Month: January 2022

Last summer I was an au pair in England for 3 months and it was my first experience abroad alone. I really enjoyed it because I met good people, I improved my English and I discovered myself. This period has changed a lot of things in my life and made me realize that I’m not sure about my studies in Science of Education and my desire to become a schoolteacher. So, I decided to do a gap year to think about what I wanted. I first decided to go to Stockholm as an au pair for 3 months and at the same time, I was looking for a volunteering project abroad. I wanted to be a volunteer to get involved in a project and be useful to people. I also read a lot of testimony of previous volunteers from all over the world, all of them said that it had changed their life and that if we have the idea to be a volunteer, we should just do it. So, I trusted them, and I wanted to live a unique experience.

I’m used to working with children, so I wanted to discover a new public like teenagers. This volunteering project in Lugoj with FITT met all my expectations because it’s in a youth centre and non-formal education. I’m happy to have found this project because I will have a lot to learn and to discover about people, Romanian culture and also live with international people. I hope this experience will enrich me personally and professionally.

When I arrived in Lugoj, I met the other volunteers of Lugoj who are my roommates and my coordinator. On the 1st day, we visited the Youth Centre in Lugoj, and I was surprised by how big it was. There are a lot of rooms, a garden, and also an office for the volunteers and the coordinator to work on projects for the centre. The building was refurbished last summer by some volunteers, but some rooms still need a little bit of work like putting the floor, heaters and painting in order to make it useful.
I am already excited by the idea to renovate and make these rooms good for the youth.

We also met the other volunteers from Timisoara, and it was nice to exchange about what they did because most of them have been here for a long time. All the people I’ve met since I’m in Romania, which are international volunteers, Romanian youth and staff, everyone is very friendly and funny. Everyone talks with everyone, I like the atmosphere and feel very comfortable. I can’t wait to live these 8 months in Lugoj and make the youth centre live with the other volunteers.

In my last year of secondary school, I decided that I wanted to go abroad and be a volunteer. As the school year got close to an end, I realize that I had made, for sure, the right decision. I felt the need to go away, to do something different. I had been living in Sintra with my family for 18 years and had been studying for almost all my life, I wanted to do more. Don’t get me wrong, I had loads of fun, I always had the privilege of trying different things. With my family and in scouts, I have always been motivated to do bigger things and pushed out of my comfort zone. Still, I needed a bigger challenge, something more permanent, something that would really impact me in a different way.

So, I started applying to ESC projects. I applied for very different projects, I wanted to help people to make a difference. I applied for projects with youth, migrants, women, I really wanted to be in a project where I could experience different social dynamics. I wanted to meet new people, different realities and interact with them. After some time applying (which really tested my patience), I found this project in Romania that looked very cool. I hadn’t applied to any Romanian projects yet, but the project was exactly what I had been looking for: one where I could get to know different people, where I could develop different activities and turn my ideas into reality.

I applied to that project and now here I am. Lugoj is very different from where I lived, it’s smaller, it’s very cold. Almost everything here is quite different, that’s what makes this a bit scary, but that’s also what makes it so exciting. I have new people, a new city and a new country to discover and explore! I think the next seven months will be very challenging, and intense, but mostly I hope they are fun, happy and memorable ones. I’m really excited to meet everyone and start to implement ideas, create events. I’m glad that I can, with Pauline, Diana and Silviu, make Lugoj a better place for young people and make sure that in the youth centre they have fun, they feel safe and comfortable and that it is a place where we can all learn.

The road to Lugoj has had its twists and turns and I’m sure my stay here will be full of them but, mostly, I feel so lucky and grateful that I get to be here and have this experience!

On my way to my first destination outside Morocco, It’s not easy to leave my beautiful country for a long time but Romania deserves it, especially for a volunteer project.

Can you imagine?

One of the most important stops was getting to know each other and discovering more about the organization FITT as well as Timisoara while gaining awareness of the meaning of teamwork in all its dimensions.

I was, am and will be proud to be part of the organization.

From the first week, I became aware of the importance of social activities to homogenize a group that will work in the long and short term.

We witnessed the work of ex-short-term volunteers on previously restored centres along with the long-term volunteers, who gave us their input from their previous experience restoring those centres.

The actual station is for activating the responsibilities of each person who likes to get up and take an adventure.

Show up and be ready for a station full of teamwork!

A new breath, a new stage with good energy.

I arrived in Lugoj about a week and a half ago to start the Youth Centres Up 2 project with FITT, and that’s how I got involved. Volunteering has always been one of my interests and I could never find anything in the area where I lived. When I found out about ESC and all the international projects I could get involved in, I just knew I had to do it.

But then the pandemic and the fear of Covid-19 came, so I abandoned the idea for a while until I embarked on a whole new adventure: a human rights internship in Geneva, which was probably all I wanted. The experience itself was amazing, but I realized that this was not exactly the path I wanted to take. I want to be active in helping people, building better communities, creating safe spaces, and still working in the field of human rights. In the same year (2021) I got the chance to do a training course in Malta under Erasmus+, another life-changing experience. This opened the doors to youth work for me to do all that I want to do and be happy at the same time.

Getting to Lugoj

Maybe I should not say this, but I only applied for this project, I did not want any other. I saw it, I liked it and I applied without thinking twice about it, I did not need to. I believe that we have to take every chance to do what makes us happy and if we feel that something is the right thing to do, we just have to do it, and if it’s a mistake, we just learn a lesson from it.

After I passed the interview and got the acceptance letter, it became a real thing that I did. I was nervous and excited because there is always that nagging fear of not being good enough or making too many mistakes, not being able to integrate or not making friends in a new country. But that soon subsided, and I was just happy to move to Lugoj and get the chance to find my way and myself.

Arriving in Romania was amazing. I come from an area where it does not snow, and seeing everything white was just beautiful. Meeting the other volunteers and staff from Lugoj and Timisoara was absolutely fantastic. Everyone is so friendly and makes you feel like you have known them for years. It’s like a warm hug when you do not know what to expect. I cannot wait to see where this trip will take me!

On the 14th of December, the Youth Centre of Dacia exchanged the noise of construction work, with the sound of a guitar and a beautiful voice. Helped by the youth workers from FITT, the place changed its atmosphere. The opening was on! A little buffet, a workshop area, a lot of welcoming puff, and some thankful speeches.

The latest details were made the same day: to embellish the place and put the furniture. What a relief for us to see that big day coming! We were now able to say: we did it! The challenge of renovating a formerly industrial place to a welcoming one in a month is completed. Time was definitely our worst enemy here. But in the end, we achieved to make the list of the Youth Centres growing.

Now, the association CoderDojo will make it its own. This building provides them with a place for their activities as a “general quarter”. Until 2023, as the year of Timișoara European Capital of Culture, other Youth Centres will rise with FITT and hopefully provide local associations places for their work and activities.

2022 will then be a year of hard work for the FITT team. Months after months, the experience will be improved. Other volunteers will come and join this enriching movement. This volunteering was for me a unique, multicultural and most of all intense experience. Full of dust but also full of friendships. And I wish the next ones to enjoy it as much as I did.