Villa Villacolle

Kids and Agricolture

Minimum Stay 2 weeks

Villa VillaColle is a house where lives a family that hosts small children (0 – 5 years old) abandoned by their families.

This is a “Foster home” a “Casa Famiglia”, on a voluntary basis. Both parents are educators with a long experience as social workers. They have three boys who live at home.

The best thing for children is to live in their families but, if not possible, another family can give them something close to what they need, and the aim of Villa Villa colle is to give the kids the care and support they need while they are away from their families.

The numbers of kids we host can vary, but usually we host from one to 3 kids.

They host children for short period (1 year maximum) while the social service help the original family to solve their problems or to find the long term solution for the kids.

Villa Villacolle is based live out in the countryside. The family life style is very simple, they like to grow their own food, to cut and collect the wood in the forest for the winter. The family has a small farm with honey bees, a vegetable garden, some fruit trees and many chestnuts. They are vegetarian. The family would like to host people that understand their choices and that can help them to put them into practice.

APPLY

Culture

Learning

Leisure

Community Engagement

Physical Demand

Location

Living

Project

People & Volunteers

ROLE AND TASKS

They look for volunteers that help in all the things that needs to be done in such a house:

Taking care of children (playing with them, giving them food, looking after them,helping them with their homework);
Cleaning;
Cooking (helping during the meals)
Taking care of the garden;
Preparing wood for the winter;
Refurbishing works of a new building;
Helping with honeybees.

Activties might vary according to the season, to the number of kids in the house (it might happen that some weeks the family does not host any kids) and the interests/attitudes of the volunteers.

LOCATION

Closest Airport: Genova Airport

Pick up: at Sestri Levante train station

Location: Castiglione Chiavarese

Villa Villacolle is based live out in the countryside surrounded by nature and we live in Castiglione Chiavarese village.

The house is out of the village, in the mountain, facing the sea.

There is a bus stop at 3.5 kilometers from the house (15 minutes walking distance), where you can find also a little shop. Busses drive to Varese Ligure or to Sestri Levante, where there is a train station and all the main services.

Other places close to Villa VillaColle

Varese Ligure It’s known as Round Village for the form of the piazza. It’s a certified organic village, in Val di Vara. There are many reasons for a trip to the upper Val di Vara, the green heart of the La Spezia territory, which has obtained the hallmark of valley of organic production: the first in Italy to understand the value of nature and naturalness. The public lighting of the streets in Varese Ligure runs on wind energy in the green spirit of the valley for eco-sustainable management of the territory, and the meat is certified with an organic hallmark, as is the milk.

Sestri Levante. Lying on the Mediterranean Sea, it is approximately 56 kilometres (35mi) south of Genoa and is set on a promontory. This once quiet fishing village is slowly turning into a tourist hotspot, developing an old and a new town. The town has two bays: Baia del Silenzio, the (Bay of Silence) and Baia delle Favole, (Bay of the Fables), and it is not far from the famous Cinque Terre,very beautiful villages by the coast.

PRACTICAL ARRANGEMENTS

Working hours

Villa Villacolle can arrange with the volunteer the best timetable together. They can be flexible, but usually the family needs help in the morning and in the afternoon, and sometimes in the evenings.

The volunteers could carry out the voluntary services from 10:00 to 15:00 and then from 17.30 to 19.30, but the timetable might change according to the situations. In any case volunteers will not work more than 35 hours per week.

The familiy wishes the volunteers to be quite flexible concerning the hours as the timetable can often vary according to children needs.

Days off

The volunteer will have two free days (not necessarily Saturdays and Sundays) a week and two free days a month (for project with a minimum duration of 4 weeks).

ACCOMMODATION AND FOOD

Accommodation

The place is made of two houses, in one there is the family home, in the other there are rooms for guests and one room for the volunteers.

Blankets and bedlinen are already in the room. The family house has wi-fi as well.

Food

The organization will offer the volunteeers 3 meals per day for the whole week. The volunteers might have meals by themselves or with the family according to the number of volunteers hosted.