EVS vacancy in SPEA (Lisbon, Portugal)

Associação Spin, acting as the coordinating organization, is currently looking for one Spanish volunteer for our partner institution, Sociedade Portuguesa para o Estudo das Aves.

Host: SPEA
Coordinator: Associação Spin
Sending: Amigos da Terra-Xuventud Galizia
Project name: Down to Earth
Activity start date: 1st September 2016
Activity end date: 31st May 2017
Activity duration: 9 months
Vacancies: 1 (for Spanish residents exclusively)
Application deadline: 18th July 2015
Application consists of: CV and project-specific motivation letter
Application sent to: sve@amigosdaterra.net or evs.spea@gmail.com

The Portuguese Society for the Study of Birds is a non- governmental non-profit environment organization that promotes the study and conservation of birds and their habitats in Portugal.

The volunteer’s tasks will be to:

-Preparing and settling up environment related events and conferences
-Help preparing study-field trips, endemic species counting and characterization
-Help organizing courses and campaigns to increase ornithological and environmental knowledge
-Prepare sessions of environmental citizenship education for youngsters as well as for the general public
-Research, collect information and establish contacts with entities/ programmes for future collaborations
-Support to the coordinator team in project management/creation and drafting scientific reports.

SPEA intends to support the volunteers to create their own events or initiatives, in accordance with their principles and upon Board’s approval.

Conditions:
Volunteers are expected to spend 30-35 hours a week working. Their timetable will include space for work in the Culture Department, language lessons, days off, social activities and development
of their own project ideas, etc.

Concerning the stay of the EVS volunteers, the coordinating organization, Associação Spin, will provide the lodging in an apartment, double bedroom with fully equipped kitchen, toilet, laundry facilities and living room. The costs with electricity, water, gas, tv, are covered by the Coordinating Organization. The volunteers will have to share the apartment with other volunteers/students/young people. Each volunteer will also be sharing their room with another youngster, volunteer or student, of the same gender. The flat will have all standard and safe living conditions as well as respect all hygiene and general Portuguese safety standards. It will be located as close as possible to the workplace and the city center. The Coordinating Organization will provide towels and bed linen for the entire period of the project.
The volunteer will use the public transportation network with the “Lisboa Viva” c
ard which will be provided.

A monthly allowance is provided by the coordinating organization to cover food expenses and local public transportation, including also pocket money. The volunteer will be provided with lunch free of charge on every working day.

Volunteer profile:

We are looking for young motivated volunteers aged 18-30, open minded, eager to learn about new cultures and lifestyles, as well as to participate in the project activities. It is not required to have any particular degree of formal education, but to have positive and proactive attitude, show tolerance, flexibility, motivation and enthusiasm. In this project, patience and the capacity to work in a team will be highly appreciated. We encourage applications especially from youngsters who already have some experience in volunteering or in working with environment related issues, available to commit to a long term experience of volunteer work abroad and willing to know more about the work developed in ornithology and environmental preservation in Portugal . Priority is given to candidates with fewer opportunities (please consult the sending organization whether this status applies in your situation). Any knowledge of Portuguese is a plus, however it is not a requirement.

Special remarks (please read carefully):

• this project has already received funding from the Erasmus+ Program, so it is sure that it starts in September
• only candidates residing in Spain can apply (our sending partner organization is from Spain, there is no possibility of change in this regard)
• we only accept complete applications that contain all the required documents
• we can´t consider applications sent after the deadline
• send your application to  sve@amigosdaterra.net or evs.spea@gmail.com, applications sent through other communication channels (Facebook, Youthnetworks, etc.) will not be considered
• due to the high number of candidates, we are only able to contact the short-listed candidates (in order to invite them for a brief Skype interview)all the other candidates will be informed about the selection results by August, 10th through our website.

Good Luck!