Carmarthenshire, located in the Southwest of the country, is known as ‘The Garden of Wales’ for its wonderful countryside. The region has hills, mountains and beautiful beaches. It is also rich in Welsh culture and many people there use Welsh as their first language.

The Sir Gar projects are hosted by Carmarthenshire Countryside Council. One of the Council’s obligations is to encourage access to the countryside and to maintain areas of the countryside, footpaths and country parks so that the public can enjoy this beautiful area.

Volunteers will carry out practical environmental tasks. The work will be varied and may include: building footpaths, creating picnic areas and information points, assisting with building bridges and general clearance work. The work will be physical, outdoors and may be in unpleasant conditions such as rain, wind and mud (even in May!). There will be full days of work (09.00-17.00) so volunteers may become tired and sore, and should be prepared to work hard and participate fully.

Volunteers may also participate in some global activities with children and young people in schools and youth centres around Carmarthenshire. These activities will be informal sessions and will concentrate on volunteers giving these young people some information about where they come and their culture. Volunteers might like to think about activities or games from their own countries that they might be able to contribute to these sessions – for example a national dance, simple songs, children’s games, arts and crafts activities etc.

The group leaders for the project will be MTVs (medium term volunteers) who will be staying in Carmarthenshire for around four months and assisting with several international projects.

The group will live in the Glanaman Youth Resource Centre, staying in dormitory accommodation. The group will cook for themselves in the kitchen in the centre.

Glanaman, Carmarthenshire

• Volunteers need a CGC (Certificate of Good Conduct) for this project as it will involve interaction with young people.