* Hilary Knight Writes for YOUNG PEOPLE

NO MONEY TO EARN HERE
A FEW weeks ago I wrote about holiday
work camps at which young people can have a healthy holiday whilst earning a small amount of money fruit-picking or farming. This week I am going to tell you about other work camps where the work involved is harder and more heroic and the remuneration (apart from board and lodging) non-existent.
One organisation to contact for this kind of work is the International Voluntary Service. This was started after the First World War as the result of an experiment inspired by the Swiss engineer, Pierre Ceresole. He and a group of friends of several nationalities, searching for practical ways of promoting understanding and reconciliation, joined in helping to restore the devastated village of Esnes, near Verdun. Swiss, German, British, French and American volunteers worked in the village for six months.
This first "service", or work camp, was followed by many other such schemes in other countries.
At Frejus and Agadir
NOW' there are 13 national groups and branches of the movement which each year organise scores of voluntary work projects in places where assistance is needed.
A group went to Frejus, for instance, after the disaster there, and this summer a group is to go to Agadir.
The organisation is centred in Paris and the title by which it is best known throughout the world is .e'ervice Civil International (International Voluntary Service is the name of the English branch). It would seem that a statement of Mgr. Cardijn, founder of the Jeunesse Ouvriere Chretienne, echoes the impulse behind the movement and could well have given it its name. In March, 1958, Mgr. Cardijn said: " I have never tired of repeating that positive methods of contact, culture and mutual help should be sought in order to establish friendship and confidence, not only between the heads of governments but between peoples, starting with the youth. Military service should more and more be replaced by an international civil or cultural service (service civil on culture! international)."
Friendship bond THE aim of the in short, is to help to create a spirit of friendship between peoples by bringing together men and women to join in undertaking useful work for the benefit of the community,
This year is the 40th anniversary of the founding of the S.C.I. Its xecent activities include the employment of long-term specially-skilled volunteers to help in community development in West Africa. and the building of a Home for Algerian refugees in Tunis.
The organisation is about to appoint ewo people to go out to Mauritius to help in the emergency situation there after the cyclones, and to set up a branch of its work camps there so that the victims of this disaster will be encouraged, with help, to assist in the rebuilding of their own homes.
Conditions of employment
VOLUNTEERS should be over 18 years of age, though there are some camps for the 16-18 age-group. The work is generally simple manual labour for a full working week of 40-44 hours, work such as can be done by anyone physically fit. Volunteers are not paid, and no work is allowed to conflict with the rights and interests of paid workers. Anyone, of whatever race, nationality, religious or political beliefs, who supports the aims, may be a member. The minimum subscription is five shillings yearly, and you can be a subscribing member or an active member.
The work-camp is a democratic group. It has a leader, or leaders, appointed by the responsible office, and usually a work-leader. It is their task to see that the work is competently done, that the volunteers are properly cared for and that the group lives and works contentedly. Usually once'a week there is a camp meeting at which problems and suggestions are aired. Most camps have organised discussions and outings. Sometimes members of the group choose to have a short devotional or "quiet" period before the day begins.
What you can do and where
THE programme for 1960 has just been issued and contains many interesting camps, You could go to Austria to rebuild a declining village in the Tyrol; to Poplar, London, to construct and redecorate a social settlement in dockland; to Jarna, near Stockholm, to build a handicapped children's home; or, if you're sufficiently experienced, to Greece to lay a water pipeline to supply a village. (1 have selected these at random from among many possibilities.) This year, the 40th anniversary of the founding of the organisation, there f9 a special drive for more subscribing members and active members. London address:International Voluntary Service, 72 Oakley Square, London, N.W.I.