For some time now there has been a particular enthusiasm in Sicily when it comes to WWOOFing. In a land that has so much to offer agriculturally and humanly, it is a pleasure to note how the desire to participate and share one’s knowledge and experience is growing: the local meeting on April 6 fully confirmed the desire to engage and be active within the association. The staff of WWOOF Italy has had the pleasure of being able to help in holding together the dots on the map of this renewed interest, receiving in return all the welcome and hospitality that this land knows how to give.

The local meeting

On April 6, talking about WWOOF at Giuseppe Grasso’s farm in Vizzini, CT, there were about 30 members sitting in a circle on straw bales. For many, it was a chance to get to know each other for the first time, for others to meet old friends again.The introduction circle thus took up much of the morning, before the staff reported the latest news from the WWOOF world, from the possibility of couple membership to the woofer list searchable by hosts. Chatting over lunch in Joseph’s large living room helped to thicken the net, before moving on to explore all the curiosities and concerns of the hosts present, from insurance coverage to the basic principles of the host-woofer relationship (such as the prohibition of monetary exchanges between one and the other in either direction). A day of productive weaving, exchanging information and making contacts, which we hope acted as a multiplier to the energies that everyone puts into their farms.

the coordination in Sicily

Speaking of coordination, from the other regions we look to Sicily with interest because of the ability there has been to find a good number of people who have picked up the baton from our historical coordinators to continue to make WWOOF’s presence felt in a capillary way in the territories. Nirav and Vittorio were also there at the meeting to nurture the new recruits and refresh the rudiments of the trade: then, the next few days provided the staff with the opportunity to meet in person several coordinators they had hitherto known only by phone. Andrea, who in the center of Sicily is putting his all into carrying out his company’s ambitious project. Ambrose, an activist and ancient grains pioneer who takes care of the entire grain supply chain on site. Adrien, who helps out in the province of Syracuse visiting would-be hosts. Here, almost every province has a coordinator, and it is important for such a large and such a peripheral region, an obvious destination for so many WWOOFers, to have widespread voices that help in times of need and convey the right messages.

Thank you!

Thanks go to all those who made it possible for these days to take place, and especially to Joseph who hosted us and to Nicolo, who not only coordinates the area around Caltagirone but generously gave us quite a bit of his time to make this meeting happen. If at the national level in recent times the main call has been for participation, here it is touched upon that it has been fully received: and this can only bode well for the entire Italian WWOOF movement