Gaia Ashram Internship Positions

Gaia Ashram Internships area residential internship at our Ecovillage & Permaculture Education project in Thailand. At Gaia Ashram we have specific areas that we are progressing in, which need more support, and therefore we are looking for interns in these specific areas of interest. These areas are:

Regenerative Farm Intern

Apart from being a learning center on sustainable living, Gaia Ashram is also an active farm. We are based on 12 hectares of land in the northeast of Thailand that we are consciously developing to become more productive in terms of food production & natural products coming from the land. 

It is the aim of Gaia to be about 80 percent self-sufficient and also to generate farm income from products processed from the farm. It is Gaia Ashram’s long term mission to also work with local farmers and to provide a pathway & inspiration for local farmers that are economically viable and helps us to regenerate some of our local biodiversity in the process.

Additionally a lot of Gaia Ashram land is dedicated to re-wilding and ecosystem restoration as we have a firm belief that in this time of ecological crisis it is our responsibility as caretakers of the land to give back to Mother Earth and all her beings.  

As a regenerative farm intern you will learn & work on enhancing Gaia Ashram as a tropical permaculture farm, be involved in pioneering new land, and ecosystem restoration–and you’ll gain and develop a range of skills along the way. 

The Gaia Ashram Tropical Permaculture Farm Internship will be mentored by Tom Deiters, the founder & pioneer of Gaia Ashram who has over 12 years experience in tropical farming. Apart from farming, you will be joining in efforts to regenerate Gaia Ashram land and help in re-wilding of Gaia Ashram. 

 Here are some more specifics on what you’ll be doing in this position:

  • Farm planning & meetings
  • Pioneering new land
  • Chop & Dropping
  • Working on biomas accumulation
  • Preparing seed beds and planting
  • Mulching
  • Making bio fertilizers
  • Harvesting and processing crops
  • Recording & tracking crops

For more information or questions related to this specific position please send us an email to gaiaschoolasia@gmail.com

Permaculture Garden Intern

As our Gaia Ashram tropical permaculture garden intern, you will learn about tropical edible plants, including how to grow, harvest, process and cook them. You will be working in our beautiful Mandala Gardens as well as enhance and maintaining our food forest. Your role is to support, research and enhancing our mandala & forest garden to supply our kitchen with a constant flow of healthy organic fruits & vegetables. 

Some specifics of this Internship:

  • Planning planting in mandala garden & food forest
  • Researching and documenting on tropical edible plants
  • Plant Nursery care
  • Making potting mix
  • Propagation of plants
  • Seed care and labelling
  • Bed preparation
  • Growing tropical annual fruit & vegetables
  • Growing Perennial fruit & vegetables
  • Transplanting
  • Weeding and mulching
  • Making & applying compost & natural fertilizers
  • Harvesting
  • Communicating with kitchen about food needs
  • Leading volunteers in garden and sharing your knowledge gained. 

The Gaia Ashram Tropical Permaculture Garden Intern will be mainly mentored by Ladda. Ladda has been a garden & kitchen manager for over 15 years. She has experience in both growing food in a tropical garden and how to create healthy and tasty meals from the land. 

For more information about this specific position please send us an email to gaiaschoolasia@gmail.com

ANimal Farm System Intern

As our Gaia Ashram tropical permaculture animal systems intern, you will be learning about and helping to take care of and improve our animal systems at Gaia Ashram. At the moment we have composting worms, bees, ducks, chickens, fish as our main permaculture animal systems at our farm. Then we also have dogs and cats and a plentitude of wild animals. We are always looking to improve our animal systems. Some of the specifics these interns will take on:

  • Research on tropical animal systems

  • Support animal system new farm land design

  • Support in setting up new animal housing

  • Help take care of established animals systems i.e. feeding, harvesting 

  • Work in tandem with farm managers on increasing animal feed from the land

  • Enhance our aquaculture systems

  • Making compost using the chickens to turn

  • Taking care of sick animals and new born animals

We are always trying to optimize our animal systems to reduce our external inputs and you will be working on collaboration with the farm team to make sure that our energy flows are supporting and enhancing each other.

This position is mentored by Tobias Krause, who has been living at Gaia Ashram for 3 years now. Tobi has established, is taking care of, and is actively evolving our animal systems.

