Month: April 2021

This month, the ESC volunteers enjoyed spring at its finest. They took advantage of the great weather and had picnics, were on treasure hunts, city tours, organised and attended various online and offline events. In a word, they weren’t bored at all.  

April started with a great learning opportunity for the volunteers. They had the chance to organise a giveaway for the local youth and see how their audience reacts. Shortly after, another two volunteers, Miriam and Esther, joined the Youth Centres UP 2 project. On this occasion, all the volunteers have visited and examined the Youth Centres in the city.  

Spring revied their motivation, and they were excited to jump into work. Even the less creative tasks seemed easy and fun to do. So they finished the Community Engagement guidelines, created a partnership database for short-term volunteers and sent out offers. They regularly post on Facebook and Instagram fun and exciting things about themselves and their activity in the project. Feel free to follow them! 

As mentioned before, they had experienced spring at its finest, which means they had many outdoor activities. They started the month with a nice friendly picnic, then participated in a treasure hunt in the Youth House to find out more about the building. Then, Ion organised a city rally in which the volunteers and employees discovered Timisoara through a treasure hunt. At the end of April, a cycling event (by Centrul de Tineret Martirilor) near the Bega River to promote outdoor sports in the spring took place. Also, the volunteers took part in a significant project: they distributed flyers and posters in the city to inform local people about the Vaccination Marathon at the end of April.  

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Regarding the current pandemic situations, they also had many online trainings, events and workshops too:  

• Videography photoshoot with Katsia; 
• Online travelling – event organised for the local youth together with the youth workers from FITT, where they presented Turkey and the Turkish culture; 
• On Arrival Training – a week-long training for the volunteers, where they learnt, among others, about the roles in their project, cultural differences, cultural iceberg, non-violent communications, etc.; 
• Public Speaking – an online event that introduced the local youth to the world of confident speaking. 

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The month ended with a tremendous non-formal event between the volunteers. They tasted different national foods of their countries at the International Dinner.  

We’re looking forward to taking all the good vibes of this month and turn them into good energy in the following period!  

This spring is unprecedented… I can say that spring seems a little strange to me. In the spring, the flowers bloomed. With the wind touching your skin, hope spreads throughout your body. It did not feel that way this time. It came to me was like an endless storm that took everything. I felt as if everything inside of me was being thrown somewhere. What I knew flew into the wind. Lost. I tried to put everything I knew together to not lose, without even understanding what was lost at first. Of course, I did not get any results. I found myself silly. I am tired.

Then I decided to take a step back and do what I thought I did best. To observe what is happening around me… I let myself go on the roads I belong to and saw that spring was dragging everyone, not just me, to other places. This spring is unprecedented. It is like a blow to our dreams, tired of fighting like the spring is falling. It seems to distance us from everything, most importantly, from ourselves. Of course, while doing this, it does not neglect to use this potential of those of us who forget themselves while trying to be unique in our similarities.

After realizing this, I did what I had to do to understand the reason and surrender myself to nature. The nature that comes alive in the spring witnesses a different miracle, the miracle of birth and creation in the spring… At that moment, I felt like being reborn and realized that this spring, this time chose to show its face differently.

Nature, which has always welcomed us with unconditional flowers, made us a condition this time. This was our first bloom. In fact, the spring, which I thought had blown our hopes like a storm with its arrival, did not create these storms. We created them and let the beautiful energy within us go. It is our job to blame the spring. After all, this spring is unprecedented. This spring actually reflected what we are inside of us. To understand this, it was not necessary to look but to feel, to live.

Spring is like a field. Whatever you sow, you reap…

As most of the long-term ESC volunteers from the project Set the Tempo are gone, we are glad that they have left behind some fantastic local volunteers who are happy to share their experience of working with them in the youth centre Aradului.

Read the testimonials here:

I really enjoyed being a volunteer at the youth centre. I am so glad I chose to join because I got the chance to meet new amazing people like Katsia, Arus and Emilia, and all the participants in our activities. I am so happy because I could do the things I am interested in and implement some of my ideas, such as the Eco Club. The youth centre brought me a little bit of hope and some happy days during these hard times. 

Alice Oprea

 

It was my best choice. I think choosing to be a volunteer here changed me as a person. How I see things, how I deal with problems and challenges, how I talk to people I just met. Katsia and Arus are the people I want to thank for this experience the most. Without them, nothing would’ve been the same because they were there for all the activities, and they were behind them as well. 

