One year of volunteering in Romania
So this is my last month doing EVS volunteering for Asirys Supertineri. It is being one year. So many new things I learned, so many new things I did, so many new people I met and so much knowledge I gained not only about the topic of the project but also about myself. One of the most important thing that I learnt about myself is getting out of my comfort zone. I came in a country without knowing the language or the culture, but at the end I loved this place and the cooperation we had with the association that I decided to stay more and to become a “local” volunteer.
During September we had a lot of activities for the association and for preparing the dissemination plan for my project. We started with an event in Miclăuşeni, a castle near Târgu Frumos. The event was called ”Back to 1900” and we had the opportunity to see old type of clothes, to see crafts from local artists and to travel a bit with an air-balloon. In this event there were also involved local and international volunteers from Sports Activator project.
The dissemination of my project “Building Bridges” started in the senior high school in Butea. I did a workshop for the teachers of the school after the invitation of the director. The topic of the workshop was about the non-formal education and methods to apply it to the students. With my coordinator Mihaela, we did the activities based on the Multiple intelligence theory. The teachers told us that they will use the methods they learnt and we can`t wait to discuss the results of their application.
At the beginning of the month we also participated in a conference with several teachers from Hârlău about children that drop out school. We presented information about the topic from our countries and we discussed with the teachers to find solutions to help the students and to motivate them. The teachers were very open to hear our opinion and the results we had during our workshops in the local schools using non-formal education. Also we discussed about future cooperation and with some of the teacher we developed partnership to facilitate our non-formal caravan activities.
We visited a school in Paşcani that was participating at Euroscola contest. I was part of Arts Lab Caravan and I did a workshop about alternative theater. When we finished the students took me an interview and we discussed about the impact of the theater in the school and in general, for the development of youngsters.
Next day, we visited the economical high school "Virgil Madgearu" and we did our workshops about arts. It was interesting the fact that the students didn`t speak very good English or not at all but with the help of a local volunteer and the power of the “body language” we had a pretty successful workshop receiving very good feedback.
We also had a pleasant visit from an association from the country of Moldova in our youth center. The topic of the meeting was about agriculture and we discussed about products that we have in our countries and about how the state supports the farmers and especially the new farmers. At the end we learnt some local dances as the Moldavian guests were great dancers and singers.
During the month I was meeting a lot with a local volunteer, Larisa and we started to write two projects. One youth exchange and one training course. The projects will be with the cooperation of our association Asirys Super Tineri and the school where Larisa is working, Trinitas. We will correct and improve some projects that I had written with the help of my coordinator, Mihaela, but unfortunately they weren`t approved. We will apply the projects at the next deadline and we hope this time we will have good results.
For the next months I will be part of the Arts Lab team and I will do dissemination of my project in local schools, I will do a presentation in the university of "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" and I will keep doing the theater workshop in "Ion Creangă" and "Garabet Ibrăileanu" schools, where we run a new program called "The Passions Club".
Even though my EVS project finished in September, I don`t feel like it`s over for real. I won`t stop being volunteer and I will continue doing youth working as I did before, during my EVS.
That’s it for now, no more articles with the topic My EVS so far but new ones with new topics, with new opportunities and with a lot of new projects.
By Nikolia Papadopoulou
Building Bridges is a project funded by Erasmus+, a programme of the European Union. The content of this article is the exclusive responsibility of the authors, and the National Agency and the European Union are not responsible for how the content of the information will be used.
During September we had a lot of activities for the association and for preparing the dissemination plan for my project. We started with an event in Miclăuşeni, a castle near Târgu Frumos. The event was called ”Back to 1900” and we had the opportunity to see old type of clothes, to see crafts from local artists and to travel a bit with an air-balloon. In this event there were also involved local and international volunteers from Sports Activator project.
The dissemination of my project “Building Bridges” started in the senior high school in Butea. I did a workshop for the teachers of the school after the invitation of the director. The topic of the workshop was about the non-formal education and methods to apply it to the students. With my coordinator Mihaela, we did the activities based on the Multiple intelligence theory. The teachers told us that they will use the methods they learnt and we can`t wait to discuss the results of their application.
At the beginning of the month we also participated in a conference with several teachers from Hârlău about children that drop out school. We presented information about the topic from our countries and we discussed with the teachers to find solutions to help the students and to motivate them. The teachers were very open to hear our opinion and the results we had during our workshops in the local schools using non-formal education. Also we discussed about future cooperation and with some of the teacher we developed partnership to facilitate our non-formal caravan activities.
We visited a school in Paşcani that was participating at Euroscola contest. I was part of Arts Lab Caravan and I did a workshop about alternative theater. When we finished the students took me an interview and we discussed about the impact of the theater in the school and in general, for the development of youngsters.
Next day, we visited the economical high school "Virgil Madgearu" and we did our workshops about arts. It was interesting the fact that the students didn`t speak very good English or not at all but with the help of a local volunteer and the power of the “body language” we had a pretty successful workshop receiving very good feedback.
We also had a pleasant visit from an association from the country of Moldova in our youth center. The topic of the meeting was about agriculture and we discussed about products that we have in our countries and about how the state supports the farmers and especially the new farmers. At the end we learnt some local dances as the Moldavian guests were great dancers and singers.
During the month I was meeting a lot with a local volunteer, Larisa and we started to write two projects. One youth exchange and one training course. The projects will be with the cooperation of our association Asirys Super Tineri and the school where Larisa is working, Trinitas. We will correct and improve some projects that I had written with the help of my coordinator, Mihaela, but unfortunately they weren`t approved. We will apply the projects at the next deadline and we hope this time we will have good results.
For the next months I will be part of the Arts Lab team and I will do dissemination of my project in local schools, I will do a presentation in the university of "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" and I will keep doing the theater workshop in "Ion Creangă" and "Garabet Ibrăileanu" schools, where we run a new program called "The Passions Club".
Even though my EVS project finished in September, I don`t feel like it`s over for real. I won`t stop being volunteer and I will continue doing youth working as I did before, during my EVS.
That’s it for now, no more articles with the topic My EVS so far but new ones with new topics, with new opportunities and with a lot of new projects.
By Nikolia Papadopoulou
Building Bridges is a project funded by Erasmus+, a programme of the European Union. The content of this article is the exclusive responsibility of the authors, and the National Agency and the European Union are not responsible for how the content of the information will be used.
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