Eco Cabins visited by a group of young volunteers from Europe – here’s what they thought about the site!

 

Recently the eco cabins played host to a delegation of volunteers from youth organisations across Europe. Organised by IVOLO, the International Voluntary Organisation for Learning Opportunities, the group had gathered to meet volunteers from similar organisations and raise awareness of environmental issues, with a view to sharing this with others in their home countries.

Here’s what they said about staying at the cabins:

“Visiting the Centre for Alternative Technology is putting everything that we’ve been learning over the past few days into practice; actually experiencing sustainable living.”

Chris (United Kingdom) from IVOLO.

“I found out more about an ecological lifestyle… in Latvia it’s not that big. We’re not the worst consumers – so they think that we don’t need to do anything. I’ve learnt about those little things we can do in everyday life to consume less. The most important thing here at the Cabins is that you can see how much we spend, and how much we can spend. We’re saving nature – the surroundings here have inspired us to change, first our opinions, and then our family.”

Lauma (Latvia) from Tellus, a youth organisation providing informal learning opportunities including education about environmental issues.

“We can start with little things, like turning off lights, things we can do in our daily lives. That’s what I’m learning here. I like the idea that you can start with little things to change the world.”

Leevi (Finland) from a large youth organisation that runs youth clubs and works to celebrate multiculturalism.

“We’ve been trying to learn some basic methods of explaining these issues. The most important thing for us is to be able to adapt some of what we’ve learnt here to city life – for example, solar panels. We’ll try and make our local government get interested about it!”

Joanna (Poland)

“I’m studying to be an energy engineer, and it’s been great to see how renewable energy works. Normally we just hear about these things, we don’t see them practically. It’s great to spread these ideas, of sustainable economies, sustainable life, in general. When you see it, you have a stronger motivation to spread the idea of this kind of life.”

Gennaro (Italy), from an organisation that enables youth in Italy to travel around Europe through exchanges and training courses.