International Projects
Volunteers from abroad and international cooperation
International Projects
In all our activities, we focus on indercultural Education, so the international cooperation is a very important aspect of what we do within all our projects. Our team is international itself, our teachers and assistants come from different countries and cultural backgrounds. Every other volunteer, intern or foreign partner enriches our activities, brings new dimension and original ideas. For children taking part in our projects, meeting people from different countries and speaking different languages has become completely natural. In the field of education, we consider this to be a great contribution in the fight against racism and intolerance, which are unfortunately currently a topic in the Czech Republic. After many years of these activities, we can clearly observe the impact on children participating in our projects and their families, for whom it is completelly natural and common to meet people from all over the world, communicate with them, be interested in their differences and respect them.
European Solidarity Corps
The European Solidarity Corps is a program supported by the European Commission that enables young people to gain valuable experience through participation on volunteering projects. We have repeatedly managed to obtain grant support for our project Volunteering in English Outdoor Preschools and to accept volunteers for several months in our outdoor preschools and other projects.
MARIA LÚCIA
10/23 - 06/24
Maria Lúcia from Portugal studied English, German and journalism. She spent her Erasmus+ study stay in the Czech Republic, in Pilsen. She considers studying English since childhood to be a pivotal moment in her life, and that is why she came to try out the role of a teacher.
OLENA
04/23 - 01/24
Olena from Ukraine studied pharmacy there. After she fled from war to the Czech Republic, she visited us to realize a workshop with children as part of her studies at Cumorah Academy. After that we agreed to host her in our project. She got a place to stay and work she likes for a year, as she assists at our preschools.
VALENTINA
11/22 - 03/23
Valentina from Italy came back to Prague, where she already studied history through the Erasmus+ program. She was intrigued by the original concept of the outdoor preschool, which she decided to get to know as a volunteer. She works as a teaching assistant mainly at Vyšehrad Monsters.
JUDITH
10/21 - 10/22
Judith from Spain is a student of primary school teaching. She took part in volunteering project to gain experience and new inspiration for her future carrier. She is an assistant at Vyšehrad Monsters, bringing also own ideas and presenting own Spanish and Catalan culture.
JULIA
10/23 - 06/24
Julia from Germany decided to spend a gap year after high school as an European volunteer to become independent and try working with children in a preschool as a possible direction of further studies or employment. She works as an assistant in Vyšehrad Monsters.
MAYA
10/22 - 08/23
Maya from Germany decided to take part in the volunteering project after high school to try out her dream job as a preschool teacher. She already has experience in babysitting and teaching English, and she is a great natural talent for working with children. She works as a teaching assistant mainly at Libeň Monsters.
DIANA
03/22 - 09/22
Thanks to our project, Diana from Ukraine found a new home after her forced evacuation from occupied Irpen. With her experience with babysitting and working at camps, she became a great new team member for Libeň Monsters. She also helped to realize several programs and projects for Ukrainian refugee children.
KATARINA
12/20 - 08/21
Katarina from Serbia joined us to gather experience before entering university to study visual art. She helped us provide an individual approach to children with special needs. She prepared mainly art projects and also focused on ecological themes and, of course, the presentation of her Balkan roots.
YELYZAVETA
09/23 - 06/24
After high school, Yelyzaveta from Ukraine devoted herself to the organization of sports, art and educational activities before fleeing the war and finding a background in the Czech Republic. She participates in the Afternoon English club and helps out in Libeň Monsters.
TETIANA
12/22 - 09/23
Thanks to our project, Tetiana from Ukraine found new "job" in the Czech Republic, where she fled from the war. She has experience in leading leisure activities for children. In addition to her biotechnology degree, she also studied English. She works as an assistant in our English Club and also both preschools.
MAUD
11/21 - 04/22
After graduating with a bachelor's degree in economics, Maud from France wanted to try working with children, which always attracted her - she was babysitting and worked as an au pair and a French teacher in Ireland. At Libeň Monsters she helps children who need more care and attention and presents her culture.
SARA
01/19 - 06/19
After graduating secondary school, Sara from Spain wanted to try out what it's like to work with children before applying to the Faculty of Education. She was thrilled by the concept of the outdoor preschool and all our monsters were thrilled by her ideas, games, creative projects and talks about Spain and Barcelona.
Erasmus +
Thanks to the Erasmus + program, supported by the European Commission, we are able to host interns and volunteers from all over Europe, who gain practical experience working with children and learn about our very original concept of English Outdoor Preschools. These are mostly Erasmus + internships, for which students are sent by their universities and we are the host organization. Volunteering projects were realized as the European voluntary service within the Erasmus + program, for which we obtained accreditation and subsequently grant support for specific projects.
