Part 1 of 2 Talking to HOS about WWOOF

I am talking to HandsOnSwitzerland (www.handsonswitzerland.ch) about WWOOF (www.wwoofinternational.org) and WWOOF Switzerland (www.wwoof.zapfig.com).

(About WWOOF)

Hello, I want to say big "Thank You" to the organizers for inviting me here to speak, even if I am not a speaker. When I accepted to come here and speak to you I thought: Well that's a challenge. Later I felt stressed when thinking about today. "What have I loaded onto myself?"

Maybe it is the best if I just tell you how I came to WWOOF.

I always liked living with other people and when I had my own place I often had some people staying with me exchanging some help in return for the possibility to stay. Later I was travelling and living in Australia. There I stayed in a community who were also WWOOF hosts and I got to know some WWOOFers.

WWOOFers were the volunteers who came to stay with my hosts and they were helping in their organic fruit and vegetable orchard.

I became a WWOOF volunteer myself and I stayed at many WWOOF farms. What I liked most about being a WWOOFer in Australia, was that the hosts were always working together with me, so every evening I had the feeling that I had got to know the life of an other interesting person.

On average I was helping 4 to 6 hours a day and for that I learned what my hosts were growing, I got a place to stay and something to eat. I remember staying at a community of 22 houses and every day I was helping an other community member. They all were trying their best so that I would later tell that I got the best food at their place. That was really a treat.

WWOOFing was for me like a practical way of brainstorming about what one can also do in life. One farmer I stayed with, for example, was growing herbs on a piece of land that was about as big as my garden at home. Selling these herbs on the market was his major part of income. I thought I could also do that. I have not done it so far, but it is still a possibility.

(WWOOF Switzerland)

Back in Switzerland I thought one should also start a WWOOF organization in Switzerland because it offers so many interesting and inspiring contacts. But there was also an other WWOOFer called Patrick Bill who had this idea at the same time. I gave what I had already prepared to him and he built WWOOF Switzerland and ran it for two years until he moved to France to start a farm himself.

Then I knew Thomas Schwager and I suggested him and he ran WWOOF Switzerland until he was offered a very demanding job with a bigger agricultural organization.

At that time I was not travelling so much anymore and that is why I finally was interested to run WWOOF Switzerland myself. Since I have been doing this I always enjoyed all the contacts that I had thanks to this activity.

(History of WWOOF)

WWOOF had started in 1971 when a secretary in London was looking for some people who would want to work with her on an organic farm on the weekend. She made an ad in a magazine and quite a few of people responded. So WWOOF was born. At that time it meant "Working Weekends On Organic Farms".
The idea caught on. The farms liked getting helpers and some of them wanted to dedicate more time to this than just the weekend. So it became Willing Workers On Organic Farms.

In the year 2000 there was the first international conference of WWOOF coordinators. There we renamed WWOOF again to WorldWide Opportunities on Organic Farms to make it clear that WWOOF is not a work agency and that it is the opportunities that actually are the soul of the organization.

At that conference in 2000 I have been proposed to accept the position of International WWOOF Spokesman (Just because I had made a few jokes and because they wanted someone who spoke an other language than English.) And here today in 2007 I am first time talking in public.

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• WWOOF
• Nonprofit

[Smore34]

stay close home for your first wwoofing.

[gajdosstarr]

I am interested too. The advice below is good. Stay close to home first. I have considered it and I have a little girl...but women have to always be careful no matter what they are doing if they are doing it alone.

[shinygoldcar]

People wwoof for different reasons. Not everyone does it to travel, some do it to volunteer, or help the organic movement, or get organic farming experience. There are advantages to doing it close to home. You can just do it for a couple of weeks (or even a weekend) just to see what it's like without committing to going to the other side of the world. And all the obvious language, culture stuff. I'm a UK wwoofer from the UK, and I enjoyed it. Like you say "part" of the excitement, not all of it!

[junkyardfaerie1]

its a great way to see your own backyard.. and if like myself you are looking for knowledge as to managing your own smallholding it is priceless.

[GodoftheChimps]

But why would anyone want to WWOOF close to home? I think part of the excitement is living in another country, and experiencing other cultures, ideas, etc. if you have a child, I suppose staying close to home is a good idea.

[Jahocean]

Yes same here..with the way things are going i feel it is time to get out of America. and i would love to experience orangic farming..I am a young female as well..if you find any info It would be nice to kno what is safest! thanks

[SarahLeeAnn]

I am interested in WWOOFing, but I'm worried about how safe it is your a young women to do by herself. If anyone has any advice or input, it would be appreciated.

[oeufgwoieu]

HEY HEIDI!!