Emilia Mihuț 

Here at Aradului Youth Center, I had a wonderful opportunity to engage in our community. Especially at the art club, where I got to learn and evolve my drawing skills with the help of the amazing volunteers. Even though we started meeting online, it still feels like we are together and sharing each other’s drawings. 

Diana Ghilezan

The art club really helped me draw more often, meet new artists and explore my creativity through drawing themes. Overall, it is a nice experience, and I think more young artists should attend it. 

Anisia Falniță

It was an awesome experience!! I met a lot of cool and friendly people. The vibe was so cosy and inspired me to create!! The space was beautifully decorated, and we had music in the background, which fit perfectly with the atmosphere. I really enjoyed the time spent there!! ✨💞 

Thea Marconi

I had discovered the Youth Center Aradului in the summer of 2020 when I got involved in the project named “CiviCultura” (theatrical workshop), which was an amazing experience, and I think that was the moment when I had met Katsia and Arus, the most friendly and serene people you can ever meet. At first, I didn’t have any idea about the place of the CiviCultura event, it was a cosy place, and I didn’t pay much attention. After few weeks, I understood the concept of having a place for youth in order to develop different skills for =free= or just spend some quality time learning in a social context. Amazing. I started to follow them on Facebook, and from there, I discovered the future events that got my attention: Public Speaking workshop (this was my favourite so far, the girls coordinated the activity so well, I didn’t even feel the distance made by online events, it was so real, it was the activity that I would love to repeat, also big up for Daniel Bocsan, the man who taught us the ‘power of words’ ), Yoga Sessions online (nice activity to maintain the health) and the Art Club (where creativity is blooming). From each activity, I learned something, and I am very thankful for the experiences they have offered me, for the friendship, for the skills. 

Eliza Cheşa

 

My experience with Aradului Youth Center is a very positive and nourishing one. To begin with, Katsia and Arus were very open and curious about my proposed ideas and very dedicated to making them happen once we agreed to start yoga classes. Their commitment and cooperation were admirable. The facilities we used are well looked after and well managed. Not only we managed to create a community where we moved and shared experiences; I feel like I gained life-long friends. Thank you for the opportunity to collaborate with you! 

Oana Rotariu

 

Centrul de Tineret Calea Aradului helped me make new amazing friends, learn many things, and offered me a community where I can exchange my ideas and learn from others. Having the chance to be in a creative and friendly environment really helped me step out of my comfort zone and say yes more often to new experiences. Meeting the volunteers and getting to know them made me more aware of how lucky we are to be living in Romania, as many of us don’t realize this (me being one of them). I found tremendous value in getting to know more about different cultures and seeing that even though we might have different traditions and ideas, we are more alike than we think. I really hope that the youth will take this chance provided in their neighbourhoods and step out of their comfort zone; it will really expand their horizons. 

Ionuț Vișoi 

We are so glad that Alice, Emilia, Diana, Anisia, Thea, Eliza, Oana and Ionuţ felt great and fulfilling to work with the ESC volunteers. If you are interested in taking part in the local community work, feel free to contact us. 

Ciao, I am Fatih from Turkey, and this is my first post during my volunteering experience!

They say that every person shapes their destiny. But I think sometimes we just can’t. At least the part of my life in Romania is happening out of my control.

My family’s story with Romania began in 1996. I was six months old and my father worked in a gum company in Turkey. When the company moved to Romania, he had to leave us for six months and embark on his first experience abroad.

After a very long time in 2017, it was my turn to meet Romania. I discovered the EVS (now ESC) program and participated in a short-term volunteering program in Arad. Just like my father, my first abroad experience was in Romania. My volunteering experience in Arad had taken only five weeks. I took a role in organizing sports activities such as public running and football. Still, I tasted the Romanian culture and then I came back to my country and got my bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Public Administration in 2019 but I couldn’t have a chance to work in my field. Then I got a job in Customer Services. After seven months, I felt that it was not what I needed, so I quitted.

I started searching online for volunteering projects and found a 1-year project from FITT. I liked the idea of building and reshaping youth centres for the community, so I decided to take action. I thought that this would be an excellent opportunity for me, so I applied to the project. That’s how I met FITT.

