Month: July 2019

 “The best way to predict the future is to to create it.” – Abraham Lincoln 

As you know our journey began a week ago with the community engagement activities, this week we started the actual rebuilding of our center. 

This is how it was. 

It took us a few days of planning and scheduling before we were ready to go inside the building. Once we managed that we started to identify all the tasks we needed to complete. 

Cleaning was the obvious priority, both the outside and the inside. We made a commitment to ourselves and to the community that we would clean the surroundings of the center to show the positive impact we can have on the neighborhood. That meant cleaning not only our garden but also the sidewalks and the parking lot next to our center. 

The next on our list of priorities was the walls. They were in bad shape due to the humidity which meant that some parts were falling off. So we made a list of supplies that we will need to clean the walls inside for them to be ready to get painted. 

Besides that, we brought chairs and tables to put in the front garden to be ready to welcome people. On that note, we received donations like food and drinks from our neighbors. 

We felt like people started to realize and appreciate the change that we are trying to make because some of them curiously approached us to learn more about the project and started congratulating us. 

We also had a Romanian volunteer that offered to help us after we approached him during the community engagement activities which is another proof that locals are starting to notice us. 

All in all, we had the opportunity to think about and reflect on the impact we are having in this neighborhood and what it means to be a volunteer. 

Like last week now you will get the chance to read about our teammate`s perspective and thoughts on this past week. 

Sofia Barata 

I came here to do volunteering. My experience so far as been awesome, I’ve met new people and got to know more about cultures and places that I had never heard about. 

Last week we got to know the youth center and we did a small gathering to let people see the place and how damaged it was. This week we planned to start cleaning the garden and the walls, so this Saturday people could come and see the differences from last week. 

Davud Azizov 

“This week we started to reshape the youth center. We had a lot of things to do. Our first and crucial aim for this week was cleaning. We didn’t only clean the building, we cleaned the neighborhood as well (10meters?). 

On the other hand, we were not good at community engagement. I mean we didn’t try to talk to people like last week. So we should think and work more about this in order to reach a lot of people. As far as I’m concerned, our efficiency was good enough for the first working week.” 

Anahit Gharibyan 

“Last week started very difficultly. we faced new problems that never think about. After planning we should go to the building and start the main activities such as cleaning the garden building and start construction. Honesty said it was more difficult than I can imagine. But I love it. When I understand that it can be a useful and lovely place for young people like me it motivates me very much.” 

Vasilis Tsalos 

“Here we are. It’s almost the 3rd week that we are are in the project and I feel that it was like yesterday. The time passes very quickly, but with creativity, imagination and work. We are in Romania for an important purpose, to create safe spaces for the youngsters of this beautiful city. We have already started this job, that looks like a dream for some. We are responsible for the future of young people. We have to try and to do our best every day. I’m very grateful that I’m here as a volunteer of an intercultural team, with many different colors and hearts.” 

Christina Fountou 

“This week we started cleaning our youth center. The first time I saw it I thought I would probably take weeks to be cleaned but now I realized that with teamwork everything is possible. I feel that our center is really beautiful and it has a lot of perspectives to become really great with a beautiful yard, I am very satisfied.” 

Marietta Tselepi 

“How can we actually describe the experiences of 23 totally different people from 23 with different backgrounds? You cannot, the only thing that we can do is try to describe the friendships, the relationships, the bad days and the best days. 

This week was strange, people are becoming intertwined with each other we start to become a team. We can understand and we start to actually respect each other. The weird thing is that while we start to understand we sometimes cannot do that with each other’s peculiarities. We dress everything up so nicely that we forget that these few weeks that we will be here in Timisoara we are going to be in a bubble and that in real life we are quite boring and not really that interesting. We try to show our most interesting selves to our new friends but we actually forget that we are not that different in our everyday lives. 

But at least we started to actively work on our youth center. It is going to be a lot of work we are not even a little bit close to finishing our project. But there are good vibes, ideas and a lot of passion for our project. So I believe that it is all going to be ok.” 