ZEHRA
07/23 - 08/23
Zehra from Turkey joined us for a two-months Erasmus+ internship as part of her Child Development studies. She worked as an assistant during Summer Day Camps at Vyšehrad Monsters. She had an opportunity to work with children of different ages and different levels of English knowledge.
BUSRA
10/19 - 02/20
Busra from Turkey joined us for a semester internship as part of her study of pedagogy. As a future mathematics teacher, she focused on preschool preparation, the development of logical thinking and pre-mathematical skills. She was passionate about outdoor teaching, which had been an unknown alternative to her until then.
DERYA & AYSENUR
08/18 - 09/18
Derya and Aysenur from Turkey joined us for an Erasmus+ internship, a practical internship abroad was a mandatory part of their studies and they chose to spend the summer months as preschool assistants. They tried working with children and became enthusiastic about outdoor pedagogy and the way of teaching English naturally through play.
ZÜLAL
09/22 - 11/22
Zülal from Turkey joined as for a three-month Erasmus+ internship as part of her English language and teaching studies. She worked as an assistant in both preschools and also in the afternoon English Club, in order to gather as much experience as possible in teaching English to the smallest children and also improving skills of older children.
SIMONA
09/18 - 06/19
Simona from Italy, who was already a graduate teacher, joined us thanks to our European Voluntary Service project for the whole school year. She arrived with just the basics of English, but a tremendous dose of talent, energy and enthusiasm for working with children. She taught us how to make Italian pizza and we all just loved her spirit!
BENGISU & IREM
07/17 - 08/17
Bengisu and Irem from Turkey joined us for an Erasmus+ internship, a practical internship abroad was a mandatory part of their studies and they chose to spend the summer months as preschool assistants. They tried working with children and became enthusiastic about outdoor pedagogy and the way of teaching English naturally through play.
VERONIKA
03/20 - 04/20
Veronika from Slovakia joined us for a two-month Erasmus + internship as part of her studies to become teacher. She taught kids English through songs and rhymes, and learned about the outdoor concept. During the forced closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Veronika took part in the online education in the Google Classroom.
HOLLY, NADIA, MAHVI
07/19 - 08/19
Thanks to a collaborative project with Leeds Beckett University, Holly, Nadia and Madhvi from United Kingdom spent the summer with us as the European Voluntary Service. They joined our summer day camps. We had a great opportunity to offer summer with native speakers, they completed a practical internship with us in a very original outdoor concept.
KIDS4FORESTS
The international project KIDS4FORESTS was a partnership of forest kindergartens and schools from the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary. The main goal of the Polish coordinator, who received a grant from the Visegrad Fund for the implementation of the project, was the restoration of the forest in the region and awareness raising on the issue of refforestation of the Central European landscape. We decided to fulfill this goal together and actively involve children from all 4 countries, who by participating in the project not only gained a lot of knowledge about nature in Central Europe and practical skills directly related to forest planting nut also improved in English.
The coordinator of the project was Fundacja Harmonia Kultury, that runs a forest kindergarten and a school on a farm near the Polish village of Kopaniec. On behalf of the All4kids association, we were involved with both Vyšehrad Monsters and Libeň Monsters. From Hungary the primary school Zengő-Mozgó Egyesület focused on environmental education was involved and from Slovakia the association Modrá Sova, which operates a community center, forest club and small class.
First, in the Spring of 2018 a workshop was oeganized in Poland for teachers from all participating countries, where participants were introduced to different forest ecosystems, natural mixing of species in our region and especially the requirements for obtaining seeds and seedlings for future forest planting. They learned everything in practice and started collecting and preparing seeds and seedlings together with Polish children. Coordinators from all partner institutions met face to face for the first time and had the opportunity to discuss cooperation plans for the entire project period.
We stayed in contact with schools from Poland, Slovakia and Hungary for the whole period of the project. Teachers shared ideas for activities and then repeated them in their countries. We sent photos of forest activities in our regions, as well as pictures of forests and trees that grow here and there. We talked about the theme with the children and compared nature with us and with children from partner countries.
In the Autumn of 2019, the common camp was organized, where children from participating schools and kindergartens, together with many local children from the surrounding Polish villages, had to plant a real forest from seeds and seedlings collected around the village of Kopaniec. The event lasted three days and we managed to actually plant 1000 new trees. We participated together with 7 oldest children, accompanied by head teachers from both kindergartens and our Italian volunteer. After returning from Poland, we told everyone in both kindergartens, together with the children, about what we had experienced and what we had learned. At the end of the project, a video was created and, in cooperation with all partners, a booklet in English, as a guide for all others interested in refforestation and working with children on this topic.
Here you can watch a video about the project
