VOLUNTEER WITH US
We are looking for long-term volunteers to join our team
VOLUNTEERING AT LESVOS SOLIDARITY - PIKPA
We are looking for long-term volunteers to join our team

If you want to volunteer with us it is important to know that our camp hosts some very vulnerable cases, we rely on your discretion when it comes to information about our residents personal information. If you want to post anything about your volunteer experience on social media (including your personal account) or undertake a fundraising campaign, you will need to be briefed by our communications and fundraising teams and sign our media policy. These teams can also help with any extra and relevant images you may need.
For more information about our camp please visit our website or facebook page.
PROFILE
The volunteers we are looking for are people that:
Are 23-years-old, self-motivated and committed
We work with a small team of paid staff and a large team of volunteers who make up the camp operations team. Understanding the way camp works is crucial and it might take time to adapt to our way of working and understand our needs. It is important to have a basic understanding of the context on the island and in general and you can find lots of information online for volunteers coming to Greece. During your induction we will show you around and introduce you to relevant people but we don’t have capacity for constant guidance every day. We hope and expect that you will find your own pace and find innovative solutions to solving problems on camp.
Can support themselves financially
No one except our residents live on camp. It is their space and staff and volunteers live off-site (usually in Mytilene). You will need to find and fund your own accommodation and the cost of living depends on your lifestyle. Most volunteers rent rooms in shared accommodation with other volunteers on the island.
We usually recommend that you book up to five nights in a cheap rental and coordinate this once you are on the island. Depending on the season and price fluctuations, the cost of a room in a shared flat in Mytilene is €200-300 per month. We can provide you with monthly bus passes and a daily lunch Monday-Friday, which we hope will help you keep costs to a minimum.
Can stay long-term
Occasionally we recruit volunteers who are able to stay for six months as a minimum as team facilitators. The facilitators are remunerated to allow them to stay on the island longer. If you are interested please indicate this in your initial email to volunteerspikpa@gmail.com and the current team will let you know if we are recruiting.
Enjoy a community-based lifestyle
We are a small camp, hosting around 100 of the most vulnerable cases on the island, and we operate as a community. In practice, this means the workload fluctuates. Some days there is a lot of work to do and others are much more quiet. We need volunteers who are adaptable, sometimes there is a need to mobilise quickly to respond to emergencies and other days the most important thing on camp can be to keep a peaceful environment, drink tea and connect with our residents.
If you prefer a lot of action and a structured routine it’s better to look for another place to volunteer.
Volunteers are also needed in other places on the island. If you think you don’t fit our profile, check the Facebook Information Point for Lesvos Volunteers or the Facebook-page of the Octopus team.
Volunteers are also needed in other places on the island. If you think you don’t fit our profile, check the Facebook Information Point for Lesvos Volunteers.
WORK
Volunteers are split into three teams: Camp Sustainability, Food Distribution and Activities and Communications. Below is a description of each team and the departments they cover. Please take the time to think about where your skills would be most applicable and email recruitment.lesol@gmail.com to receive the links to the three application forms.
Required language skills: English. Desirable language skills: Greek, Arabic, Farsi, Kurdish (Kurmanji and Surani) and French
Food boxes
Every morning Monday – Friday between 9:30 and 14:00 we distribute food to our residents so they can cook, be self-sufficient and live in a dignified manner. It’s important to conduct distribution fairly and sustainably based on our supplies, whilst also maintaining an inventory of the stock we have and orders we need to make.
To apply to volunteer with the food distribution team, click here.
