ESN Fire Protection

ESN Valencia organised in July-August, the first edition of the SocialErasmus Environmental Volunteering: Fire Prevention. 60 people from 14 different countries have enjoyed this unique experience in Valencian forests: trekking, rafting, astronomy… More info inside!
From the 15th of July till the 15th of August the 3 ESN Sections from Valencia (ESN Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, ESN Universidad de Valencia y ESN Universidad Católica de Valencia) with the collaboration of the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia and the Mancomunidad del interior tierra del vino (local authorities of the region of Valencia) organised an environmental volunteering project called “Fire Prevention in the forests of Utiel-Requena (Province of Valencia)”
The program combined daily surveillance walks through the fire-endangered forests with leisure activities such as: rafting, trekking, astronomy, integration games, orientation, cooking lessons…
The project was four weeks long, with different volunteers each week. The first two weeks, the activity was conducted nearby Requena in a cottage with swimming pool and sports facilities. The latter two weeks we spent in the middle of the forests of Utiel, at 1100 Meter above sea level, where our participants could escape from the Valencia’s hot summer. During the four weeks, accommodation, food, material for the activities and petrol expenses were provided by the three ESN sections with the help of the funds from: Mancomunidad del interior tierra del vino and the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, resulting in a participation fee of 25 Euro per week.
60 volunteers participated during the four weeks in this project, representing 14 different countries: Spain, Poland, Italy, Czech Republic, Austria, Switzerland, Germany, Greece, Tunisia, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine, Latvia and France. All of them enjoyed the project and learned a lot about the conservation of our environment. For us it has been a great experience and pleasure to organise this event for the very first time in such a multicultural atmosphere.
See you next summer!

Written by: Victor Barea

Partners: Communidad Valenciana, Universidad Politecnica de Valencia

Link: http://esnfireprevention.upv.es/?lang=en