ANALOG MANIA – The final touches!

In this week’s episode, we are getting closer and closer to the opening of the exhibition. After two weeks of a lot of stairs, up and down, up and down! FREE GYM, we love it! The glutes are going to be amazing after the end of the project!
We finalized all the hard work with a bit more painting painting painting, brooming brooming brooming, and mopping mopping mopping. And just like that, our Cinderella era is OVEEEEERRR (we hope)!!! I gotta say teamwork does make the dream work, after all, everyone is always in a good spirit and cheering each other up! HURRAYYY for moral support! It does make a difference!


And now we move on with lighter work but definitely not less important. We started advertising the exhibition, going to the city centre, leaving posters all around the city and spreading the word with people we met on the streets!


“It’s already the third week! Our tasks are changing constantly, and we are trying to adapt to our new responsibilities. Still, we are managing to keep up the pace of work in order to have everything ready for the opening of the festival!” – Armando Koleci from Albania

THE GRAND OPENING
The chaos starts as the opening approaches and the artists are starting to arrive. Dealing with flight delays and lots of rides to the airport, the team in charge of the accommodation has the most pressure to get everything right and make sure everyone gets picked up on time and is going to the right places!

As the artists start to put together all the artwork, we help them with everything they may need to make sure the exhibition will look perfect!
“My experience for that week was really excellent, thrilling, busy and funny, as a person who was responsible for picking up and accommodating the artists who came for the festival. I was running between the youth house and the airport with the poster of Analog Mania. I was the first person who listened to their thoughts about their new experience in Timisoara, the festival, how was their flight and what they were expecting or what they would do for the exhibition. We worked a lot for the opening cause we had only 48 hours left and every artist was so involved. We thought that only the organization of the exhibition was needed, like the art pieces, but nooo, we still had to do cleaning cleaning, sponging sponging and painting painting. Preparing stuff for the exhibition was really exciting cause we assisted them, showing them every needed material and helping in fixing everything. This week was crazy but for real it was so cool.” – Lana from Georgia
April 1st is here, and everyone’s excited about it, running around, and getting final things ready! We started with a tour of the exhibition and moved on as the artists presented their work. We took a break to appreciate a beautiful concert with Armenian music, and after we finalized the amazing tour, it was beautiful to see all the hard work paid off!


The first day was truly a success, with such amazing artwork and artists, and now we move to the second day in another gallery, where we focus more on photography and film, and let me tell you it was AMAZING! Also emotional at the same time, because we know it’s ending!

BESIDES THE EXHIBITION
During this week besides the craziness of the opening, we had more cultural nights, this time Romania, Moldova, France and Spain! Always with amazing food and fun of course!



On the first days we wrote our names on envelopes to put on the office wall so we can write motivational/gratitude messages or whatever we want to each other, and this week we started it and it felt amazing to have some words of support or funny messages!
And since after this week, the work with the exhibition is done we start to plan the activities and workshops for the next stage of the project.

Don’t miss the next episode!

An article by Carolina Pires

ANALOG MANIA – Let the adventure begin!!

Once upon a time a group of young people decided to join for 1 full month an amazing volunteering project happening in the beautiful city of Timisoara, in Romania, with the goal to support the Analog Mania Festival. The first days of the experience were dedicated to team building activities with youth workers from FITT, to create a safe space for everyone and get us closer to each other!

Our AMAZING guide Foalex gave us an AMAZING tour of ‘The Palace’, also known as the youth house, and of the Timisoara city center!

After a few days of getting to know each other and exploring our surroundings we met the ICONIC Emil Kindlein, the artist who’s organizing everything with a bright mind full of ideas!

When the work week began everyone was excited about it! Our mornings always started with fun energizers, games and music to get us into a good spirit to start the hard work.

The first few days were super tough, with a lot of physical work and hands-on jobs, lots of brushing brushing brushing, scrubbing scrubbing scrubbing, brooming brooming brooming, painting painting painting, everything needed to be squeaky clean!! Although we were tired, it was super rewarding to know that every little detail made a huuuuuge difference at the end! I can assure that all our parents will be proud to see how much we cleaned and the new skills we acquired.

“Every place could be your home if you clean enough” – Hassan from Spain

“This week has been hard because we had to prepare the youth house for the exhibition. However, we have worked as a team and we helped each other in order to achieve our goals.” – Brenda from Spain

“My experience with FITT has been both fun and tiring. The first two weeks so far have been unexpectedly dusty, but we managed to handle everything. We are a good team and laughing and having fun help us to be more productive. Looking forward to the rest of this journey! Less dust, more fun!” – Eter from Georgia

“I’m very pleased with the project so far, I enjoy being surrounded by these kind and amazing people, the brooming brooming and spongy spongy things are new to me, but I’m ok with them huh, can’t wait for more woohoo. My only regret is that I’m at the university a little part of the day, so I cannot get fully involved in the activities. :(“ – Diana from the Republic of Moldova

In between days we also started our cultural nights, so far we’ve tried amazing food and learned a little bit about Georgia, Greece, Albania and Portugal!

