About OKO centre
OKO centre is non-profit NGO organisation working mainly with children and youths aged 4-30 as well as adults in the region of north-east of the Czech Republic – Hradec Kralove region. We are set in the town of Rychnov nad Kneznou which has about 12000 inhabitants.
Our goal is clear – we want to spread education, culture and of personalities general development. We deal with educational activities, development, culture, publication and publishing activities. We are arranging languages courses (English, German, French, Russian, Spanish…) for children, youth and adults, specialized courses and seminars (communication, work with PC..) , summer camps, youth exchanges and other actions (competitions, social and international meetings,) and international volunteering.
Our mission is:
1) to help, support and motivate children, young people and adults in their education, development and personal activities,
2) to connect our region with Europe and the whole world,
3) to help people from our region become more open and tolerant towards other cultures,
4) to help, support and motivate young people to live healthily and to be active in their life.
We are active in ESC and KA1 and KA2 parts of Erasmus+ programme, especially projects for children and youth.
Youth exchange (KA1)
We offer our experience (15 years, 12 YE – 3 in CZ, 11 in EU (Scotland, FR 4x, PT, DE, England 2x, Italy, Sicily), reliability, active cooperation. We have motivated group of youngsters (age 13-19, their mostly study secondary school in our place and visit our free time activities). We had many experiences and we are always glad to actively help to our partners with preparing applications, finaly report and cooperating with them in projects, including evaluation, dissemination and sharing the outputs. We have many good experiences with using Youth Pass during the activities and also with sharing the outputs so we usually manage or actively help with these activities.
Volunteering ESC – We offer our experience (15 years in hosting, sending and coordinating projects), reliability and active cooperation. We hosted 2-4 volunteers in our centre for 12 months every year. We also send Czechs volunteers abroad. We and our volunteers help to young people from our region become more open and tolerant towards other cultures.
More information about us and our activities you can find here in PIC.
Volunteering at OKO (ESC)
We are looking for 2 motivated volunteers of our team – from 2 countries from Europe: for 4 – 10 months to start her/his project from August/September 2026.
There is some basic information about our volunteering project in OKO CZ:
- Main themes are: Interculture activities + Media and communications/Youth information + assistance in teaching languages
- Number of international volunteers in our project: 2 (from 2 EU countries)
- Date: a volunteer can start her/his project activity from August/Septemr 2026 for 10-12 months, till end of July/August 2027.
- Area description: Rychnov is often called small town or village for our volunteers, but for some volunteers, who are also from villages, is Rychnov nice, calm and quiet town with wonderful countryside. The town itself is small, with around 12,000 inhabitants. It is quiet in the evening and very peaceful with very little crime (if any) and it feels like a very safe place to live. For young people there is a lot of choice of leisure activities for such a small town; with a new swimming pool, gym and exercise complex, ice-rink, cinema, theatre, museum, castle, and nearby there is countryside with lakes, rivers and woods where it is possible to take walks or go cycling, a short bus ride away are the mountains for skiing in the winter..
- Flat: Accommodation – the volunteer will be offered accommodation in a single
room in a shared flat with other volunteers. Kitchen and bathroom will be shared. The rooms and the kitchen are fully furnished and can be used by the volunteer. Usually, two volunteers will stay in one flat – each of them will have his/her own room. - No racism. We have a good experience with our local community. Our people are ready to welcome and accept every motivated volunteer. There are even looking forward to meet volunteers, because they have a good experience with international volunteers quite long time
- Both sexes are welcome! We are able to accept a male and a female, too.
- Volunteers will take part in these activities during the project: Exhibition, Bulletin, Updating web page (volunteers’ blog, facebook etc.), English/German/French/Spanish conversation clubs, Teaching assistance in English/French/German/Spanish/Russian courses, Interaction with the Public, Intercultural evenings, Actions for children (Bambiriada, Open day), Summer camp, Decoration and tidying
More information about our project here:
What else can you do in/next to this project? Self-initiated activities. Depending on the volunteers’ initiative, talents or specialities it is up to them to present new ideas for what they might like to do beside their regular work. For example, there has been a cinema club, where participants can watch a film in another language than as a group discuss the topics; software tuition in English where students learn to use Photoshop or build a website; or participation in children’s clubs to teach the first words in another language.
As every year there will be another group of volunteers in OKO centre, it could be possible to co-operate with them to design another project or discuss existing idea.
The activity description you can find here.
Our project is varied and we would like to cooperate with volunteers who are creative, open and willing to work independently. We offer a possibility of personal growth and you can use your ideas, thoughts and abilities.
Link – video about volunteering in OKO centre
Volunteers in OKO (new): http://okocentrum.blogspot.cz/
Volunteers in OKO (2010-12): http://evsoko.blogspot.cz/
Facebook OKO
Facebook volunteers in OKO
And how to get from Prague to Rychnov? Our former volunteer Emi put together this great video for you:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yx3IgyQemrU&feature=youtu.be
If you still need more information about our project or our organization, don’ t hesitate and contact us: