The organisation ORFEAS is situated in the village of Vasiliko, 4 km from the town Kiato (12.000 inhabitants), on the coast of the Corinthinan Gulf, 20 km West from Corinth, in the Peloponnese (South Greece). The surroundings are very green and most of the locals are employed working in fields (vineyards, citrus fruits). Some small tourist enterprises are also in the region.The county of Corinthias is situated only 50 km west from Athens and it is very easy and comfortable to travel back and forth.
The organization provides a full-furnished new apartment with all the facilities.
The information offices of the organization provide all the multimedia facilities and all the facilities for the work, the personal support / training and entertainment of the volunteers.
The organization provides a full equipped musical instrument laboratory in order to be most successful the work and the training of the volunteers and the members of the organization.
The outdoor activities of the organization such as cultural events, informative activities, seminars, exhibitions, presentations give the opportunity the volunteers to integrate in the local community and get to know the characteristics of the Greek culture.
There are no special knowledge, qualification needed from the volunteer. Full training will be provided.
The volunteers will have special guidance and support from the staff and the members of the host organization in all the cases of highly demanding tasks. From the staff the volunteers will get a high standard support and training, they will prepare them for the activities.
In order to facilitate their work and integration, volunteers will join an obligatory Greek language training from the begining of their voluntary service.
The mentor and the youth advisor will give them a high standard personal support.
We would like also to develop the volunteers' responsibility, creativity, knowledge, and skills and to help them to be prepared if the wish to work in this field. They will also gain more self-esteem and compassion through creative work.
The certification of the volunteers' experience, achievements will be included in the YOUTHPASS certificate at the end of the project.
Our goal the volunteer to acquire during their stay is: European awareness - they will work with national and international youngsters in teams and through this intercultural experience they learn to be tolerant, working in team, to cooperate and communicate

International volunteering is good to bring different cultures together, to diffuse the existence of development projects and to exchange experiences and knowledge. A volunteer from a foreign country could be an excellent opportunity for our local community, mainly for the youngsters to overcome language and cultural difficulties and to learn from each other. Moreover this project gives great opportunities for cooperation with the staff and the members of Orfeas and will be benefit for our local volunteers, because by working together with someone who comes from a foreign country, they will learn the values of tolerance, equality and acceptance.
The volunteers will have the chance to broaden their horizons by living and learning in a foreign country and working in a team of international and national people. In addition, they will acquire experience and skills, which may prove useful skills for their professional future. Our objectives to host volunteers are to introduce them to the local community, to develop the understanding of the European and international cultural context, to provide informal intercultural education and experience to youths, encouraging their social integration, their active participation and to offer them new means of expression and communication through the voluntary work.

" Describe the activities in which the volunteers could be involved and the activities the volunteers could create in your organisation. Give examples of typical activities for the volunteers.
Our motivations with this activity are to protect the way of building traditional Greek and Mediterranean instruments, preserve the common European heritage of the history of the building instruments, and to study the development of the methods/techniques in Europe from the middle age till now.
This project depends on voluntary work because the traditional musical instruments and also the experimental musical instruments we build are not for selling but only for exhibitions, presentations and for the own exhibition of our organization.
The volunteers will work together with local and long-term EVS volunteers in order to help in the organization's creative projects.
The volunteers will have special guidance and support from the stuff and the members of Orfeas, in all the cases of highly demanding tasks (building instruments, computer work, etc.). The volunteers will work in teams of two persons with local volunteers and they will have special guidance sharing the responsibilities. The volunteers will be responsible for: the good organizing of the laboratory during and after the everyday work, collecting material for the presentations like photographs from the every step of the building instruments, notes and Internet researches according to the tasks, preparation of the materials for the exhibitions, representing the musical instruments on the exhibitions to the visitors and also the safe keeping of our exhibits.
Through these responsibilities and tasks the volunteer will learn how to work in team, how to cooperate, communicate with others, learn patience since it's needed for working out the minutiae of the musical instruments. Above of these skills they will develop artistic skills through building the musical instrument, organizing skills through the exhibition, social skills through communicating with locals and participating the local happenings, develop language skill.

1) Building and reconstruction for traditional and modern musical instruments (in cooperation with local volunteers and the members of our organization)
2) Cut and preparation of wood for processing (with special guidence and support)
3) Creation of a step-by-step guide with photographs and text concerning the building and conservation of traditional musical instruments (collecting material and information from the everyday-work in the laboratory and from our library)
4) Developing presentations through the computer (Power Point) about the building of the musical instruments and the activities of the host organization. (we will provide computer lessons for the volunteers if it is necessary)
5) Organize exhibitions with the musical instruments, which are made through the voluntary work and presentations about the European voluntary work
6) Make Internet researches for information and new techniques on instrument building, and organizations with similar activities from the E.U. (networking activities and future plans)
7) Make researching and contact with universities and other institutes that are working with music in his/her country, get in touch with them becaming the contact person of Orfeas Organization, send information in order to create a database for the future plans, future cooperation.

