Maki 3

CODE: NICE-25S-0602A

Work:

We will help their organic farming (planting rice and vegetables, weeding in the vegetable fields, taking care of goats and chicken) and also carry the things from the town, renovate the trails, help their house work such as cooking, washing, clearing, etc. Be ready to work for quite a long time (05:30-18:00 with some brakes) and hard! It'd be surely good exercise to make your body more healthy!

Accomodation and food

Volunteers will sleep in a few rooms of the house that is a very beautiful cultural heritage and equips the basic facilities such as water, electricity and a bath room! They will have meals, meetings and social life with Kyodo Gakusha members in the main building (just 30 meters far). Meals will be cooked by volunteers together with the members by turns. Sleeping bag is not necessary.

Location and leisure

Maki is located in the beautiful place near “Japanese Northern Alps”, at about 900 meters asl. and there is something remained here that most of Japanese areas have lost in modernization. Other activities - Exchange program, Excursion on a free day (possibly to Hakuba, a famous tourism spot), etc.

Project hosted by

This project is actively working for SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) and SDGs 10 (Reduced Inequalities), organized together with Kyodo Gakusha since 2000, a cooperative community where people with various backgrounds such as mentally disadvantaged, people who are tired of city life, who want to learn farming, who want to live in the nature, etc. They have 5 communities in Japan incl. Maki and Tateya and grow animals and vegetables in ecological, organic way. Maki is located in a very isolated area (not accessible for cars and we have to walk 4 km in the mountains!), so it once became an abandon village in 1970s and then, was revived by Kyodo Gakusha. Over 10 people were living till several years ago, but less and less in these years (almost nobody in the winter), so vols. are needed even more!
*Outcome of this workcamp: In 2024, we had 8 vols. from 6 countries who greatly contributed to the organic farming! See the long-term goal of this project as Local SDGs made by the previous project leader at https://www.slideshare.net/nice-workcamp/2019-ep3-188767935 (only in Japanese, sorry, but you can still enjoy the pictures!)

Directions to meeting point

Additional comments

Study theme - Similar type of communities in each country and their networking Participation fee - 9,000 JPY (54 EUR by the rate on 2024 Nov. 2nd) of "NICE Volunteers" fee need to be paid in advance either by Card or PayPal. This is used for the project preparation/ coordination such as the transportation of the camp leaders while the meals and the accommodation are provided by the local host by free. Other - The popular documentary film for this place was broadcasted in 2015 at arayashiki-movie.jp/en/.