GENERAL INFORMATION

With our 2022 workcamp program, ijgd welcomes you to send volunteers to our international workcamps in Germany. We offer a wide range of projects in which volunteers get involved in meaningful work and take an active part in the daily decision-making processes of group life. As the worldwide pandemic AND political situation is still unstable, we highly recommend your volunteers to buy refundable travel tickets. We will confirm every camp 4 weeks before the camp starts. Our hygiene and infection protection concept is continuously revised and adapted to the current situation. Both partner organizations and volunteers should read this carefully.

About Ijgd

Ijgd is a non-profit, non-denominational organization which has been active in international youth work since 1949. Each year ijgd organizes international youth workcamps in Germany. In cooperation with partner organizations of the Alliance a worldwide network has been created, so that volunteers can participate in workcamps all over the world. However, this program will focus on workcamps in Germany. Our aim is to encourage young people to become aware of existing social and environmental conditions, enabling them to become an active and responsible participant in a democratic society. This learning process leads (among other things) to the examination of one’s own cultural norms and values. Consequently, it will help break down barriers between people which have been built on cultural, social and ethnical differences. This development of international understanding is regarded as a contribution to the furtherance of world peace. Ijgd is a registered charity and does not have a political, religious or institutional affiliation. ijgd receives funds from the European Union and from the German Ministry for Youth.

Ijgd Workcamp Conditions

• Age limit: Participants are usually between 16 to 26 years (except Teenage-Camps 14-17 years and camps that are explicitly only from 18-26). ESC Projects are open from 18-30. We can’t do any exceptions regarding the mentioned age.
• Minors (under 18 years) need written permission (which they must bring to the camp!) from their guardians. PA will be attached to the infosheet
• Please note that we made some important changes for our season 2022: 18+ volunteers don’t need to pay any extra incoming Fee anymore (you remember? we had this new Fee of 50€ from 2019) BUT: we decided to charge the regular teenage fee of 150€ for volunteers under 18 who apply for our mixed-aged camps. We had to decide this, as our Camps became younger and younger and 18+ volunteers applied less. But also, for our leaders it became more and more a challenge with more than 50% Teenagers in every camp!
• Camp language: English is the camp language in most ijgd camps. It is important that volunteers speak at least basic English! If the camp language is not English, a special mention is made in the project description.
• Work: Volunteers will work about 30 hours a week (for example six hours a day, five days a week). Weekends are free. Exceptions are mentioned in the descriptions and are made according to the needs of the project.
• Accommodation: Accommodations will usually be in schools, gyms, youth centres, scouts huts or similar. In general, there are basic conditions but all facilities like kitchen, toilets and showers are available. If not, it is mentioned in the description.
• Camp Leaders: Usually, our camps have two camp leaders, trained through ijgd seminars, which will support the organisation of free time activities, keep an account for the money for food and free time activities as well as provide some support to group processes. Due to the principal of self-organization, leaders should not have a leadership role, rather be a participant themselves. They are also responsible for the contact to the project’s partners, to take care of administrative details and to ensure self-organization of the group. Apart from these responsibilities, they are volunteers like the others.
• Food: In most work camps, meals are prepared in a self-organised manner by participants. The group cook together (in cooking teams). Money for the food shopping is provided. Vegetarian or vegan meals are possible.
• Insurance: All relevant insurance (personal accident, illness, third liability) is provided only within the official camp dates. EU volunteers are not insured against illness, that ́s why they have to bring the European Health Insurance Card EHIC. We strongly recommend to (non-EU) volunteers who plan to travel beyond these dates to bring their own insurance.
• COVID-19: ijgd will follow the national regulations and organise the projects in a way that they are as safe as possible. But the evolution of the infection situation and its dynamic cannot be foreseen. This makes planning difficult. Therefore we will have so called 2G+ or 3G+ Camps, depending also on the wishes of our local hosts. In Camps mentioned as 2G+ we only accept volunteers who are either fully vaccinated (2 to 3 shots) or recovered (date of infection must be at least 28 days old and max 90 days old). All participants must arrive with an official negative rapid test (not older than 24 hours) or PCR test (not older than 48 hours). On arrival, this and a vaccination or recovery certificate must be presented (in 3G+ Camps only the negative test result must be presented) and a self-rapid test must be carried out. Thereafter, the entire group must perform a rapid self-test at least every 72 hours. We will provide self-rapid tests for the arrival and the whole camp period!
• We ask all volunteers to book refundable tickets, as ijgd cannot reimburse any travel tickets, no matter the circumstances.