Project 9 : Dodo
Dodo is a Finnish environmental organization founded in 1995. Dodo addresses environmental issues societally, without unnecessary simplification. From the dining table, city bike ride or an adventure holiday, there is a short way to global environmental issues. Current key operation areas are urban gardening and food, urban planning and building, climate action and global development.
Dodo works under the parol Seeds for Urban Change and aims to turn urbanization into an answer to global environmental problems and motivate people to come up with solutions themselves.
Dodo's activities are open to everyone. A large proportion of those who participate in activities and events are young students. Dodo aims to be a sandbox of thoughts where new ideas flow and evolve. An encouraging atmosphere and a courageous attitude towards sharing new views and own ideas empower people of all ages to participate in the development of their own environment, in solving global environmental problems, and in the development of the organization. Dodo has activities in four Finnish cities: Helsinki, Oulu, Tampere and Turku.
Dodo also works through different action groups that focus on themes such as urban gardening, food and food waste, urban planning and global development. Regular activities include meetings of the different action groups and Urban Dinner events where a meal is prepared together from waste food and harvest of our urban garden. After the dinner there is a discussion, workshop or movie screening on a topic that futhers Dodo’s aim.
Your work as a volunteer
Dodo is offering a half a year ESC volunteering position starting 1st of April 2023. The ESC volunteer will be working at Dodo’s office in the neighbourhood of Pasila in Helsinki. Just outside the office is the Urban Gardening Center Turntable, where events and activities are arranged during the growing season.
The main task of the volunteer would be to help the employees. This includes tasks in urban gardening, communications, event arrangement and office maintenance. The volunteer will be joining Dodo’s Urban Dinners where they can arrange discussions and workshops, and help in the kitchen or in the garden.
The volunteer can also be working with action groups of their choice on themes like urban gardening and food, urban planning and building or climate action and global development.
We will discuss, either in emails or in video call beforehand, the tasks, learning-process support and practical arrangements, and continue these discussions during the volunteer period. The volunteer will have a tutor (one of the employees) and a mentor (a person outside daily activities of Dodo) during the whole volunteership to offer help and support both during and after their volunteer period.
Here you can also find an Instagram reel of ESC work at Dodo.
Volunteer profile
We hope that the volunteer is motivated, interested in the scope of activities that Dodo runs, has a good level of English, has good communication skills, is co-operative and works well in teams. The volunteer should be motivated to learn, to adapt, to propose ideas, take initiative, work independently and be open to discover other cultures and different ways of doing things. A desire to participate actively in the project, pro activity, enthusiasm, eagerness and a desire for involvement are all necessary in order to ensure both the project and the volunteer will reach their full potential.
We believe that the volunteer would get more out of their volunteer period with some time in higher education already, but that is not a must, as there are also more practical tasks that the volunteer could work with, like building and maintenance of the urban gardening centre. All Dodo’s communication is in both English and Finnish, which makes it easy for a person knowledgeable in English to take part in all activities. The bilingual communication can also help the volunteer to learn some Finnish.
Though the office of Dodo is accessible the toilets there are not, as the office is in an old railyard maintenance building. With just one part time employee at Dodo’s office it would be hard to give the support a person with physical, sensory or other disabilities might require. The same limitations are there when it comes to giving additional mentoring and support for people with social obstacles, educational and learning difficulties. Though in both cases the severity of the disabilities and difficulties might vary and the environment of Dodo might suit one person but not another.