OKO - vzdelavaci a rozvojove centrum, z.s.

description of organisation

OKO centre is a non-profit non-governmental organisation (NGO) working mainly with children and youths aged 4-30 (60%) as well as adults (40%) in the region of north-east of the Czech Republic – Hradec Kralove region. We are based in the town of Rychnov nad Kneznou with the population about 12000.

Our mission is:
1) to help, support and motivate children, young people and adults in their education, development and personal activities,
2) to connect our region with Europe and the whole world,
3) to help people from our region become more open and tolerant towards other cultures,
4) to help, support and motivate young people to live healthily and to be active in their life.

We deal with educational activities, development, volunteering, culture, publication and publishing activities. We arrange language courses, specialized courses, trainings and seminars, workshops, summer camps, international youth exchanges, cultural meetings and cultural exhibitions, tourist trips, social and international meetings of young people and ESC volunteering.

Volunteers at our centre work with children and youths aged 4-30 (70%) and adults (30%), they organize regular exhibitions, workshops, teach language classes, update online social network and blogs and during summer they take part in summer camps, international youth exchanges and intercultural meetings. Volunteers most often work with groups of 4-15 people, less often with groups of 15-30 people. We cooperate with schools, a job centre, our municipal authorities, other NGOs, also with companies, and, above all, with our local community. Our volunteering activities are varied. We offer the opportunity of personal growth, volunteers are welcome to use their own ideas, thoughts and skills. We are happy to send a detailed description of volunteer activities to all candidates for our project, or they can be found on our website: http://oko-centrum.cz/dospeli- evs-european-voluntary-service-in-oko/.

We prefer to host volunteers for long term project (10-12 months) for a school year (from September to August of the coming year).

OKO centre employs 2 people full time, 12 people part-time. We are hosting volunteers from all over Europe and support and cooperate with 5 Czech volunteers. We are active in KA1 and KA2 parts of Erasmus Plus program, especially projects for children and young people.

It needs to be mentioned that our volunteers often find Rychnov small and a bit too quiet town or even a village, while others, often those who come from the country themselves, appreciate Rychnov as a lovely and peaceful place with wonderful countryside around. Life here is very quiet: shops close at 5:30pm at weekdays and they are usually closed at weekends, restaurants close at 11pm but there are some non-stop pubs. A lot of young people leave this town after school to study in bigger towns. Prague is about 150 km far, Hradec Králové is about 45 km far from Rychnov and there are trains every 1 hour going to these cities. The journey to Prague takes about three hours with three changes. On the other hand, there are a lot of nature areas around Rychnov: rivers, lakes and woods where you can go to relax. There are also plenty of small picturesque villages, castles, and lookout towers in the countryside. There are gyms and sport teams you can join, a swimming pool, in winter you can go cross-country skiing or downhill skiing in Orlicke Hory mountains (they are about 20km far only). There is a bowling alley and a squash court in Rychnov, or if you like music, there is a choir and a music school you can join to sing, play an instrument or take music classes. A guitar is available for volunteers in their flat. There is also a cinema, a theatre and a small club. In the spring and the summer there are a lot of open air festivals and concerts you can go to, where you can also camp. The area around here is very safe.

Accommodation - volunteers will be provided a single room in a shared flat with other volunteers. The kitchen and the bathroom are shared. The rooms and the kitchen are fully furnished and can be used by the volunteer. Two volunteers will usually stay in one flat - each of them will have his/her own room.

Because our city is located in the foothills only 25 km from the Polish border and we do not have as many tourists or as many opportunities as there are in big cities, the implementation of volunteering is a great benefit for us and our local community. Hosting volunteers helps to connect our region and local community with the world, for many children this is their first opportunity to meet a foreigner or to talk to a native speaker. Sending our young people out into the world gives them the opportunity to get to know other cultures, a different landscape, help where needed = do a good thing, learn a new language and return to us enriched with valuable knowledge and experiences.