Month: March 2021

Instead of sunny spring weather, cheerfulness and motivation, March brought moodiness and motivation drop to the ESC volunteers. But, as soon as the sunrays appeared, the work resumed. 

But the sun rose as a saviour for them. Even though the local quarantine extended at the end of March, the four volunteers immersed strength from the sun’s rays and began to plan. They researched group activities and community engagement ideas in order to prepare fantastic programs and projects for the local youth. They also had a creative and very effective meeting about how to promote a survey among young people. For increasing the number of completions, they scheduled, together with FITT, a giveaway for the local youth.  

Compared to how hard things were at the beginning of the month, the volunteers got into the end-of-month project with momentum. We hope this enthusiasm will follow them in April too. 

365 or maybe a few more days passed by, but I feel it was just instant when I’ve just arrived and now it’s time to say goodbye.  

Say goodbye to the city that completed the warm environment for a year for me, goodbye to the organization that supported us till the end, goodbye to the youth centre that in a short time became a place for expressing and understanding ourselves, goodbye to stores, malls, streets, goodbye to the culture that gave us lots of feelings, happiness, and joy and finally, goodbye to the people who have made this year for me, people or maybe just a person who became the biggest achievement for the year for me. 

After all the things I have tried to count, I don’t even know if it can be possible to count the number of things I studied and the experiences that I got. But I still can name something: the experience I have got was the best opportunity to see myself in different fields and to build myself in a professional and personal perspective. Which, I can truly declare, I did completely.   

Besides all these, I also remember how many times I got upset during this year, and how many times I told myself that this is it. Sometimes, I even thought to simply leave the project, but something always pushed me back, and now I am so happy about that. When I look back on how my personality was a year ago, and how it is right now, I feel much more developed, grown, and flexible.   

I really wish that my story becomes a source of motivation for you, the one who is reading it. And I hope that in the future, I will have the chance to read your story as well. 

I remember stepping into that huge building, Casa Tineretului. My baggage was heavy and so were my feelings, faced with the fact that I did it, I came back. It looked like nothing has changed. Dimmed lights were illuminating the walls, the echo of my steps was filling the space and the memories began to return in bursts. 

Happiness was mingled with anticipation and I stood in front of my decision, wondering if it was right. 

One year later I got my answer… 

There is no proper way to sit down and write about how this year felt for us, neither about what we have learned or what we have not. After all, it is still too early to define the range of our prospect to emerge all the gained knowledge, isn’t it? But at least I can try.  

What matters is what we all have inside of us. The change that came and will follow us back home. In the last days we could only wipe our tears and let the family go, all the members at their own side. That is life, that is what you learn. We learned to overthrow the differences that we, just a couple of months before, were holding on so tight. We recognize the glare in all the constructive discussions, or how we like to call them, fights. If this one year would become two, and we would have one more chance to be here and do what we do, we would obey the decision to stay united and loved. But it is just one year. And transience overtook us faster than we expected. 

Things to appreciate

Thereafter, we will learn to appreciate the moments, the big ones and the ones that at first sight seemed small, to give them the value that they deserve. The difference between them is deceiving. We will learn about the stories coming from our youth centers, and how the work continued many years after. The young people will have a shelter and a safe space to discover others and themselves. The same way how we did while bewildered going to organize public speech on the topic of human rights. The yearning feeling of going back and getting just one more slice of that cake made out of knowledge will consume us, and we will learn that the decision was right.  

Details are important, mrut jan. Smells, aromas, and side notes that you leave in the kitchen. But there will always be some malaka, which will not know if he left an empty glass on the table. And it’s possible that that glass was filled with jin tonic and a lot of ice. The ambulance could pass next to your window each time when you’re speaking on the phone, and people will not understand how. And sometimes you will hear someone singing in the living room, or while showering.

From across the street of Aries 19, late at night, when the whole Timisoara is sleeping, you could see one or two lights still being on. And there were some shadows on the curtain. These shadows have their dreams, oddly they keep them sometimes, but many times they share them. Those shadows would often be late from a common meeting and will need only bi dakka bi dakka to join. They laugh. A lot. And cry. And then laugh again because there was always a hug and a bad joke to suppress the silence.  

But believe me, no, really, believe me, all this will matter to you only when it’s time to leave.  

It was five in the morning when I arrived after 6 months. I was feeling that I am at home, I was feeling that all the memories that I have left would come back again.  

This year will always stay with me. It was something that had both extremely good and extremely bad days, but as I am always saying, we should realize the positive side of the coin. Every day of my life in Timisoara I got something new, something beautiful and meaningful. 

I am taking with me for my life this whole year and this amazing experience that gave me things that I will be grateful for in my future.

