Language: English, Russian is welcome
Location: Ryazan is situated in the center of the European part of Russia, is often referred to as the symbol of Russian province.
Ryazan is a large historical, cultural, student, transport, military and industrial city. It is located in the Central Federal District, the distance to Moscow is about 200 km (it takes about 2,5 hours to get to Moscow). The population of the Ryazan region is approximately 1 200 000 people.
Ryazan is an old picturesque town with many churches, museums and theatres. It was founded over 900 years ago. The Kremlin is the most ancient place of interest in Ryazan. Ryazan is a birthplace of a famous Russian poet Sergey Esenin. Some of the Nobel Prize laureates were born here too, such as academician Pavlov or Soljenitsyn one of the most famous Russian writers.
There are several national parks and reserves around Ryazan region. The National park "Mescherskiy" is famous for the beautiful lakes and rivers (some of them are with "peat water"), coniferous forests, animals from the Red Book.
Partner organization: NGO “Environmental Ryazan alliance” (ERA). www.erarzn.ru
The organization was set up in 2010 by an action group having taken part in the forest fire fighting in the Ryazan Region.
The main purpose of the organization is to unite our society, direct its attention to environmental issue, pollution and order control in the Ryazan Region, Russia and in the whole world. Our main projects: “Urban Ecology” – the provision of urban amenities; an international action “Let’s do it!”; “Forest forum” – the project of the regional woods regeneration, the environmental education of pupils and students; “Clean Pra river” – the collection of household refuse along the Pra river in the Meshchyorsky National Park and the promotion of ecological awareness of campers.
Work:
1. The Ryazan region is one of the Russia regions which suffered the most for the fires of 2010. In nature it takes the forest from 20 till 70 years to rehabilitation. The project aim is to accelerate these processes.
Project tasks: to care of young plants, monitoring and prevention of occurrence of fires. We plan to work with volunteer from all over Russia.
2. We plan to make “pieces” of different countries in one of the public gardens in Ryazan for children to study the world and we need your ideas and help. Please, think about flowerbeds, decorations for benches, patterns for fences, compositions and so on.
3. We’ll take part in “Clean Pra river” project for 2 days (kayaks).
4. Music festival (jazz, blues, etc.) for 3 last days. Have fun and take part in action against garbage.
Accommodation: Volunteers will live in tents in the student camping in a very beautiful place with 3 lakes (40 km from Ryazan, there is a public transport to this place). Meal is provided. There are 2 supermarkets near camp-place. There is a doctor in the camp. Pharmacies and post-offices are in Ryazan. We’ll have the mobile Internet point.
Please bring working clothes, sleeping bag and tourist carpet, mosquito repellents, swimming suit, raincoat, closed ankle boots or trainers, wool sweater, scarf or sun hat, light, … cards with sights of your Counties&cities, your favorite musical instruments (not big), something for your country presentation in the public garden, ets.
Free time activities: Sightseeing in Ryazan and region, international cultural events, friendly evenings with local people in very beautiful nature places, meetings about ecological problems all over the world, festival events.
Requirements: Volunteers have experience in tourism are really welcomed! Volunteers with heavy diseases aren’t recommended to take part in this workcamp, it could be hard to get to hospital very fast (from Pra river especially).
Transportation: 2,5-3 hours from Moscow by train or bus.