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.
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.