Week two started on a low note with one of the members of another group being sent home. Thereafter a common meeting was held, which involved all 3 groups in order to discuss the incident, as well as any other concerns the group had.

On Wednesday the three groups split, after which Pangea began planning for the upcoming week. During the planning session the group decided to focus on cleaning the youth center and continuing with community engagement. It was decided that 5 people per day would take part in community engagement with the target of speaking to 20 people per day. Thereafter, the community engagement team would join the rest of the team in cleaning the youth center.

On Thursday during the Youth Action, Pangea painted chairs and tables at the FITT Youth Center. This was a good opportunity to practice painting before doing so at the individual Youth Centers.

The planned activities were a success as the team was able to complete cleaning outside the Youth Center and the surrounding area. They also started cleaning inside the youth center, though this was slightly delayed while waiting for the cleaning materials to arrive.

The group received their first donation on Saturday. A number of people also committed to volunteering, some were even eager to join as of Saturday 27 July.

Pangea also appointed 3 of its members to begin planning the structure of the Youth Center. This entailed measuring the building and deciding which part of the building will be used for the different planned activities (stage, learning corner, solidarity).

The group members decided that the Youth Centre will have multiple functions seeing that it is so big in size. It will have a stage where the youth will have the opportunity to show their talent through stand-up comedy and theatre productions. There will also be a mini-library corner where the community will be able to read books. Close to this area, there will be a learning corner where classes (e.g. English lessons) and workshops will be held. Occasionally, the youth will also be able to watch movies in the center. All these planned activities are based on what the community expressed as necessary activities for the center.

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” Maya Angelou 

We believe that this sentence can be a perfect exemple for our past week. We had a lot of challenges to face, as expected, some diverging opinions and a lot of hard work. The start of the week was a bit tough, we had some organization problems between the team mates. However, we worked hard in trying to solve them and with the passing of time and a lot effort we found a way to work on them.. 

In relation with the first sentence of our article, we asked our team how did they feel about our time spent together during the week. One of the most common answers was “challenging”. This is a reflection of some factos external from the team, we had a lot of physical work to be done, a big amount of planning and a big reason to organize meetings where we could discuss about our misunderstandings and goals. People also mentioned often the word “motivating” and at the end of the week, we feel that we have become each others motivators and supporters. In the beggining, our energy was a bit low, but as we started cleaning out our space and seeing the progress of our work, we started to feel some change and feeling more accomplished and fulfilled. Finally, we were working as a team. Results started being visible after the first days. With only three days of very hard physical work, the youth center and its surroundings had a completely new appearance.

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In the beginning of the week, one of the most useful aspects was that we had the chance of listening to conferences or having face to face conversations with professionals in the field of youth work. This helped us a lot in inspiring us and motivated us to take a step forward, having in mind the actual impact of what we are doing in Timișoara. 

One of the main sources of our motivation also came from the support of the community. We witnessed several exemples of kindness from our neighbours. One morning, we still had not received our working tools and this man who was working nearby came to us with three tools and it completely made our day. Also, other neighbours gave us water and food when we were all really needing it, as well as they received us with open arms and a smile on their face.

Work was definetely not the only thing that made us closer this week. One of the most important things for us was having fun during the process. Most of us also described the week as “funny” and “interesting”. We laughed a lot this week, created our own private jokes that got us through our week more smoothly and without loosing our good mood. 

One of the best things this week that really showed results was the fact that we had more frequent meetings. As we all know, communication is key. We worked on our dialogue and on the fact that everyone has a voice to be heard. Our meetings evolved and became less focused on our issues and more targeted to solve them and also to keep our goals in mind while we planed their implementation.

We would also add solidarity as a keyword for the whole process, which we all need to keep in mind and respect while we try to reach our mutual main goal. Something that really helped our team this week was to find the right perspective on why we are here and remember that we are a team working with the same purpose for the community and not ourselves as individuals. That, for us, is the highest expression of solidarity.

After the week was finished, our final moment of reflection was, in general, very positive. We could all agree that our team has had serious development and it’s been reflected on the results of our work. We are discovering, in our time together, new ways of thinking and the main conclusion we made is that diversity is not a problem, it is a solution.

