Ancient Odisha was a confluence of racial streams that kept on invading the state leaving their own imprints thus affecting the life style a lot. Geographically Odisha stands as a coastal corridor between the northern and southern India.

In spite of being rural, people of Odisha, have still retained India's earliest civilization in its pristine form by keeping their traditional values still alive. Not only in their secluded hamlets, but also in the countless thousands of villages in the country side one can catch a glimpse of the dwindling horizon of humanity, through the innocent and benign outlook of tile villagers. A sensitive person who happens to be a prisoner of the modern society with its stress and strain will not, while in a typical Oriya village, fail to mark the relationship of its common people with God, nature and their fellow men.

Odisha, a state of around 50,000 villages. Villages offer the beautiful natural landscapes and the proximity to the nature which come as blessing to those who have long been in the city pent. The villagers are very simple, clean in their heart and lovable personalities. Though they lead a poor life style, but their hospitality, attention towards the guests are praiseworthy. One can feel the same if visits made to the villages. If someone shares love and happiness, I am sure he will receive much more. 80% of population of Odisha lives in Villages. This Village life is very special for it's color, culture, tradition, fair & festivals and art & crafts of Odisha.

The typical "Odia" house in a village has mud walls and a gabled roof on a wood or bamboo frame thatched with straw. The rooms are contiguous with a verandah in the front opening out to an oblong or square yard known as danda and a backyard known as badi to serve as the kitchen garden. A comparatively prosperous house, of a middle class family, comprises alignment of rooms on the four sides (khanja) arranged round an inner courtyard known as agana with a separate cattle shed outside. The better constructed houses are furnished with mud ceilings built on bamboo or wooden frames to be used for storage of household articles as well as for the cooling effect in summer.

ENGAGEMENT DURING WORK CAMP

Joining OSVSWA Work Camp on the CONSTRUCTION is a great way to give back to the local community for a better living environment while learning about their culture, tradition, and basic living condition.

This is exactly what the gap year travelers joining for assisting on projects addressing basic needs such as building community centers, home repairs, other construction projects or renovating schools and playgrounds to make them suitable, conducive learning environments.

Depending on the needs on the ground at any given time, you will work alongside community members to help deliver basic needs such as improved sanitation through building eco toilets, construction of new houses or improvements on current slum dwellings, and classroom renovations.

Home Improvements
Volunteers will be involved in either building new homes or improving the infrastructure of existing buildings in a local village / urban slum. You will be assisted by local community members and guided by the leadership and expertise of local masons.

School renovation
Schools in Odisha are often extremely basic, and you will help make them more comfortable and conducive to a positive learning environment for the children. Volunteers may help brighten up classrooms with new coats of paint or lend an extra hand in helping to reconstruct, build or rebuild a school’s facilities.

Renovation of Play Ground
You will be engaged in developing the unused land to play ground. This will help the local children and the youth to live sportive.

No previous experience is required for this project. Training will be given and you will work with local masons and other locals who can guide you. There will also be OSVSWA field staff at hand. If you have special training that may be an asset to the project, please let us know when applying.

Highlights Include
The support you will provide goes a long way to improving the health and education of local community. Through developing hygienic sanitation systems, improving access to clean water and helping renovate educational facilities, you can make a real contribution to this project.

How this work camp project makes a difference:
Whichever construction work you are involved in, you will be making a significant contribution to the development of underprivileged communities. Working in schools, you will be helping to create an environment suitable for learning that the children deserve. On the eco toilet project, you will be helping ensure local people achieve the basic human right to adequate housing.

Duration: 3 weeks
Number of volunteers: 12-15
Participation fee: 350 EURO (excluding registration fees)

LANGUAGE:
English will be the language in the camp; basic conversational skills are needed. Surviving local language will be taught during the camp.

ACCOMMODATION:
Volunteers will be hosted in a local house / community house / volunteer house; sleeping on beds or mattresses in several rooms, shared by 2-4 volunteers each. Volunteers will share the duties of preparing food, cooking meals and cleaning. Please keep in mind that during this work camp, food will be provided by OSVSWA, which also means eating mainly local food, but will be taken care of less spicy.

EXTRAS / SPECIAL REMARKS:
Free time activities will be organized for OSVSWA volunteers; as day trips and excursions in the area, picnic in forest / tourist places, meeting with government officials to share the experience.