 For more information about this specific position please send us an email to:

gaiaschoolasia@gmail.com

 

Yoga Teacher & Meditation Intern:

As a Gaia Ashram Yoga teacher intern, you will support the Gaia Ashram community in holding the morning & afternoon yoga & meditation space. There are potentially Saturdays available to teach as well if there is the need for this.

This internship is ideal for yoga teachers who have recently completed their Yoga teacher training certifications and need a low-pressure space to practice and develop their confidence and skill as a yoga teacher. Click here for more specific information about this internship.

If interested in this position please send us an email.

Natural Building Intern

This internship is well-suited for someone who has an interest in natural building, is good with their hands, and likes working with tools and getting their hands dirty. At Gaia Ashram there is always a lot of natural building going on. The Natural Building Intern will help design and build new structures and will also support the maintenance team of Gaia Ashram in making necessary repairs to our buildings when necessary.

At Gaia Ashram we currently have about 6 mud buildings and also buildings that are made with reclaimed & recycled materials. 

Our team has experience with adobe building, cob, earthbag, rammed earth, building with bamboo, wood and more. We are also experienced in laying foundations and with roofing. Recently we also finished building a Eco-Kindergarten at the public school in our local village, it’s buildwith mud and it has a green living roof. Next will be housing in a residential area.

It is Gaia Ashram’s vision & mission with natural building to use as many natural materials and recycled/reclaimed materials in our buildings as possible, as well as to integrate our buildings with nature while creating pleasant and beautiful spaces in which to live, work, and play. Specific learnings:

  • Support Design and planning of new structures and/or buildings
  • Support Project management team and in budgeting projects
  • Learn how to make a foundation for buildings
  • Work with recycled and reclaimed materials such as metal, rubble etc.
  • Work with natural materials such as bamboo, wood, mud
  • Learn & share techniques of mud building such adobe brick making, wattle and cob, natural plaster, natural paint.
  • Roofing
  • Leading & sharing knowledge to volunteers in building activities
  • Documentation of project development

This internship will be mentored by Om (co-founder of Gaia Ashram) & Tobi (long-term Gaia Ashram resident). Both Om & Tobi have been actively involved in several natural building projects at Gaia Ashram. They have extensive knowledge on all techniques described above. 

For more information about this specific position please send us an email to gaiaschoolasia@gmail.com

Education and facilitation Intern

If you’re passionate about holistic or alternative education related to sustainability, ecovillages, and permaculture, this might be the internship for you. 

We’re looking for an education management intern that also has an interest in learning about facilitating groups/workshops and in teaching. In this role, you will play a supporting role in all of Gaia Ashram’s educational activities. You will learn about the organizational aspects of Gaia Ashram courses including marketing, communications, and coordinating, in addition to learning about facilitation and receiving mentorship and guidance on your facilitation of groups.

Applicant for this internship position need to have at least basic skills of facilitation for participatory learning. we would recommend joining the Ecovillage Design Education (EDE) Course and/or Mindful Facilitation for Empowerment (Training of Trainers (TOT) course. The Gaia Ashram education and facilitation Intern will be mentored by Om Sunisa Deiters, co-founder of Gaia Ashram, who has over 15 years of experience holding groups, facilitating workshops, and more. 

Specific tasks and learnings for this position include the following:

  • Joining in Gaia’s Courses & Lesson Planning discussion
  • Help to prepare teaching materials
  • Communicate and collaborate with marketing and communication team about promoting the programs in different channels
  • Communicate about course group arrival and needs with Gaia Team
  • Help holding space for group wellbeing (you will be guided on how to do so)
  • (Co-) facilitate some sessions (according to the discussion in the lesson planning)
  • Coordinate and manage to attend the needs of the group consulting with program director
  • Collecting feedback from the group for future improvement of the course
  • Facilitate learning activities for volunteer when there is no course

For more information about this specific position please send us an email to gaiaschoolasia@gmail.com

 

English and Eco-School Project Intern

Gaia Ashram has been working and continues collaborating with Suai Long School for the eco school program. It’s a small village school where there are about 35-45 students of 5-12 years old kids from the village. In general, a small school like this, in a rural area in Thailand, does not have enough budget to have proper facilities for education or have enough teachers. English teachers are the most lacking. While kids and parents are keen to learn English to enhance their life opportunities and widen their circle of communication, there are often no English teachers in small schools like this. 