I feel like it was yesterday when this story has started. When I look back, even just for a second, I remember so clearly my arrival: I was entering a room which wasn’t giving me any warmness at all. But right now, when it’s time for me to leave, the same room is giving me so much warmness and it became so close to my heart, that it is so hard for me to leave it behind.  

I hope I will have the opportunity to share with you another experience story of mine, but until that, just enjoy and get motivated from this story. 

In summer ’19 I got involved in a great adventure. I was among a hundred volunteers from different parts around the world who came to Timisoara with only one purpose. We built 5 youth centres in 5 neighbourhoods of the city, in order to help the local community of young people. To be honest, I was not very familiar with volunteering programmes in Europe and just by a lucky sequence of events, I discovered for myself a new world. We worked hard that summer and left with the feeling of fulfilment, satisfaction and hope that these spaces will become centres of culture, creativity and innovation in this small, but beautiful and historically important Romanian city. 

The Change

When FITT opened the call, I was really excited to come back and actually be the one to see The Change in the community. I was happy to be accepted and could not wait to start working in my Centrul de Tineret Aradului. I imagined the upcoming year to be full of great concerts, cozy gatherings, and many other kinds of events. I imagined a lot of things, but the reality turned out to be in its own way. 

Right after signing the volunteering agreements, the global pandemic took over and put us in lockdown for two months. It was a great time for distant learning and self-development, as well as for planning the activities of the project. 

However, it was hard to plan anything because the situation was so unclear and the air was literally filled with fears and anxiety. 

Cleaning and renovation

In May, Romania entered the state of alert and we were allowed to finally go out and start working in the youth centre. Complete abandonment of the building resulted in so much dirt, dust, and destruction, that me and my Armenian partner Arus, needed about two months to make the youth centre look decent.  

Besides all the cleaning/renovating, me and my working partner were trying to spread awareness of our project, in order to get the acknowledgement and receive help from the locals. We recruited many local volunteers among teenagers and students in the community. We tried to involve them in the organisation of the youth centre as much as possible, but most of them disappeared, due to both the pandemic and their personal reasons. Generally speaking, the local community was not very active and receptive towards the youth centre. 

Emilia and Alice

However, two local girls, Emilia and Alice, have really put their hearts into the project. Thanks to them, I feel that my presence in Timisoara had meaning and purpose. These girls initiated two amazing projects (Art Club and Eco Club) on the base of the Aradului youth centre. They brought life into the youth centre and invited their friends. This way we managed to get at least some trust in the neighbourhood. Moreover, these two girls will take care of the youth centre after our projects ends. 

It is good to leave something important and close to your heart with a complete assurance that all these efforts will not be abandoned and forgotten. 

Even though many kinds of socialization were restricted, me and my working partner managed to get to know many people and get involved in different projects with a number of local NGOs and private companies. We have managed to get the awareness of people in the neighbourhood and had a lot of help from them in organizing the activities. Later, when all events in physical space got forbidden again, they helped us create online projects, which had relatively low participation, but otherwise, went awesome. 

Final thoughts

To be honest, I have been thinking a lot about the project and the purpose of it. We spent most of the time at home, actively coming to the youth centre only in summer. 

Did we accomplish our mission, which is “to set the tempo” for cultural life in the neighborhoods? Is it possible to do so when human connection is forbidden?  

I do not have a clear answer to this question even now. What I know for sure, is that we did make a change. Maybe not in the neighborhoods, but in the people, who were helping us and participating in our activities. When I hear words of gratitude and appreciation (and that did happen quite a few times), my heart is filled with meaning and purpose. 

After all, despite all challenges and disappointments, I know that the decision to come here was actually the best possible option. I feel grateful for myself and all people around me for this experience. Now it is time to move on and explore life. However, volunteering will always have its special place in my mind and heart. 

Although February was a short month, our long-term ESC volunteers were highly productive. They started having Romanian language classes, participated in several trainings and workshops, created databases, and many more. 

Alpie, our newest volunteer in the ‘Youth Centres UP 2’ project, participated in a week-long training called “On arrival” where he met other volunteers that came to Romania at the same time.

Our two volunteers had several marketing and organising-related activities this month:  

• an Excel training where they have mastered the basics of the program 

• a SWOT analysis workshop where they learned how to create a SWOT analysis, and with the help of some ex-volunteers they have even created one for the Youth Centres UP project, based on their experiences and expectations 

• a meeting about marketing practices, and how to use them in social media. They even put into practice their knowledge by posting on the Youth Centres UP social media accounts and writing some blog articles as well 

• the two ESC volunteers created a database of organisations with the possibility of having a partnership and a mail list of high schools from Timisoara for the same purpose 

This year FITT wants to create 10 more youth centres in Timisoara. So, our long-term ESC volunteers shared a form on the Youth Centres UP Facebook page to ask the local youth about their needs. It was necessary for us to have a clearer image of how to arrange these new centres in order to meet the expectations of the youth and be accessible to all youth.