My application process with FITT was very fast. I got my visa in one month. During my university period, I took part in some volunteering projects, but I didn’t have much time for volunteering after graduation. Now I have a whole year as a volunteer, and I want to use this opportunity as much as I can.

Today I am in Romania. I have stopped making plans. Let’s see what Romania will decide about my destiny!

“Learning Patience can be a difficult experience, but once conquered, you will find life easier”  – Katherine Pulsifer

As a person, I was never really involved with Erasmus+ projects — I always had a preference towards projects and conferences that were made by universities and other organizations. 

So, when I was accepted after 4 months of waiting in the project Set the Tempo, I was quite happy to change my pace of daily working. I was so glad to change my demanding and full schedule to a more relaxed one. Volunteering has always helped me feel better and relax as I can see the results of my work almost immediately.  

But sadly, I was wrong. I was happy to see again some people that I already knew. I was eager to meet them and to start working in order to bring forth a positive change. But looking back to this year, the change was minimal.   

Waiting for a great start 

In the first month of the project, we were basically waiting for the other 7 volunteers to arrive so we can start to work. This resulted in the fact that our work was almost nonexistent and we were almost forgotten. The second month of the project brought forth the first quarantine, by which we were forced to stay inside with strangers for 14 days.  

After that, the work started tentatively. It became apparent the difficulty that people that actually care to bring forth a change and help, have to deal with many parasites. Parasites that, as I observed, are sucking the good work that the youth sector could do in the communities. (Often, when I think of those people, I think of leeches. My mind goes back to one of my favorite series of books “A Series of Unfortunate Events”. In the 3rd book, the aunt of the poor orphans is eaten by cannibal leeches.) There are many other work sectors that are getting money from different grants or, in our case, from the European Union. So yes, the people that want to get money doing almost nothing are leeches, in my humble opinion. 

Creating connections 

During the first few months, I had the chance though to cooperate with some really nice people that motivated me. Although I don’t like to use the word “friendship” I started feeling very nice and happy working with them. I also want to point out that I did not have a partner. We should have been working with partners, but mine did not arrive till November. Talking about a project that started in March, this aspect did not look that good for me. My work was more solitary than anything, but in the whole duration of the project, I did not feel like I was a part of a team.   

Work at its finest 

Summer came and we were finally able to go out and start working in the youth centers. Of course, you can understand the state of them after being closed for a year (Spoiler Alert: it was not good). Everything needed to be repainted, the mold needed to be cleaned, the windows needed fixing, the floor as well, nothing was ready and everything was pretty bad. Little by little I started working on that. The help I received from the organization was very limited. Thank God, I had a really nice volunteer helping me with some things. As such the project progressed, and through many hours of work, I managed to have the center ready. I had the first event done before all the other youth centers and I was very proud of it.   

Holiday 

Then I went back home to Greece for holidays. Honestly, the best time I spent on the project was the holiday that I took back home. But then I went back and work continued to be difficult for only one person. From August till October the work continued happening although my motivation was almost nonexistent. At this point, we had many arguments with the organization, and many things suddenly appeared for us to do that we had no knowledge of. The only thing that I was actually enjoying was my work with the volunteers and the neighbourhood that I was working in. I met some very nice people there that really made me happy that I came in the project.   

Losing motivation 

But in the first days of October we were again forbidden to do events in the youth centers. So everything had to be done online and the work became boring and it lost all meaning for me. Of course, at that time everyone was tired of doing online school and online university. I saw from my volunteers firstly, that they did not want to participate in these kinds of events, so I decided to not force anyone. I just did the events with very few people. 

In the first days of November my partner also came, after almost 9 months of waiting. He was a very nice boy and we started to work. And then the second and third quarantine came, where I had to stay in the house for a whole month. With that, my motivation died and went to Hades to the underground world and it is still there, keeping Hades company.  

Honestly, I do not have anything more to say about the last few months of the project, only that I miss working with the people of the community. It was hard to admit that online events do not work and my soul is being sucked out because of them.   

Thoughts for the future 

Right now, I am waiting for the project to finish so I can continue my life like before. Certainly, I gained some friends and a lot of patience. I think I really saw the ugly side of the youth sector and what it contains. Now, after this experience, I am much more certain that whatever I start has to do with community work. I will try to build a good foundation with people that really care about their communities. I am anxious to see the results that this project will have in the continuation of my life. Hopefully, I will collaborate with some of the people that I met. I am really hopeful for these collaborations and for the future.