A volunteering experience within the ESC programme can take many forms. Mainly it depends on what type of experience you want to have and how much out of your own way and comfort zone you’re willing to go. You can learn more about the ESC Programme here.
Today we’re sharing the experience of our volunteer Eva. Read about how she spend four months co-living in the Ecovillage Gaia Terra below.
“My name is Eva Suhalj, I am 23 years old, and I come from Ljubljana, Slovenia.
From the beginning of January until the end of April 2026, I volunteered in an ecovillage located in northern Italy, somewhere in the fields between Udine and Lignano Sabbiadoro, called Gaia Terra. The project started in 2018 and mainly focuses on sustainable waste management, meaning that Gaia Terra reuses waste materials and produces almost zero waste for the environment. This means that the community is very creative with waste reuse. For example, soft plastic is stuffed into vegetable milk tetrapaks, creating “bricks” that are later used for wall insulation, among many other innovative solutions.
People in the community are involved in many different areas of work, including gardening, vegan cooking, fermenting drinks, making hygiene and cleaning products, bio-construction, and much more. Besides work, people in Gaia Terra are deeply involved in community life. Throughout the week, many community activities are organized by the community members, such as community practices, contact improvisation classes, women’s and men’s circles, meetings on different topics, and many other activities that keep the community connected, informed, and constantly evolving, adapting, and improving day by day.
I decided to do ESC volunteering abroad because I wanted to do something meaningful during my gap year. For many years, I had dreamed of experiencing community life, so Gaia Terra was the perfect volunteering opportunity for me. I wanted to deepen my values around sustainability, vegan cooking, and most importantly, living in a community.
During these four months, I learned many things about myself, other people, and the environment. I tried many things for the first time and discovered new passions. I learned how to take better care of myself and the environment, and I gained a deeper understanding of what it means to live in this kind of community and the positive impact it can have on a person. In many moments, I experienced so much love, beauty, and connection that I was left speechless. I felt deeply grounded and connected with both the people and the surrounding nature. This experience also deepened my spiritual understanding of the world, for which I am very grateful.
At Gaia Terra, I was involved in rebuilding the burned-down dance hall, Sala Sole, which was very meaningful work for me and where I learned many new things about bio-construction. Besides that, I was also part of the team building a wall made of books for insulation. I spent some time working in the garden and in the kitchen, being creative with vegan cooking, learning new recipes, and discovering how to cook waste-free by using different parts of vegetables and also cooking with plants growing around the ecovillage.
Some of the best moments I experienced were definitely the community activities: dancing together, improvising music, and sharing art with one another. I also deeply appreciated all the meaningful conversations and comfortable silences, the time spent in nature, and the short trips outside the ecovillage.
The biggest difficulty for me was the dominance of the Italian language, especially because at the beginning I did not know a single word of Italian. This often made me feel frustrated and excluded from understanding certain things. However, throughout the weeks, I learned the basics of Italian, and I also started speaking up about the importance of language inclusivity within the community. In the end, this even became the topic of my ESC project, where I created a language toolkit for the community, providing ideas on how to make a multilingual environment more inclusive for everyone.
To sum up, this experience was one of the best experiences of my life, if not the best. I appreciate all the lessons and all the beauty I encountered during these months. The people of Gaia Terra will stay in my heart forever.
I would definitely recommend volunteering to everyone. Of course, not every project is suitable for every person, but that is why there is such a wide variety of opportunities. If you find a project that truly speaks to your heart, I believe it can become a life-changing and deeply meaningful experience for a young person.
So do not overthink it and just go.”