What can we take from this last week? Together, our team came to the conclusion that the secret to the improvement of social connections and relations is just having active dialogue, connected with a lot of patience and tolerance. After these are well consolidated, we can become true friends and not just colleagues.

You ever wondered what a change maker is?

Our main goals include contribution to local society and inclusion of people with fewer opportunities.

Until now, an event like this one was never held in Timișoara.

Thoughtsabout a more active and united community brought about tone hundred people together, from all over the world.

How will this action be implemented?

In five abandoned points of the city, volunteers are working together on reconstructing and rehabilititating them as youth centres.

Nowadays, when young people want to step up, these spaces can offer them the propper tools to do so.

After the centres are operational, they will hold activities like movies, theatre, story telling and many others.

Counting on the support and donations of the local community, we will be able to make some dreams come true.

Tomake this happen, the volunteers will be in Timișoara for a period of fourty days, working hard on achieving their goals.

Inthe end, the youth for youth methoology will allow us to give the buildings back to the community and raise awareness to the importance of volunteering.

Ourfirst week passed by quite quickly and it all went pretty well; our challenges have been overcome through teamwark and collaboration.

Now that the change has started, we are eager to share our experiences and hopes for the future.

For this, we asked our team some key questions about our week.

First, we spoke to Evgenij, also know as Eugene, 27, from Macedonia. We asked him what were his motivations for becoming a volunteer. His answer was the most inspired one. He feels that he needs to have some change in his life, while at the same time improving his skills and creating a new mindset. Eugene has the dream of apllying the skills he wishes to gain, in his own country, with the idea of turning abandoned factories into centres, like skateparks.

Andreia, 19, from Portugal shared with us her first impressions of  Timișoara. She arrived at night to the city, so she actually thought it was a bit empty. However, after our activities, such as a “quest” around the city, she noticed it’s inherent beauty na charm. As for its people, she believes they are very nice, even though there is a language barrier between our volunteers and them.

This week, one of our biggest surprises was entering the building where our youth centre will be, the one our twenty two teammates will renovate. Metanet, from Azerbaijan, age 1, one of our youngest members, shared her first impresion, which is in syntony with the broad views of our team. She was a bit shocked at first, actually, since there are no floors and a loto f damges. So, concern was one of the main feelings. On the other hand, she felt hopeful and excited. The expression she use was “ I believed in our power”, which completely matches our team’s name “Forțatinerilor”, youth power.

For the past few days, our main goal was to connect with the local community of our neighbourhood, we handed out flyers, hung posters, talked to people and finished the week with a small event in our centre, an open day for people to see what we’re doing as well as trying to engage them and incentivate them to donate some materials and volunteer. Pedro, 23 years old, from Brazil, sometimes felt a difficulty in trying to get commitement from locals. However, people were nice and the youngsters from our neighbourhood showed the most interest. He said “We tried our best and we still have many ideas to try to inform as many people as posible”

To sum up our week, we faced our challenges the best way we could, even though there is always room to improve. Our centre might be the smallest, but it certainly is full of challenges for us to face. We are a strong team, full of strong, wonderful people and we are ready to face the weeks to come, never forgeting the the best we can do this, is to keep positive and have fun.

 Do you remember what you did on the 17th of July? We do, it was an important day for us: it was the day we had the chance to engage with local people from Şagului. 

To do that we had to come up with an efficient plan. First, we needed to decide what kind of campaign we wanted: flyers, posters, and stands. Second, we decided we wanted something special for our center, so we designed our flyer. Finally, we divided the team by four areas which allowed us to cover the neıghbourhood better. 

So we’ve talked about the beggining of the week but what about the 20th of July? That was the day we opened up our youth center to the community for the first time. 

Why? Because we wanted the people to see this abandoned old building’s potential and share with us their ideas and needs. 

Each one of us felt proud in different ways and now you will get to see some of our point of views and how we felt at the beggining of this journey. 

Enjoy. 

