pauline's experience 

That's my projet description you can found on internet: Project environment Tapolan Kyläyhteisö (Camphill Community Tapola), member of the international Camphill Movement, is a residential life-sharing community with adults with mental redardation, where disabled and ablebodied people live and work together. In six households we live together like in big families and everybody works and according to his/her abilities.Tapola's work is in the field of antroposophical social therapy. Activities include everyday household chores, farming, gardening, weaving, beewax candlemaking, or work in the creamery. Our biodynamic farming and gardening is a main task, where motivated young volunteers can get many experiences from the ecological way of life. Also the creamery, which produce from the own milk, hard and soft cheese, butter, ice cream and jogurt, is a large field for expiriences. Knowledge and previous work experience can be deepend and is welcomed, but not necessary. Also a group helps with the renovating of Tapola's old wood workshop to establish a café. The building is a very old museum building and will be opened in Summer 2004. The village community of Niinikoski will make together with Tapola Community a cafe and social meeting point with offical internet possibilities. A new living house is planned to be build in 2004, also there will be activities for a group at the building side. After finishing the new living house, there will be more possibilities for eldery residents to join individually their lifetasks. Everybody participates in the activities according to his/her abilities. Tapolas co-workers and volunteers strive together to build a community of brotherhood. Every Wednesday is a village seminar for everybody with a educational and an artistic part. Evening groups like dance and choir, disco in our hall and Saturday morning swimming in the nearby town Orimattila belongs also to regular activities. Every Tuesday and Friday is Sauna for everybody, who wants. Niinikoski is situated 110 km north-east from Helsinki, 35 km east from Lahti (60.000 inhabitants) and 10 km from Orimattila, a nearby town (14 000 Inhabitants), where you can find all basic services, for example banks, post, police, shops, sport-activities, library, an adult college and a swimming hall. In Niinikoski, a small farming village of 300 people, there is a little shop, a tennis court, a horse-farm and an outdoor ice-hockey rink. Tapola is like a little village on its own in the centre of Niinikoski village, open to the neighbourhood. Skiing possibilities are mostly very good in Niinikoski. In Lahti there is a famous wintersport centre, Messilä. The adult college offers a lot of different courses in Orimattila. The aim of Tapolan Kyläyhteisö is to foster mutual interdependence and independence among its members and strive for environmental and ecological viability. Six households with 34 villagers (adults with mental redardation) and 20 co-workers and their 10 children build up a life-sharing community. Besides the households as the basic homes for all residents, there are different kinds of workshops: farm, garden, herbworkshop, creamery, weavery, beewax candle workshop, kitchens, laundries, and renovating workshop. After finishing the renovating of the old school building/ wood workshop into a café, it will make a meeting point for the villagers of Niinikoski and Tapola residents, with offical internet possibilities etc. Some of the Tapola villagers need personal support in the everyday life, others are more or less indipendent. Tapola offers art and music therapy, and curative eurythmie for the disabled people. Tapola's work is in the field of anthroposophical social therapy. No specific knowledge or previous work experience is required of the volunteers. Activities include everyday household chores, farming, gardening, weaving, woodwork and baking. Everybody participates in the activities according to their abilities. Tasks Because we are an international community, the volunteer will meet daily people from different countries. Everybody has breakfast at their house 7:30 - 8:00, and then will meet at 8:30 in the Hall, where we start the day together. There is a bright variety of helping possibilities in Tapola, and every volunteer helps where she/he is needed. We try to place volunteers in different workshops in the morning and afternoon to give a rounded-out experience. This will of course depend both on the skills of the volunteer as well as the needs at the time. The volunteers never need to do one-to-one caretaking tasks, there will always be a member of permanent staff present helping them. Usually one volunteer helps half a day in the weavery, another half a day in the creamery and half a day in the houses. Often one volunteer wants to work in the farm and this work is done in mornings and afternoons. One of the volunteers will then be half a day in the candle workshop. F.ex. in 2003 one volunteer wanted to join the music lessons with the disabled people, and did it on one morning per week together with the music therapist. For one interested in building and renovating work, there is the wood workshop. Work activities finish at 16:30 with a 2-hour midday break. Two times a week the volunteers take part in finnish lessons, and in the wintertime we offer a village seminar for everybody, so that workshops are closed at that time except the stable. We expect in our community the volunteer to take part in our cultural and social activities, household chores and free-time program. This is not a question of working all day, but of life sharing. It is more like sharing responsibility in a family. The volunteer will have two free days per week. 4 weeks of holiday belongs to everybody, who stays for one year in our community. Target group The main criterias are: personal discription of the volunteer, his/her real interest in people with special needs, a willingness to give community life a try, and a willingness to learn Finnish. Use of drugs and alcohol are absolutly forbidden in the community. No business activities with the residents are allowed. No sexual relations with the disabled residents are allowed. The volunteer needs to send a certificate of good health and a fotograph of him/herself. Special needs Our project can involve volunteers with less opportunities to a certain extend. We have no problems with volunteers, who have gone very little to school, or have some basic handicaps with their body. But we take now care of 35 disabled people, so we have to decide each case individually. Basic english skills are absolutely necessary. We are able to take volunteers from less-privileged cultural, geographical or socio-economic backgrounds, if the person has basic english skills. We have had good experience with people with less opportunities, some even did not come through the EVS program, but through other organisations. Special persons not growing up with both parents have often find a real home in our community. Our physical infrastruture is not set for to take persons in wheelchairs. With other special needs it is at a certain extend possible, but it depends on the individual.