Save the ruins of a Slovak monastery - Katarinka

Months before summer are the most important – preparations for a new season of conservation are on the peek, volunteers are meeting often and teams are working quite vividly.  Other - specialised trainings were organised in this quarter. They were supervised by experienced and skilled “older” volunteers. Most important one was teaching volunteers how to conserve the ruins properly and how to solve issues connected to restoration work. They all had possibilities to train those skills more times throughout the period of time.

It should to be noted that all these trainings were designed as interactive, socializing, trainee-oriented, educational and enjoyable activities in which they actively participated.

The second quarter was as well a period during which new teams of leaders for each 2-week summer camp were built form those trained volunteers, who were both interested and chosen to be a part of it. Since then, they have been meeting, planning, preparing and organising everything necessary for those camps. These new teams have been supported greatly in their activities and meetings since they are those who will take responsibility for all those young volunteers who will come to summer camps with great expectations.

This was also a period when new volunteers were recruited and during which most of them sent their application forms to participate on camp.

With the end of the period preparing the camp site for the season 2015 started and so the weekend working workshops (cleaning the area, assembling the camp kitchen, building tents, etc.).

During this training period, volunteers are thought about health and safety at work, too. This training was happening at a freshly built camp near the ruin of Katarínka. 

One of the training was focused on educating new tourist-guides which throughout the whole season communicate with visitors, introducing them the history of the place, its cultural value, present them the project Katarínka, our work and goals. 

During this quartel a few events for public were organised as well. One of them was the Night of churches when our visitors could experience the charm of Katarínka during night, enlightened only by candles and the stars. There was a guided–tour focused on sacred history of this place, concert of classical musicians, small refreshments and so on. 

We are planning to invest money donated by our sponsors in:

-        building material (oak wood used for beams, files,

-        working equipment (helmets, hammers, nails, spades, shovels, gloves, etc.)

-        food for volunteers (nutritionally rich and good quality food is the only reward we can give our hard working volunteers)

-        material needed for maintening the camp itself (water tanks, some new kitchen equipment, etc.)