Asociația SUPER TINERI (ASIRYS)

May have been a month really full of new activities and encounters! The measures to be maintained in respect of the quarantine became softer, so I finally had the opportunity to travel a bit and also to visit the center of Iaşi.  This month started with the on arrival training that we were supposed to do in Bucharest. Unfortunately we had to carry it out online but it was interesting for the methodologies adopted that kept it dynamic even if we were all the time in front of a PC. The training lasted 10 days and we learnt something about the culture of Romania and volunteering in a project. It has also been a good way to learn new methods for working online with other people, but above all it allowed us to get to know the other volunteers in the country and to share experiences about ourselves and the activities we are realizing. By talking with the other volunteers we discovered how everyone was in a similar situation during the quarantine and we also make contact on order to organise

 “Romania? What is Romania?” Ebet asked herself before taking the decision to come and spend in Târgu Frumos eight months of her life. She’s 29 and came from Mexico for the Arts Lab project, supported and financed by Erasmus+ and implemented by ASIRYS Super Tineri NGO. In Romania was cold at that time and that was the very first thing that hit her here, but the friendly people who welcomed her in the community made Ebet feel a warmth that eclipsed the winter weather. “With me, all the people were polite and gave me attention” she said smiling happily, recalling the nice moments spent here. Ebet Nathanael Bautista studied Communication Sciences for four years in Mexico, but her burning passion is dancing. She started at 17, learning at the Royal Academy of Dance in Barcelona and now she knows jazz, ballet classic, contemporary, belly dance, medieval, ancestral, traditional Mexican and learnt the traditional Romanian dances as well. She came in Romania to discover more dances and to expe

What happens when you travel the world searching to gain more and more knowledge? Valentin has experienced that feeling and he still discovered everyday, motivated by his desire to continue his engagement in volunteering field, as he says. He started with courses for the chess club, back in Reunion, France, where he is from, then continued organizing tournaments, being an animator at different events with different topics like education, sports or music. But then he wanted more and as soon as he moved to Tunisia, he started music courses and picking up trash, which he recognizes that it was demoralizing since he had to deal with a lot of garbage. But he didn’t stop the volunteering activities and decided to try something new, in Romania.   “Travel and change the environment if you want to evolve!” he says after recalling all the things he has improved here, in Târgu Frumos, since his first day as a volunteer in ASIRYS Super Tineri organisation. “I have learnt a lot related to relations

În perioada 8-16 noiembrie, un grup de tineri din Zmeu şi Lungani, au participat la schimbul de tineri finanţat de programul Erasmus+ şi organizat de RIS Slovenia, la castelul Rakican. Mai jos puteţi citi impresiile lor despre această primă experienţă de mobilitate.  "Am plecat la drum joi 07.11.2019, cu mult curaj și cu dorința de a descoperi noi aventuri. După mai bine de 30 de ore de călătorie, cu pauze de câte 2-3 ore prin Cluj-Napoca sau Budapesta, am ajuns în Rakican. Abia așteptam să facem un duș și să dormim, planul era bine pus la punct de pe traseu, dar surpriză, dormitorul era unul mare, foarte mare și era pentru toți participanții, adică 36 de oameni într-o singură camera pe paturi mobile și o singură baie pentru a face duş. Primul sentiment?! Hai acasă, nu se poate una ca asta, dar ușor, ușor ne-am acomodat, am făcut și duş, am dormit puțin și după ne-am distrat împreună. A devenit plăcut să fim împreună. A doua zi am prezentat gustări din ţara noastră, fiecare ț

In June, the Asirys Super Tineri association tackled various issues on education. Together with the volunteers, we talked about formal and non-formal education, where the first one can be observed in schools. For example the assignment of a grade, based on the abilities of the pupils, not considering the diversity of talent of the individual. We also talked about competitive and non-collaborative context. On the other hand, when talking about non-formal education methods, schemes that do not contain competition and obligation are applied, but the student himself is driven by his individual interests and abilities to collaborate with his colleagues in a group work, thus obtaining a common goal which is to grow and learn. Research on non-formal education has led to differentiate the types of intelligence. For example, based on the individual reasoning talent of each pupil, there are more mathematical minds and others more creative, musical or linguistic minds and other sports and kinesth

The month of June started with the Miclăuşeni Festival, which was a big event for families. Asirys was participating for different tasks that support the festival, like welcoming, candy floss, taking care of visitors. I was responsible of the media covering, including mainly the event video. It’s a task that I like because it’s related to one of my main skills, video recording and editing. Also because the environment was a really nice place for this, the castle providing a good storytelling potential. I recorded a lot of scenes that I edited during the month, which was a huge work but pretty enjoyable. The feedback was good so I was happy. We continue the workshops at the youth center and I was really excited to launch Iron Mind workshop, which is about convince and persuade art, manipulation, negotiation, body language. This workshop was pretty successful as the youth center was full. We also had the Romanian night after it. I also had this month the opportunity to launch a chess clu

This month passed very quickly, because of all the activities we've done. I made many friends and I loved that I improved my level of English. I can express myself more fluently, although I still want to continue improving. We participated in a festival in a beautiful castle with the volunteers from Romania. I had to give a classical ballet lesson, but because there were other girls that could do it, I decided to do face painting for the kids. That reminded me of a job I had in Mexico on my weekends off. It was exciting because there were so many children. I am very happy to have Sabien, my roommate, because we have very similar ways of thinking and I can express my feelings with great confidence and she also to me. We went to a lake, we discovered a very cool cafe that is where we were going when we want to relax. I started to teach dances in a larger room than usual, which was extraordinary. Because I have more and more students, this room has no windows, which gives a fresh feel