This past week was for sure challenging as we are adapting to a new place, new people and some of us doing jobs we’ve never done before, but at the same time that’s the fun of it! Can’t wait to see what the upcoming weeks will bring us! Tune in for the next episode!

An article by Carolina Pires

My first 3 weeks in Romania (by Antton Gorrochategui)

2 months ago, I was looking for some volunteering projects in the European Solidarity Corps portal. When I found the FITT opportunity, I was like, “Wow, what an interesting project, but what is FITT? What do they do exactly? How is Romania? How is living in Romania? How are Romanians?” I have never known someone that has been living here or volunteering here.  

If you don’t know what FITT is, you should visit their webpage to understand precisely. But shortly, it is a group of people who, from what I understood, works as an umbrella organization for young people of the city and their projects. But in any case, volunteering in FITT is a unique experience; it’s never boring and there are no 2 twin days. I have been helping organise an art exposition, helped update their activities in the European youth year portal, participated in a 1-week training about green entrepreneurship and circular economy, joined a Halloween party organised by FITT and a lot of other things I do not remember now.   

Me and my ¿Boss? At the Halloween party 

In these 3 weeks, I also have discovered a bit about Timisoara. And in general, I think it is a good volunteering place. People here are nice and welcoming, at least the ones I have known in this short period of time. There are a lot of young people every place, and you have a few choices to spend your free time all around the city.  

Article by Antton from Spain

The short terms of April – May share their experience

A handful of short-term European volunteers recently finished their one-month volunteering project in Timișoara. Below, there are some of the testimonials about their experience.

Georgia: This voluntary project has provided me with many opportunities. First of all, the opportunity to visit Romania and discover its astonishing culture. It also gave me the opportunity to learn more about other countries since I have been living in an international environment for a month. I also acquired skills in organizing activities and actively participating in the community. Besides, this project helped me develop and gain confidence. I started this as a way to challenge myself and overcome my limitations and I think I was successful!

The most important thing I have achieved this month is a wonderful international family in which everyone respects and cares for others. Spending time with them has helped me so much that I can’t even count. I’m very grateful to them and also to the old me who had the courage to apply and come here.

Yarek: This project gave me the opportunity not only to make new friends and be involved in a local community but also to learn many things about the Romanian language and culture. Working with the youth of Timișoara was a great experience for me. We learned how to plan, organize and promote events, how to break stereotypes and live in a diverse international community.

Mathilde: Coming a second time to Romania after a first volunteer experience was very challenging. But the FITT community was very friendly and the volunteers I was with were amazing! I had a lot of fun with everyone and organizing activities at the youth house was difficult but awesome. We lived and worked together as a family, and I loved that!! I got one of the best experiences in Romania!!

Pamela: Coming to Romania and volunteering at FITT is one of the best things I’ve ever done. Through this volunteer project, I learned how an NGO works, how to organize activities and how to involve youth and the whole community in those activities. Overall, it was a wonderful experience where I had an opportunity to meet new people and learn more about Romanian culture.

Pedro: I don’t think there’s much I can say about what I experienced at Casa Tineretului (Youth House) thanks to FITT. Nevertheless, I would be happy to share some things which, probably, are a bit more deeply into my international soul. Volunteering at the FITT not only made me realize how important non-formal education is but how much we need human support throughout our lives. I think all of us have been empowered by each other and have achieved things that we never expected to achieve. We have created well-organized workshops for random people in a country we hardly know. We promoted our work using different selling techniques and we made gold from what looked like silver.

Overall, we all gather in Timisoara and have found the best of us. The organization worked as a bridge and mediator among us all, but we were the ones who worked together to achieve our own goals. They gave us the river and the boat. It sounds easy, but we had to go with the flow and pedal together. If you just go with the flow, you risk crashing, if you work and put all your strength on the pedal and change the direction you are going to get to see it.

A new home in Lugoj (by Madalena Carreiro)

I have been in Lugoj for a bit less than 3 weeks, but it feels like it’s been more time. It is very different from where I live in Portugal but somehow it kind of feels like home. It’s very comforting, everyone is very welcoming and nice. 

It is weird to think it has already been 3 weeks but also weird to think it has only been that. It’s a feeling very hard to describe honestly. Everything has been happening so fast, but I have established a routine and it feels like I’ve known everyone for more time.  

The youth centre from Lugoj is a place where we all feel good. We are working but in a very relaxed way. There’s always room for laughter, music, discussion, and new ideas. Talking with the other volunteers, hearing, and discussing ideas for the youth centre is very exciting. I think we have really good plans, and we have the opportunity to do meaningful and fun things here.  