Gaia Ashram has been helping to find English teachers for Suai Long School, which is highly appreciated by the community, the kids, and education officials. 

Apart from providing English learning opportunities for the kids, we also work with the school on our Eco School Program, which is promoting education on Permaculture, Deep Ecology and Ecovillage Concepts, both in theory and practice. We have set up Nature’s Ways Foundation to promote this style of education in school. Read more about it here: https://www.natureswayfoundation.org/

Interns in this position will be part of our journey of creating positive impact in local schools and communities, as well as creating impact in the future, as we are working to provide education for regeneration for the kids who will define what the future may look like. 

Our goal is to help teach English to local kids and help implement eco school programs activities i.e., school gardening, waste & recycle management etc. 

Job description

– Teach English to kids at local school (Monday – Friday in the morning, age 7-19) for 2 hours a day (you will have time to prepare the session with your mentor) 

– Work practically on the school permaculture garden or other project(s) that are part of the eco school program like natural building, waste management and recycling (Tuesday – Friday, from 2.30 – 5 pm)

– Kids will join the hands on work in the garden on Tuesday afternoon, the intern need to guide the kids to do practical works (all the activities will be planned weekly with mentor)

What you as an intern will gain from this experiences:

– Learn how to work with kids,

– Learn and gain practical skills on gardening,

– Learn holistic education that include head, heart and hands and

– Learn and experience local culture

facilitating community

Content Creation and Social Media Marketing intern

Gaia is looking for someone who already has some experience in this area and wants to continue to develop and sharpen their skills as a social media marketer, videographer, and/or content creator. 

Support Gaia Ashram with bringing our course offerings and programs to the right audience and to help us to make Gaia Ashram into an abundant learning space that attracts the right people to serve mother nature and all her beings. This internship is an unique opportunity to use and improve your marketing skills in a ecologically-conscious and inspiring environment. In essence your work is aimed to be supporting nature regeneration and supporting mother earth and all her beings. 

Your days will be structured so that you will also support some physical work in the garden or food forest to physically connect with the land, mother Earth and Gaia Ashram mission. Connecting to our work in this way will also help you to gain the knowledge needed to share and in the meantime you work on you content creation as well. 

You will help to promote Gaia Ashram on social media with the aim of increasing traffic and helping Gaia Ashram to thrive on all fronts. That way you contribute to our goal, to create a sustainable impact. You will support in improving our existing social media systems, support in establishing social media systems that are clear and can easily be carried over to others, and support in creating new social media opportunities.

Practically this could involve:

  • Executing and developing our social media strategies
  • Content creation about our courses and what we do, especially through videos, with an eye towards providing education to our audience
  • Improving website SEO
  • Creating social media content
  • Monitoring & managing campaigns on different Gaia Ashram social media platforms
  • Identifying & engaging with eco-influencers
  • Researching & analyzing competitors’ activity
  • Running social media advertising campaigns
  • …and more

The Social Media Marketing intern will be managed by Om Sunisa who is the main education manager at the moment. As Gaia Ashram, we are also still learning about this. So you need to understand that we do have some experience but it is not our speciality and that you might be more experienced than us on this. The Social Media intern therefore needs to be self-organized and be actively self learning and motivated. 

For more information about this specific position please send us an email to:

gaiaschoolasia@gmail.com

Apply to become an intern?

These are our main current internship positions that we are looking for support for. If you are interested in becoming an intern but you are not sure which area to choose, don’t worry–your first 2-4 weeks of internship will be volunteering. Or, you can simply come as a volunteer first and transition to intern when you are ready. If you are interested in one of our internship positions, please follow these steps:

  1. Make sure you have read and are clear on our detailed description here: https://gaiaschoolasia.com/internship/
  2. Send us an email with your expression of interest. In the email tell a bit about yourself, why you are interested in an internship at Gaia Ashram, which position(s) you are potentially interested in, and why and when you intend to join us.
  3.  After this email we will set up an online meeting with one of our members of the Gaia Team.
  4. If all is well then we will ask you to make a down payment of 5000 Thai Baht of the internship and this will secure your internship spot.