Europan Solidarity Corps

Individual volunteering opportunities

September-Oktober 2024 

APPLY HERE: https://forms.gle/YQQFNLwEhxunjEf69

ABOUT US

Sunny Hill is a sustainable homestead run by a couple in their mid-50s. Together with volunteers and a group of individuals who regularly spend longer periods on the spot we form a small and cozy community. 

Sunny Hill is also a venue for weekend and week-long workshops and events, connected to nature, community building, and sustainable lifestyles. 

FB page: https://www.facebook.com/soncnigric

Web page: https://soncnigrici-istra.eu/

INTERESTED?

Fill in the application form  

IS THIS THE RIGHT PLACE FOR YOU?

Sunny Hill is a suitable environment for nature lovers, who love silence, and enjoy long walks, reading books, painting, or playing instruments. It’s for people who enjoy working outside. The work is often organized independently (with the previous assistance of the coordinator). 

For many, staying at Sunny Hill has been a life-changing experience, that through the connection with nature brought them to a better connection with themselves.

The nearest shop and bar are 6 km away. The town of Koper is reachable by public transport Mon – Friday 3 times a day.  From Koper, there are good connections to neighbouring coastal towns and the city of Trieste in Italy. The locals are kind but reserved towards foreigners. 

Everyday life at Sunny Hill

Living at Sunny Hill offers an opportunity to combine office work with working outside. We have morning check-ins with volunteers and share tasks for the day. The community comes together for lunch and for dinner. Once a week we hold a community meeting where we share how we feel, celebrate what we achieved in the past week, and look at the plans for the next week. This is also the place to address any discomfort and share improvement proposals. 

Once a week we clean the house collectively, and we share household and maintenance tasks equally. 

What will you do?

GARDEN: physical work outside, using hand tools. You will prepare beds for new season, harvest, weed and mulch

FOOD: Cooking from the garden can be a challenge. Get creative in the kitchen and invent new recipes with what the garden offers at a given moment. Learn how to preserve food for winter, bake bread, make pasta…

ANIMALS: We milk 7 goats every morning. From the milk, we produce our delicious cheese and yoghurt. Learn how to transform milk into cheese. 

LANDSCAPING: There are always some bushes and brambles to cut and to clean walking paths in the area. The local community will be grateful for the effort. 

HOUSEHOLD: We take turns in the kitchen and with general maintenance of the household. 

Working hours: 5 hours a day / 5 days a week +  household tasks; cooking and cleaning occasionally. You will also allocate 1 hour a day for dissemination and reflection time. 

 

Accommodation: 

The house was renovated in 2016 and offers comfortable living conditions. We use dry toilets to save water, and we use only environment-friendly cosmetics and cleaning products, as we recycle water and use it for our gardens.

ESC volunteers will share a room with 2 beds, a closet, and a desk. The size of the room is about 12 m2. If you wish more privacy you can sleep in a tent provided by us. We have a spacious living room and a lot of outdoor areas. It is easy to find solitude and privacy at Sunny Hill when desired. 

We share a kitchen, bathroom, and living room. Usually, 4-8 people, including volunteers and guests, are in the house. When we organise events the number of people in the house can increase up to 20.

Food: 

We eat lunch and dinner together, breakfast is self-organised.  We cook in turns; each day another person is responsible for the kitchen. 

We cook vegetarian food, from mainly local and organic ingredients. We achieve a high level of self-sufficiency with fresh vegetables throughout the year. We have goats and from April – November we produce goat cheese and yogurt. We also have chickens for eggs.  We respect different dietary needs and preferences. 

EUROPEAN SOLIDARITY CORPS  FUNDING RULES

You can read more about ESC program here: https://europa.eu/youth/solidarity

Accommodation, food, and travel costs are covered by the program. Travel costs are refunded on the basis of your travel ticket and have a maximum cap that depends on the travel distance, and whether you travel by land (green) or by airplane. We highly encourage you to travel green (by land).

Travel:

You can reach Sunny Hill by public transport from the city of Koper.

If you travel by Bus or Train from Europe you look for tickets to either Trieste or Ljubljana and from there to Koper.

For bus connection from Trieste to Koper  follow this link. 

For bus connections from Ljubljana to Koper follow this link. 

For train connections from Ljubljana to Koper follow this link. 

From Koper to Sunny Hill 

There are buses at  15.15 and 19.15 from Koper bus station to Hrvoji or Belvedur.  From Belvedur, you walk straight for 10 minutes (don’t turn right for Topolovec!) and you will arrive at the Hrvoji village. Turn right after the Hrvoji sign and walk 200 m uphill to the bell tower. We are in the big white house below the church. 

If you arrive at Koper later than 19.15 you can call a taxi (the cost is 40 EUR and can’t be refunded by the program).  

Climate

The climate is sub-mediterranean with mild winters and hot summers. Sunny Hill is 450 m above sea level, which makes the climate a bit fresher in the summer. 

WOULD YOU LIKE TO JOIN? APPLY HERE: https://forms.gle/YQQFNLwEhxunjEf69