Le succès de WWOOFing dans le monde

WWOFing

Intro : I chose an article which deals with WWOOFing. It entitled “Wwoof farming: Working the soil in far-off lands”. It was published in “BBC News” in august 2013 (two thousand and thirdteen).

So at first, I am going to summarize the article and then I would like to say a few words about it.

RESUME

First of all it focuses on the concept of WWOOFing :

What is it? Conditions? etc.

Founded in the UK in 1971, WWOOFing movment offers positions for some 80,000 (eighty thousand) volunteers on 12,000 (twelve thousand) host farms in more than 100 countries. So "Weekend Workers on Organic Farms" has become "Willing Workers on Organic Farms" and in turn has changed to "World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms".

The deal of a WWOOFing holiday = simple, very cheap

Volunteers (or WWOOFers) enjoy free food and accommodation at organic projects throughout the world in return for a number of hours unpaid per day. They provide a pair of hands in taking care of animals in the farm, restoring walls and buildings or mucking out animal pens.

Then, the journalist tells us about some advantages of taking part in WWOOFing :

Advantages :

The journalist mentions that, I quote “The farmer gets physical help and on labour-intensive organic farms this can make a major difference”

Moreover, “The Wwoofer gets to live in a foreign land and, in addition, picks up valuable knowledge about growing and preparing food the natural way.”

Good way to travel for people who are looking for cheaper way to take holidays and for young people who can’t find job for summer.

In addition of that, it enables to gain experience in discovering different places in the world.

Also an experience for older people who are retired and I quote “well and do” because they can meet other people and so that cannot feel lonely at home.

The only one condition is to have over 18 => so it’s quite accessible.

Finally, by this article, we learn that a big remains actually :

Problem :

In spite of the success of WWOOFing around the world, there is a conflict with local unions and tax authorities because of volunteers. According to them, it’s a kind of waste because unpaid volunteers take the job of real workers.

Response of Wwoof :

Remove the word “work” from its title and insists on the fact that WWOOFing is based on, I quote “a voluntary cultural and educational exchange. It means help in return of knowledge. ”.

That brings me to the end of my summary.

Now I will move on to the commentary.

COMMENTAIRE

I believe that WWOOFing is a good way to learn about a new culture, to meet people. Moreover, it enables you to gain maturity,

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