Activities with the locals in Lugoj

In these past weeks, I have met the local volunteers and other locals. Everyone is very nice, most of them are excited to get to know us, learn something about our countries and how we got here. When we are in a group, we find a way to communicate, a big mix of English and a bit of Romanian. The environment is always fun and chill. We are learning every day, whether it is Romanian words, traditions, or just curiosities about the country. Also, we are planning, promoting, and developing activities, which also makes me learn a lot, obviously.  

Last week we planned our first event: a treasure hunt. We thought about clues, riddles, codes, characters, superpowers, and a story to put it all together. It was a well-taught and planned event, but I think that the participants’ engagement and enthusiasm were what made it really magical. They were really into the story and the mystery. My character, “the black witch” had the power to make the participants be in silence for one minute if I managed to touch them. They took this very seriously and were running from me like crazy and always got “scared” when I got close to them.  They solved the mystery and we all got together, made a bonfire to eat and drink. I think this day was one of my favourites since I arrived in Romania, everyone was so happy and comfortable. It was even better than what we had imagined.  

I’m excited to continue the work we started and create bigger and better things.  

Introspection of an isolation week (by Diana Cordeiro)

After two absolutely amazing weeks in Lugoj, all hell broke loose for me. I am indeed talking about what we have all been dealing with for the last 2 years, Covid. It was the first time I had to be absolutely locked in a room and it felt like everything was falling apart. It’s a moment when you have nowhere to turn, no one to stop you from thinking, from being alone with your own thoughts.

The bads of my isolation

While I had amazing roommates who were always concerned about me and did their absolute best to be there for me it was still a very hard time. I spent 8 days in that confined space that started to feel like the walls were closing down on me, it was a special kind of torment to spend so much time with my thoughts. My mind was constantly thinking of everything I ever did, every chance I took, everything that has ever happened to me, good or bad. In moments like this we often think of all that’s bad, we wonder if we could have changed things for us and if so how different would we be today. Would the things I would have liked to change in my past affect my presence in Lugoj? How different of a person would I be? And we keep on wondering about hypotheses and what-ifs. What if after this experience I will still feel as lost as before? What if I am not good enough to do what I want to? What if, what if, what if…  

The goods of my isolation

In the middle of so much wondering and questioning there were also good parts. There will never be enough words to thank those that have helped, that made me stop thinking, that made me feel less alone, that showed worry towards me. What those people did was the best they could ever do without even knowing how much they were helping me feel less lonely, less anxious, less depressed and more like the person I want to be. They showed me that we don’t always have to count on those that we’ve known for the longest time and that know our deepest darkest secrets. They showed me that I could indeed trust them in a moment of need, that they will be here on bad and good days, just like I will do the same for them.  

I am thankful for what this experience has brought me so far and I hope it keeps on being as good or better! 

Why being an international volunteer in Lugoj (by Pauline Cornec)

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.

ESC in Lugoj

From Portugal to Lugoj (by Madalena Carreiro)

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!

My way to Lugoj (by Diana Cordeiro, Portugal)

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.

winter in Lugoj

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!

Youth centre: last week of work (by Syed Musaib Hussain)

We are in the last week and everyone is active. The team is working hard to accomplishing the finishing part of the Building Renovation. The finishing part of the youth centre includes painting the walls, decoration of inside walls, cleaning all the floors and gardens and fixing the scratched and painted windows. The FITT team also helped us in the last week and some more friends joined to finish the renovation work in time. Even more admirable is the work of local volunteers with coordinators till the end of the day. Our friends showed their dedication, solidarity and worked hard for more than 12 hours on the last day before arranging the opening ceremony day.

Let’s read some testimonies from our volunteers’ experiences:

I was free in the summer and my father arranged for me to join the solidarity program. I really like to work with an international community. I find the work and everyone interesting and I like the schedule – it’s a good balance of work and rest and I find that mostly the minds of the youth are same irrespective of their culture and location. (Radu Jidovin, volunteer from the local community)

Radu Jidovin Lugoj

The last week was full of activeness and integration, it was the week of achievement. All the members were really working hard to contribute on their behalf to the project. On the last day, at the opening ceremony, I felt proud of myself and my whole volunteering team for their contribution. We worked, learned from each other and enjoyed ourselves together. (Hussein Abdo, Iraq)

Hussein Abdo Lugoj

In the last week, we made efforts with full zeal and zest to finish the work. The FITT team also helped us and that was encouraging to me and my friends. We painted the interior and exterior of the walls, cleaned the floors and arranged the whole centre for the first ceremony program. It was a great experience for me. I made new friends and I find the program interesting to learn a lot about social life. (Muhammad Usman, Pakistan)

Muhammad Usman Lugoj

The last week of work finished with the inauguration of the youth centre. Here are some captures of the results of our work:

You can find out more about the project on its website.