
- Giving lectures about climate change and other environmental problems, and present possible solutions (for example alternative energy sources) in schools or on any other workshops.
- Working in community gardens: we are planning on opening a community garden and also there is an existing one where volunteers can try out themselves.
- Organising workshops on sustainable city living, like soapmaking, cheesmaking, reuseing garbage and creating useful stuff from that etc. This activity can include researching, communication, or presentation at the workshop as well.
- Spreading information about environmental problems and their solutions, representing Messzelátó in summer festivals.
- Writing blog and articles. As our past volunteers did, the new ones can also have their own blog.
- Updating the green map of Budapest. A past EVS project included the creation of the green map of Budapest which shows the "green" shopping opportunities in Budapest, such as second hand shops, bike shops, vegetarian food etc. Volunteers can be involved in updating and developing the map.
- Organising a roadshow for our interactive Baobab tree: our Baobab tree is a 5,5 m high inflatable installation which used to travel some Eastern European countries. It can only be inflated totally if the holes on its sides are all covered by people's hands. Volunteers can travel with the tree in different cities and talk about climate change.
- Volunteers can work on uploading news to the English homepage of the association.
The volunteers can decide in which activities they want to be involved more deeply and they can devote most of their time to those activities. In addition, besides these tasks the volunteers will have the possibilities to make exhibitions or other cultural programmes (for example they can show their countries and traditions in the local schools). We support these programmes with our personal help and by providing tools and materials to a certain extent. We also provide them with sufficient time - within their work time - to prepare and organise these events.
Volunteers can get to know other nongovernmantal organizations and be the part of an international community was built around Messzelato.
For detailed information on Messzelátó's projects see www.messzelato.hu.

Volunteer profiles and recruitment process

We would like to host volunteers who are interested in environment protection. The ideal applicant can work independently and has lots of ideas what she or he would like to realise. Because of the characteristics of our organisation first of all we would like to work together with environmental sending organisations, which could also give us the possibility to work together about environmental issues. However, we are ready to co-operate with non-environmental organisations, too.

Special needs

Messzelátó Association plans to send volunteers with special needs, but not jet to host. Volunteers with special needs get more help in their project search, they come several times to the office, we help them in writing their CV and motivation letter, creating an e-mail account, communicating with the host organisation etc.. We help more in choosing hosting organisations and we make sure that the host organisation is aware that our volunteer has special needs. We do communicate more often with the host organisation during the EVS. After returning to Hungary we take care that these volunteers find their place again in the community - we meet with them several times after EVS as well.

Risk prevention, protection and safety

The volunteers will be living in a safe living and working environment in the capital of Hungary. They will get all sorts of risk prevention preparation and protecting equipment if the activity requires so, although generally said our activities do not include any dangerous elements. In the case of serious problems and crises of the volunteer maximum personal and - if it is required - other types of support and help will be ensured. Most of the time, other members of the organisation will accompany the volunteers and give full attention during the activities.

A mentor is provided for each volunteer. Mentors are usually the members, volunteers, or friends of Messzelátó that are not involved in the organisation's every day work. They also act as mediators between the volunteers and the association. They try to help in any aspects of the volunteer's lifes in Hungary.

Motivation and EVS experience

Volunteering brings benefits to both society at large and the individual volunteer. The international volunteering, besides contributing to particular projects, builds trust and fights against racism and xenophobia among people from different cultures and backgrounds. The main mission of voluntarism, as we understand it, is to serve peace and development and it also encourages the establishing of new partnerships and the exchange of experience and good practice between the partners. Volunteering is universal and to become a volunteer through the EVS program of the European Commission does not require special skills. Still, to become a volunteer it is important to have the will, the commitment, the engagement, the motivation and feeling of solidarity with the local community. To be ready to share your culture and live the culture of the hosting country, and to be tolerant, patient, open minded, have positive attitude and willing to help as much as the project requires.

We have been taking part in the EVS programme as a sending organisation since 2002, and in 2003 we launched the 2003-HU-18 EVS project to promote ecotourism in the south-east region of Hungary which is so rich in natural treasures. In 2006 we started another project (2005-HU-44) to create and maintain a nature trail in the Buda-hills. In 2008- (2007-HU-47) main priority 2009 in our project was climate change. And we hosted 2 volunteers. Our project was called "Reduce your carbon footprint" . This was a travelling project and our volunteer's task was to travel with an exhibition (Baobab tree Climate Change Exhibition) in the Visegrad's countries  representing the issues of global warming. Also they were helping in coordinating the Global Action Day 2009 and the Climate Bath Party 2009 which Messzelato organized with 100 volunteers and 1500 participants.

Messzelátó Association chooses a topic for each year for the focus of its projects. For 2011 (as well as it was in 2010) our main project priority is promoting sustainable and healthier living, because this lifestyle cause less damage in the environment and bring quality changes in people lifes. With learning new activies like gardening, food preserving etc. youngsters will be more sensitive for global issues like sustainable development. In 2010 we hosted 2 volunteers for this project and with their help we organized workshops and other activities to promote local consumption, ecological products and urban sustainable living. This program involved more than hundred local and international youth and is planned to be continued.

We prefer long-term volunteering. Our projects usually start in the spring and last for 9-12 months.

We have hosted volunteers from different places.
Description of the organisation
Messzelato Associaton was was founded by biologist students in 1999 (the "messzelátó" word means binoculars in Hungarian or people who look ahead into the future). The organisation works in the fields of environmental protection, education and culture to realize a diverse, value-driven, sustainable society which is based on the cooperation of human scaled, active communities.

We facilitate people to get acquainted with the natural and cultural values of their neighbourhood because we believe that people aware of these values will pay a greater attention to their protection. In addition we inform the people about the different environmental problems (like climate change, overproduction of waste), and present possible solutions (like alternative energy sources, composting, own food production).

The organisation has about 40 members - mostly young people interested in environmental protection, sustainable living and cultural diversity. It has one full time and one part time employee (both young economists) and several volunteers.