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Danjela Jakaj 

First time, first day, first challenge 

“Gathered together to fulfill our mission, we were excited about the present and curious about the future. We had team challenges and we delegated duties. Today, we had our first street action, there were many questions in our minds: can we convince them to join our mission? We tried to stay positive. 

In the following days, I distributed some flyers in different areas of the neighborhood with some teammates. We tried our best to convince them to join us, i hope that we have achieved our goal. 

We have to wait and see.” 

Alen Saliu 

Hello, 

“This week has been a real crescendo for me. With each day that passes, it becomes better and things take more of a shape. I’m getting more used to the place and the people, coming closer to some of the guys and enjoying my time every day more. Of course, there have been some challenges, but I’m looking forward to starting the practical fieldwork, and to start bringing change and difference to the community.” 

Marietta Tselepi 

WEEK FIRST IN TIMISOARA 

“The first week started kind of tentatively, many participants from many different countries trying to fit together for the first time in order to create something. The week started with icebreaking games and a lot of music. When our team was formed (team number 2) we were just 23 people trying to get through the training part of the project. We did not know each and we did not care about each other that much. But as the week progressed we managed to start understanding each other better and we started to bond. Through many sessions of decision making, through terrible tiring morning spots and countless hours under the sun, we have started to form a team. After many days of planning, we got to see our youth center. Feelings were mixed it will need a lot of work, lots and lots of hours and maybe a bit of love for the cause for that building to become a beacon of culture. The weird thing is though, that I have no doubt that we will manage since the people of our team are all so amazingly inspirational and actually good and caring people so there is not the slightest fear that we are not going to achieve our goal. As Henry Ford said, “Coming together is a beginning, staying together is a progress and working together is a success”. 

Gözde Şiir 

“Today, we cleaned up the front of the youth house’s garden. It was tiring but it was also really nice to see how we made a visible change in less than an hour. Imagine if everybody did the same for their neighbourhood. 

After that, we decided we wanted to create a flyer for saturday night so I and Maria worked together and designed it. It took some hours. 

After that, we went into the neighborhood and made the stands, sticked the posters and distributed the flyers. Besides that, we also got to see our center for the first time. 

It was in bad shape but it has potential. It is full of little beautiful details. 

Unfortunately, we came across a man near the center who was not that happy about our idea. He said that he doesn’t want change and he would prefer the center as it is now. 

He was not that kind. 

But then I remembered the other locals we had talked to yesterday and how they liked and supported the idea. 

I hope Saturday turns out great. 

Group one kicked off the first week with training. This training was meant to enable the group members to know each other better, as well as to understand each other’s capabilities better. This training consisted of a variety of tasks to equip the group with an awareness of what would be expected of them in the weeks to follow. At the end of the training, each member was required to reflect on the training week, as well as to share their expectations for the future. Many people expressed an appreciation for the training week as it had brought the team closer to each other, and as a result enabled them to build friendships. They also stated that they wish that the same spirit will carry the team through the upcoming weeks.

One of the first tasks given to the group was to give a group name. A consensus was reached on the name: Pangea. Literally, Pangea was said to be the first continent that consisted of all continents (before they separated). The group chose this name as a representation of the coming together of group members from about 14 countries under the same objective of building a Youth Centre.

Pangea was also requested to compile a list of responsibilities in which each member would be responsible for completing a variety of tasks. After a few minutes of disagreement on the responsibility allocation, the group reached an agreement on who would be responsible for what task.

Week two saw Pangea begin community engagement. The main objective of this week was to inform the local community of the Youth Centre that would be renovated in their area and to get the community involved. The community involvement consists of either donation in the form of furniture, paint, books, etc, or volunteering that consists of assisting clean and paint the youth centre.

The group separated into those responsible for physical community engagement, and online community engagement. The physical community engagement was in the form of approaching those in the neighbourhood in order to inform them of the upcoming event on Saturday, 21 July 2019. Online community engagement made usage of online mediums such as Instagram, Facebook and emails. Photos of the group’s progress were posted on social media in order for the community to see the progress of the group. 

Every person that was approached face-to-face was required to leave their contact details – social media, email, contacts – in order for them to be contacted by the online community engagement group.