A typically weekly program for the volunteer:
Monday: 09:00-12:00 Cut and preparation of wood for processing for the week with the guidence of the instrument builder of the organization and building and reconstruction for traditional and modern musical instruments 12:00-14:30 Working on the own project, building an own musical instrument (baglamas) 14:30-15:00 organize and clean the working place 17:00-19:00 Greek lesson
Tuesday: 9:30-11:00 researching and contact with universities and other institutes that are working with music in her/his country, get in touch with them becaming the contact person of Orfeas Organization, send information in order to create a database for the future plans, future cooperation.11:00-13:00 Working on the own project, building an own musical instrument (baglamas) 13:00-14:30 Creation of a step-by-step guide with photographs and text concerning the building and conservation of traditional musical instruments 17:00-18:30 prepare the materials for the presentations and the exhibiton
Wednesday 9:00-11:00 Building and reconstruction for traditional and modern musical instruments 11:00-12:00 Developing presentations through the computer (Power Point) 12:00-15:00 Working on the own project, building an own musical instrument (baglamas)
Thursday 9:00-12:00 researching and contact with universities and other institutes that are working with music in her country, get in touch with them becaming the contact person of Orfeas Organization, send information in order to create a database for the future plans, future cooperation12:00-14:00 Building and reconstruction for traditional and modern musical instruments
17:00-19:00 Greek lesson
Friday 9:00-11:00 Building and reconstruction for traditional and modern musical instruments 11:00-13:00 Make Internet researches for information and new techniques on instrument building, and organizations with similar activities from the E.U.
13:00- 15:00 Weekly evaluation with the mentor and social worker, organize the working place
The international volunteers will be involved in the everyday work of the organization, they will help to carry out the tasks of the organization, they will participate in every informative activity, but above of this we give room to the initiative of the volunteers to carry out their own ideas in cooperation and support of our organization such as exhibitions, information days, but of course we are open to new ideas as well.
1) Cultural Department
The volunteers will participate in organizing exhibitions, cultural events and youth activities in cooperation with the staff and the national volunteers. This activity is realized mainly on the summer and Christmas. The volunteers will help in setting-up the place of the events, concerts, theatre, participate in the events.
They will follow courses for management and organizing culture events.

2) Information Center

The volunteers will learn to work with the Actions of the Youth in Action Program (actions 1-5) being a trainee for a future youth worker. They will participate in the work of the information office in Vasiliko, Xilokastro, Vocha and Velo, they will help in the working out of other programs of the information offices. It is also a very good experience for them to be a youth worker in their future. Orfeas takes part actevily in the Actions of the Youth in Action Program by organizaing youth exchanges, seminars, host/send volunteers, they will help building the network with European countries, participating in finding partners for the projects.
The volunteers participate in the presentations in the schools, promoting the activities of the Information office and also showing the possibilities the youngsters have through the Youth in Action Program by giving live example to the local community. Furthermore they will participate in the information days and exhibitions about the Youth in Action Program as well as they wil help in the preparation of the local youngsters that participate in the European Voluntary Service (language, working groups, encouragement…etc.)

3) Computer work
- Internet research: The volunteers will also make researches for organizations, institutes from the European countries, becoming the contact person of Orfeas, sending them information, news and propositions for future plans (there is a special training for that and all the materials that needed are provided such as information about Orfeas, jpeg photos, e.t.c.). The volunteers have their own office with computers, Internet, printer and XP professional software.
- creating presentations, leaflets, create adapted material for the local youth (about mobility, non formal education, programs etc.)
Moreover the volunteers will support the work of the multimedia library of Municipality of Xylokastro, they will help the youngsters to use the computer, searching on the Internet.

4) The volunteers will help in producing printed material about the events and informing the public about the activities of the organization. They will help the members of the organization to promote the events, and also the activities of the Information office (information day, presentations, programs…etc.) by spreading leaflets, posters.

We would like to stress that the host organization gives the schedule of the tasks every week, because the activities are all the time changing depending on the season and the activity of the organization
The volunteers should be really interested and motivated to participate in the activities. Communicative and creative skills would be an advantage. He/She should be able to work independently (under supervision from our staff), ready to take responsibility and take initiatives, to be flexible and to have adaptation skills. The volunteers have to be able to share the apartment with other volunteers.

There are placements for young people with less opportunities as well. Many of these youngsters are from disadvantaged by their social, economical, geographical, educational, cultural circumstances. In our experience many young people are disadvantaged by where they live and we have in the past hosted many short-term volunteers who have had little chance to mix with other cultures due to their situations. Often EVS has been their first time to have intercultural experience and to communicate with youngsters from other countries. This is the main reason we would like to give this possibility to young people with less opportunities to gain experience living and working with a group of people with different cultural backround.
The host and coordinating organziation have a great experience in hosting youngsters with fewer opportunities, our mentors and youth workers are trained to give a high standard support.
The volunteers with fewer opportunities have the possibility to stay up to 2 months in the project because for these volunteers it may be too difficult to spend a long time in a foreign country, either because they have difficulty making commitments and long-term plans or because of their family or cultural background or because they have trouble adapting to new situations or functioning autonomously. We therefore think that a project up to 2 months would be a good way to introduce these persons to volunteering and to living in a different culture. Two months are short enough as not to be overwhelming for the volunteers but long enough for them to get accustomed to a new environment, to create relationships and to get a taste of the culture of the hosting country.
Short term voluntary service is a great opportunity for their personal development, to be more extrovert, more social, help to overcome fears and doubts and give the possibility to make a step in front letting behind the past that maybe was very difficult.
We provide to the volunteer meetings with the mentor every day if its' necessary, we will pay special attention on the volunteer. Of course if the volunteer is facing any problem, he/she doesn't have to wait till the meeting, in any cases he/she can call the mentor.
The host organization has a great experience working with EVS long term as well as short term volunteers and note the importance of the personal support the volunteer. For the best realization of the project and to prevent the crisis situations we pay big attention on the communication with the volunteer on the everyday base. All the volunteers will be supported by the mentors and youth workers that are involved in the project. The mentor has privet conversations in case of problem, the volunteers can turn to the mentor any time with their questions.
The accomodation provided is high standard. The volunteer will be ensured of their safety during the working time as well as the other activities.