WWOOF™ Taiwan is part of the Federation of WWOOF Organizations, a worldwide community that promotes awareness of ecological farming practices by providing visitors with the opportunity to live and learn on organic properties. WWOOF now exists in 132 countries (and growing) around the world. WWOOF™ Taiwan was founded in 2007.
WWOOF history
WWOOF was started in England in 1971 by Mrs. Sue Coppard as a way to increase awareness of farms in the countryside by providing opportunities for people in London to work for the weekend. Eventually, the demand for longer periods increased and the name was changed from Working Weekends on Organic Farms to Willing Workers on Organic Farms. Since then, WWOOF has expanded worldwide with many National Organizations and Independents.
There have been some cultural misunderstandings around the use of the word “work”. As a result, in 2000, the meaning of WWOOF was been changed from ‘Willing Workers’ to ‘World Wide’ Opportunities on Organic Farms.
About WWOOF Taiwan
Each WWOOFer must complete our application form and pay the membership fee to be able to WWOOF in Taiwan. It is an annually renewable membership. WWOOF Taiwan has a smaller Host List than that of some other countries. However, all of our hosts are active and accepting WWOOFers, and many of them accept WWOOFers all year round. We are adding hosts to our list all the time. The Host List is available in English and Chinese.
What comes with my WWOOF Taiwan Membership?
Once we receive your online application form and your payment, you will receive by e-mail a list of all of our current WWOOF Taiwan Hosts.
After you join you will receive the following:
- A List of WWOOF Taiwan Hosts with contact details. You will be able to contact all hosts on this list, ask questions about details of their availability, activities, conditions for staying, etc. while also explaining what you want to do. Once you have identified a host and made arrangements to WWOOF there, you can go and stay at that place and receive food and boarding at no financial cost in return for helping with the work they do there.
- The peace of mind that results from the care we take in monitoring applications from both WWOOFers and Hosts, and the regular contact we maintain with our hosts.
WWOOFer Job description
By offering your services to your WWOOF hosts in exchange for accommodation and meals, you will be given the chance of a lifetime to learn about different cultural exchange and Organic farming. Any member who joins WWOOF will not be receiving any salary or daily allowances for their services at their host establishment. Each farm works on their own schedule so depending on which host establishment you decide to choose, you will be requested to work certain hours in accordance to your host establishments requirements.
Working Hours
WWOOFers work for approximately 4-6 hours per day, not including daily meals or breaks. For those who will be staying over one week, they will be given one day off; WWOOF does have any specific requirements on work hours or days off. Since planting crops depend on the season in which is best appropriate to grow, it is uncertain as to the exact hours you will be working. When encountering the busy season, WWOOFers may be asked to work over 6 hours. Specifics depend on the situation of the farm at that time. In other words, the workload will not necessarily be fixed and repetitive, nor will the work be similar at any farm
Insurance
Your WWOOF Taiwan membership does NOT include insurance of any kind. We require all WWOOF Taiwan Members to have insurance. Depending on what country you are in, there are different types of insurance available. Please check with your agency to see if your insurance covers doing farm related activities in Taiwan. Many times, this will include arduous manual work such as carrying fertilizers, dealing with machinery, etc. Don’t forget to take the necessary measures to make sure you are properly insured!
Duration of Stay
The length of your stay is not fixed. Actual length of your stay will depend on your host’s and your situation.
Job Description
Plants and vegetation is conditional to the time and season for cropping and planting. Certain jobs can include how to get rid of weeds, sowing, seeding, applying fertilizer, watering, harvesting, producing hay, etc. Other times you may be asked to help out with cleaning or even helping customers and other business affairs.
Safety
While staying and working with hosts, always ask hosts about the work they ask you to do as to whether it is safe or not. If you are asked to do work that you don’t properly understand, that it may seem unsafe, or something that you have not done before and cannot judge its safety, don’t do it. Safety is priority one.
About WWOOF hosts
WWOOF Host Characteristics
WWOOF hosts run and operate Organic farms. WWOOF does not allow farms who use pesticides or any form of chemical fertilizer. Those who sell organic product stores, run organic restaurants, organic farms, hold educational activities similar to the WWOOF mission and is willing to provide appropriate housing is welcome to join WWOOF. Every time WWOOF groups get together and talk about what are the basic requirements to be a WWOOF host they say ‘GROWING ORGANICALLY’ is the most important issue.
WWOOF Host Goals
Just like WWOOFers who come to learn about life on farms, WWOOF hosts are also able to not only receive help from their WWOOFer but also gain from them the value of farming in Taiwan society. Since many volunteers do have not much experience in organic farming, it is important for WWOOF hosts to guide and lead their WWOOFer in a positive way. This way volunteers will be able and pass on their knowledge of organic farming lifestyles to others.
Terms of use/WWOOF Rules
Membership is NON TRANSFERABLE. NO EXCEPTIONS. If you are unable to find a suitable farm to volunteer at, WWWOOF Taiwan is not responsible for assisting or refunding your membership fee.
Each person who contacts and / or visits Hosts must be a member of WWOOF Taiwan BEFORE Hosts are contacted. If you are planning to travel with friends or family, those persons will each need to join, pay, become a member before hosts are contacted. You may not take a friend with you citing them as a ‘visitor’ or other and not a WWOOF member.
All WWOOF Taiwan membership materials provided are for your exclusive use only as a paid member of WWOOF Taiwan, and must not be given to others.
Please understand the procedures regarding this, outlined below. Some people ignore this and it is unfortunate for us to action against them. When a WWOOFer has violated the above rules , we may:
- Inform hosts of the names of the WWOOFer and his or her friend, which may result in some hosts not accepting them.
- Terminate their membership.
- Ask the person to pay a penalty equal to the cost of one membership. This is in addition to the cost that they are required to pay for actual membership for themselves.
- In the case of a WWOOF Taiwan member giving a friend copies of his membership material, we ask both offenders to pay one penalty each. We use each additional payment to pay for a WWOOF membership for someone from a developing country, or a person doing research, or other who cannot afford to pay for it themselves. If the person(s) would like to specify the country to which we should work to give the membership the penalty will pay for, that is fine.