Regular activities in the host organisation:

Our association MIKILELE - lifetime learning with Children - was founded by a group of parents in 1994. We are a non-governmental and a social profit association that cares for a pre-school infants/ nursery group and a school pupil group.

In the pre-school group we accept a maximum of 15 Children aged between 2-6 years; in the school pupils group there is a maximum of 15 Children aged between 6-10 years. Both groups are cared for from Monday fo Friday fromm 07:30 a.m to 03.30 p.m. Our pre-school infants/ nursery and school pupils groups are open, mixed-aged-groups, ans support the prevailing pedagogical concept of Maria Montessori.

The pre-school infants/ nursery group is located in the ground level. The school pupil group is located on the first floor level of our building. Through the presence of the 2-10 years-old in the same building complex, we also have the chance to illustrate diversity of social experience and understanding.

Local community:

Our association Mikilele is located in Gänserndorf, Lower Austria. Gänserndorf is the district capital of the district area of Gänserndorf, which lies in the northeast of the province of Lower Austria. Gänserndorf is 167 metres above the sea level and has a population of 9.355. Since the establishment of the country council authority buildung in Gänserndorf, the resonsibility for the district capital, but has gradually developed itself into a school and shopping centre district, also providing a scope of culture abundance.

The town is also the centre-point for diverse excursions into the magnificent and interesting countryside and its wine region, with an uncountable number of museums in the northeast of Gänserndorf, as well as the March-Danube meadows in the south, and not excluding the fairy-tale castles in the Marshfield region.

The district of Gänserndorf borders the following countries: Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Hungary. Beside this, Gänserndorf is only 50 km away from Vienna, the capital of Austria. The train connections between Gänserndorf and Vienna are excellent. One only needs approximately 30 minutes to reach the city centre of Vienna, the capital.

Experience with EVS:

Our organisation was become a host organisation in 2003. Since this time we had very different volunteers from different countries and different backgrounds. All of them was very motivated, open-minded and an enrichement for our organisation. The children liked them very much. On account of our positive experience we are very interested to host volunteers again. So we are very proud of being an active part of the evs network.

Motivation:

In view of the EU expansion (Lower) Austria has been pulled more and more in the middle of Europe. Therefore European integration has become very important for our children. With the placement of European volunteers in our association, we want to achieve the following aims:

The Children should develop a common understanding with other countries

The Children should have an ideal on what the European integration goes through and perceives

Our target group should learn to understand that they are EU citiziens

The Children should learn more about different culuters and reglions

With this EVS project we want to increase our offers for the children and to bring in a new intercultural demension in our daily work.

Volunteer tasks:

Our Volunteer will switch between the pre-school infant/ nursery group and the school pupil group.

The volunteer should enrich our daily work with Her/his daily inputs concerning her/ his home country.

Organize some projcets and activiets about traditional and typicla things of her/ his country - like music, games. Culture and art, food, literature, customs and festivals, sports, school systems, general information about the country and people, a little bit of the language and so on.

support our pedagogical staff - prepare different methods like presentations, projcet work, theatre, games, exhibitions and so on.

Talk and support the Children

Beeing available for questions and problems in the organisation

Assist the staff members in their daily work

Play with the Children

In additon the volunteer should be open minded, because he or she has o lot of face-to-face contact with the Children. So the volunteer will hear a lot of different stories and so on.

On the other hand the volunteer should help the staff members in their daily work, like to organise some different events,…

He or she should also give some information about the own country. For example cooking tradtional meals for the youngsters, present some information about the home country,…

Moreover he or she should be involved in our team meetings. The volunteer should have a lot of own ideas for projects and events.

We would like to find together with the volunteer, one main topic for each month - for example:

September General information

October Music, dancing, playing games

November-Food

December-Christmas

January-Language

February-Literature

March-Art and Culture

April-Easter

May-Sports

June-Repetition and reflection

Saturday and Sunday are free for the volunteer. Possible holidays are the school vacancies, these are two weeks araóund christmas, one week in February, 2 weeks Easter holidays. The volunteer will have about 12 days (6 months) to 24 days (12 months) in his/her disposal.

In our organisation we have two different groups - so the volunteer will switch between the groups. For that reason we have two different time tables. Every Wednesday in the afternoon the staff, together with the volunteer, plan and organize the next projects and activities, prepare the following week and discuss actual topis. We also discuss in wich group the voulnteer will work - he/ she will switchbetween the groups every week. So the volunteer have the possibiltiy to collect experience with all our Children.

Task Profile for the "pre-school infant/ nursery" volunteer

In our pre-school infant/ nursery group, a maximum of 15 children between the ages of 2-6 years are to be cared for from Monday to Friday between the hours fo 07:30 a.m. to 03:30 p.m.

Example of a typical day:

09:30 Daily morning meeting, where all plans and requests from the children and child-care workers can be discussed.

10:30 - 12:30 Initiate daily project together with children: creating handicrafts, painting, making music, and so on. In this time-slot the volunteer should also start incorporating the EVS Project activities in cooperation with our child-care workers.

12:30 Lunch time

13:00 - 15:30 In the afternoon we are playing games and sports (outdoor and indoor) with the children. The volunteer should support the staff und bring in his own ideas and activities.

This is how most of the days look like. There are just a few other days for trips or excursions. The volunteer should attend them too.

Task Profile for the "school pupils" volunteer

In our school pupils group there is also a maximum of 15 children between the ages of 6-10 to be cared for from Monday to Friday between the hours of 07:30 a.m. to 03:30 p.m

Example of a typical day:

At 08:45 Daily morning meeting, where all plans and requests from the children and child-care workers can be discussed.

09:00 - 12:30 "Education time" for defined subjects

Within this suubject matter and open-option subject time-slot it is expected that the EVS Project activities, themes and aims be initiated and spoken about by the volunteer, but also in accordance with the project curriculum; with the cooperation of the child-care worker.

12:30 Lunch time

13:00 - 15:30 In the afternoon we are playing games and sports (outdoor and indoor) with the children. The volunteer should support the staff. This time is also used for reapting and reflecting the topics discussed in the morning.

According to the age of the school pupils we expect more details than in the pre-school-group, especially on geographic details, language, literature and so on. And the working methods schould be age-adequate too.

This is how most the days will look like. There are just a few other days for trips of excursions. The volunteer should attend them too.

Target group

The volunteer schould be open minded, interested in working with children (2 - 10) interested in the daily work. The volunteer should have own ideas for projects, workshops or presentations and so on. In respect of the general recruitment criteria, we wish to have volunteers who would have fun with children between 2 and 10 years of age and who are open minded. There are no other criteria´s.

Special needs

Our team will spend as much time with the volunteer as necessary. We will discuss this with the volunteer and the sending organisation before starting the project.

Due our premises to the location and architectural design we regret that we could not take on young persons with serious mobility problems. Volunteers with fewer mobility problems, for example who are able to walk an stairs, are welcome.