The last month of the spring arrived. But in Romania is like we have the four seasons in one day. Morning is Spring, afternoon is Summer, evening is Autumn and the night is the Winter. Yes, it is very different than my country Greece and yes, I do miss the sea air especially in the hot afternoons. But I wouldn’t change for anything in the world everything I learnt during these eight months I am in Romania, doing my EVS. So this month I was inspired by a wonderful workshop a local volunteer did in our youth center about journalism and I would like to present what I learnt this month by taking an interview to myself. - So please, could you tell us, did you do something this month that you haven’t done before?   Well yes. Actually every month I have the feeling I do things I haven’t done before. This month with another international volunteer, we were going almost every Wednesday in Paşcani, where we did Romanian dances. We learnt how to dance hora and polka. So we will use what we lea

In May, we started to create workshops on an artistic theme such as painting, music, photography and dance, which serves to stimulate the creativity of students and young people. Also, they will give them the possibility to express themselves artistically. It is also an effective way to promote non-formal education. The objectives of the association and the project include combating social discrimination, alcoholism and violence. These issues were also addressed during the time we worked with other volunteers from other associations, who collaborated in our projects for a week, giving us the opportunity to get to know each other and to identify the different social problems of the country without neglecting the rights and duties of the volunteers. We had a training in the capital, Bucharest, for the professional growth of the volunteer which allowed us to meet people from all over the world. During this training we had the chance to express our thoughts on our tasks and we talked to ar

Airports are grey and smell of chemicals, at least that was the idea that I had. To bathe in the scent of flowers and spring was not on my list of expectations when I imagined myself taking my first steps on Romanian ground. But the air was the first thing that surprised me: no penetration of industrial gases but a welcoming fragrance of blossoming trees. Trying a really good dessert that appeared to be Hungarian and not Romanian and of which I forgot the name, crazy skies heavy of thunderstorms, my first glass of ţuica, eating delicious sarmale, witnessing interesting negotiation techniques with an initially reluctant local professional, seeing the commitment of local volunteers, the slight panic I felt right before giving my first ever workshop in the local school, struggling with language barriers, being welcomed on a school with a huge breakfast while they don’t even have running water, and lots more. These are some of the first things I've done in Romania. So what have I been

I started my experience in the Asirys association on second of May when I arrived in the Iasi airport. Everyone were there to welcome me as one of their own, Mihaela, the coordinator and the other volunteers. During my first days I visited the organization's center and the other volunteers explain me the several projects that the association is planning and how it works. The next Sunday we went to the airport because Sabien, the Belgian girl, came to join us. After her coming we were six volunteers and our group was now complete. When the next week came everyone of us start their own workshop, I decided to coordinate the sport workshop, so we went in the Târgu Frumos schools to present and involve the kids in our work. They seemed very excited to participate to the games that I prepared for them. Also I started to meet the local volunteers and learning a lot about the Romanian culture, and it was very inspiring for me. Ştefana, an 18 years old local volunteer, said that since w

The beginning of the May month starts with the arrival of Michele, new Italian volunteer. Michele is an economic student and will stay here for 3 months. We introduced him to the youth center and the activities, presenting the project and the mission of Asirys. The next Sunday was marked by the arrival of Sabien, Belgian volunteer specialized in handcrafting, who will stay 6 months. Also the month of May was the month of the elaboration, testing and implementation of the art labs. I created the photography lab, who was pretty successful as the students seem interested in photography, and after the intervention were happy and able to do quick progress by showing really good and creative pictures. I also created the music lab, which for the moment is only implemented in the youth center because I want to discover some methods in order to manage a lot of people for this lab. So, I’m currently thinking of a new version that will be more adapted for big groups. The middle of the month, 24 y

This month was different, in a good way, as the weather improved. By saying this I mean that the weather stopped being cold and rainy. What I like the most about this country is its landscapes and that everything smells very good. During this month I have improved my English. I want to travel through Romania in order to learn more about its culture and people, because they are different depending on the geographical area (north, south, east, west). I would also like to have more language classes here in order to communicate easier with people here. Also, it is very similar to Spanish and I can learn it easily. At the end of the month we went to Bucharest, which I really loved because the center smells like flowers and the people are super nice and friendly. I met during the training week volunteers from Spain, Italy, France, Turkey, Georgia, Algeria and many more. Different cultures, different education, different way of thinking; I had the opportunity to talk with each one and their s

New month of my EVS and I still can’t believe the time passed so fast. They say that when you do things that you like, you don’t understand how fast the time passes. This happen to me. When they ask me how much time I am here in Romania, I still can’t realize I am here for seven months and I only have five month left.  So enough with the things that make me sad and let’s see the happy things which are the things I learned this month. The first two weeks with Valentin from France, Sandro from Sardinia and the Norwegian volunteers, we organized together some activities in our youth center and in local schools in Tîrgu Frumos, Cucuteni and Zmeu. We started with treasure hunt game in the city, so they learnt the area. I tried to show them as many as possible of what I like in Tîrgu Frumos. The next days we made four teams and I was the leader in one of these. We developed our programs to use them at the schools we would visit, using non-formal education based on multiple intelligence the