First of May was an opening date for a new volunteers’ season in Park istra. Village of Hrvoji was not sleeping during the winter time. We were hosting many workshops and finished most of the remaining work on our volunteers’ center, that is becoming a cosy home for volunteers trom all over the world. In the past days 14 new volunteers came from Canada, USA, Belgium, UK and Slovenia.
We celebrated the start of the new season with bonfire, singing and baking bread and pie in our oven. After a short sleep we woke up to the song of the guitar, which brought nice memories from past year, when volunteers from more than 30 countries joined forces and donated more than 9000 hours of charity work.
Goals of the coming season are to dedicate even more of our time to the local population. We want to support locals with good ideas, especially the ones with potential of creating green jobs. We also want to support projects that protect natural and cultural heritage in our region. We will help the local community to establish a museum and store for local products in a beautiful renovated farm. And, of course, we plan to continue with construction of our infrastructure – this year we plan to start renovation of the empty school in Hrvoji.
In the next days we plan to meet the representatives of local community and establish a strategy of supporting the inhabitants of our remote region, where only 10 percent of past population still remains.
We re looking forward to establish new friendships, to work, learn and to experience positive energy that spreads around Park Istra like a virus, bringing smiles to the faces of the people around us.
Text: Petra Matos
Foto: Christian Wiebe