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Pedagogic farm based on equine assisted education ..
Pedagogic farm based on equine assisted education and therapies
Start date: Aug 1, 2015,
End date: Jan 31, 2017
PROJECT
FINISHED
AEDEQ is the Spanish Association for Equine Assisted Education and therapies.
Since it is our first EVS project we are going to host only two volunteers to help us in the development of educative, therapeutic and leisure activities for the disable with the assistance of horses and other animals, in our pedagogic farm. You can find information and pictures of the place looking for Les Cuadres Del Jou, Guardiola de Berguedà, Spain.
We want to make experience in hosting EVS volunteers in order to help other Spanish and worldwide organizations of our sector to do the same.
The job is mainly outdoors with the maintenance of forest and rural fields, handling horses and other farm animals, helping in the equine assisted activities. We are a team of educators and we like to have fun learning and helping our students and users to learn having fun in nature. We are involved in International Cooperation activities and in different Erasmus+ framework projects, a part of the job will concern helping us with the Internet social networks tools of the association.
Tasks
To take care of few horses completely: to feed them, clean them and keep clean the paddock where they live, and take care of their movement needs. To work in the orchard and attend the needs of the other animals of the farm. To help the therapists and educators in the equine assisted interventions, always under the supervision of the instructor (supervisor) or the social worker (mentor) and/or together with one of the employees of the pedagogic farm. To help the users to go from one point to other of the centre sometimes with a wheelchair. To help others in ordinary maintenance tasks of the centre and in the day to day coexistence tasks such as cooking or cleaning the flat. To help the staff with conditioning the structures for activities, such as building the scenery of a theatre for autistic children to play with or building obstacles for horse jumping or drawing a road with small stones. These are always group activities supervised by an instructor. To clean and keep the woods free of dangers with firewalls. To help with the Internet social networks of the association.
The volunteers will learn to take care of a horse and handle him without violence. This is a very valuable learning. Besides, Equine Assisted Interventions are developed by an interdisciplinary team, so that volunteers also learn how to get integrated and behave in a team where different professional experts are constantly communicating their impressions and experiences in order to reach a better comprehension of the patients difficulties and give them a good quality service. Finally, to the volunteers will be offered riding clsses at a lower price than the public if they wish to lern more than what previewed by the project. We will offer some free lessons included in the project. We provide accommodation and meals, (we will go together with the volunteers to buy food for all of us - 4 people - once per week, and we will cook all of us by turns), an activities responsible and a mentor. We also provide some cultural activities in agreement with the local authorities. We will back up an individual project for each volunteer.
Selection criteria
The only requirement was the volunteers wish/dream to work with horses and/or working outside, with animals, in the natural environment, for the benefit of the disable, who are the main beneficiaries of our pedagogic farm. We selected people with already some experience and proven interest in the sector in order to make sure they will make a good experience. We asked volunteers who really wish to help within the activities, getting integrated in our interdisciplinary team, to work in the previewed tasks trying their best in order to contribute to the good development of the activities and good feeling among the participants.
We expect that all the other IAE organizations in Spain and in Europe follow our example and that many organizations and people will join our association and our movement for a better world.