Meotida
16/07-29/07, 2003
SVIT, ECC "Bakhmat"
Project coordinator, campleader: Julia Myasyshcheva
Organization and Preparation: active preparation to the project has started in May 2003 with recruitment of international volunteers for the workcamp, and communication with administration of regional landscape park "Meotida". The group was formed by the end of July, consisted of six foreign (1 French and 5 Belgian) and five Ukrainian volunteers. During several meetings and phone conversations with administration of regional landscape park (RLP) "Meotida" work and study part of the workcamp were discussed, logistical issues and tasks for SVIT/Bakhmat and park staff.
Project: the camp has started on July 16th, with arrival of the whole group to the park, building up and equipping campsite. The campsite was located about 2 km away from Sedovo village, in the zone of regulated recreation of the RLP, in the neighborhood of inspector’s cabin. Participants were sleeping in tents; kitchen consisted of a fireplace, table with benches and self-made place for doing dishes. Every day two people were on duty, responsible for cooking, dishes, watching the camp and maintaining the camp area in order. For shopping, we could use car from the park. Sometimes in the afternoon the whole group was going to the village for shopping and walking around.
Because of the hard rains during the first days, we could not start working as planned. Later, with improvement of weather, we started with cleanup activities on the territory of reservation, occasionally helping inspectors to deal with illegal visitors. Totally, about 3-4km long part of the spit was cleaned from plastic bottles and other plastic trash brought by the sea. Additionally to this, it was planned for the second week to split up in two groups: for one group to continue with cleanup, for the second - to improve fence of the reservation (about 50 meters border on the spit) and to build up a tower for better observation of the reservation. With this part of the work, many organizational difficulties have started, as park administration was not coming in time, changing their plans without telling us in advance, materials and tools were not ready, or inspectors who were working in the reservation did not know how to build up the fence and tower. Because of this These difficulties were explained by having inspection of Control-Revision Department and Prosecution, which administration was very busy with.
Group: the group consisted of 10 volunteers and a groupleader, aged between 16 and 25, 5 males and 6 females. Due to several cancellations from international volunteers, it was possible to have only three nationalities represented. Such composition could easily lead to development of two national groups and lack of joint team spirit. However, as international volunteers were interested to learn about Ukraine and meet Ukrainian people, and Ukrainian participants wanted to improve their English, it helped in development of good group dynamics. Some volunteers did not speak English well enough, but for this translation was available (French – English and Russian – English). Most of the time participants spoke English, switching into native language only with the countrymen, or when translation was necessary. There were no conflicts within the group, but during the second week emotional tension was developed, caused by difficulties with work and unreliable attitude of some park staff members. Round discussion of this tension was made by the whole group, which helped to restore the good atmosphere in the group.
Free time and study part: formal study part consisted of two excursions: to the reservation zone of the RLP "Meotida", bird watching, information about the park, it’s flora and fauna, it’s structure and functions, history of the area. Second excursion was to "Khomutovskaya Steppe" reservation, part of National Ukrainian Steppe Reservation of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. It included information about the reservation, local flora and fauna, visit to the museum of the reservation, little tour through the reservation on the horseback, information about history of the area and Scythian statues of gods, aged more than 2000 years old. Free time activities included Ukrainian and Belgian cultural evenings, discussions on Ukrainian and Belgian history, social and cultural life, campfires in the evening, discussion of Ukrainian superstitions and proverbs, visit to the Museum of polar researcher Georgy Sedov, going out to the discos and pubs of Sedovo, swimming in the sea, playing table games etc.
Follow-up possibilities: RLP is planning to equip the zone of regulated recreation with huts and showers, install trash containers, build camping for children, all this using reed growing in the RLP and some wood, and park administration is interested to involve volunteers for completing some of these tasks. However, for the follow-up activity the organizational problems of this workcamp should be considered and steps foreseen to evade them.