Asociația SUPER TINERI (ASIRYS)

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

La Cucuteni, mereu te cuprinde un sentiment inedit, unic, care te îmbie spre a descoperi și redescoperi din istoria și cultura noastră, însă în weekend-ul ce tocmai a trecut, am avut parte și de o experiență prin care am avut prilejul de a aminti de strămoșii noștri.  Festivalul Getodava a construit o atmosferă care ne-a întors pe toți cu câteva mii de ani în urmă, și am avut parte de ateliere și activități interactive, menite să ne aducă aminte de evoluția noastră de-a lungul timpului și cum am pornit spre ceea ce astăzi este România. Echipa de organizatori și voluntari a fost foarte bine pregătită, astfel că fiecare participant a reușit să aducă festivalului un plus, prin seriozitate, echilibru, implicare, dedicare, generozitate și energie. Toată lumea a știut ce are de făcut, au implicat publicul, au fost foarte deschiși cu oricine a dorit mai multe informații, fotografii sau o conversație interesantă. Cadrul în care s-au desfășurat toate activitățile a fost deosebit, s-a remarca

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

Interested in sports? Open to share your experience and design a European sport event? Youth worker doing or willing to use sports for community development? Then apply for Sports Activator!  Sports Activator seminar aims to build a transnational network in the field of sport in order to create a toolbox with methods, instruments, good practices to support the participation in sport and physical activity of youth. The transnational seminar Sports Activator is targeting 33 youth workers, facilitators, trainers, coaches, staff involved in sports clubs from Europe, youth passionate about sports. The main result will be the creation of a toolbox with methods, instruments, good practices aiming to support the participation in sport and physical activity of youth. The seminar will take place in Romania, between 1-7 July 2019.  The seminar will be based on non-formal education methodology and during the seminar, we will use the Open Space Technology (OST) method in which we will let the

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

Hi, I'm Sandro, I'm twenty-six and I come from Sardinia, an island in Italy. I left for Romania about a month ago to start a volunteering project. Why? Because I have a dream: to be able to give an emotion and help people with my artistic expression, painting. From the very first days the Asirys association welcomed me warmly, introducing me to other volunteers from other parts of the world such as France, Norway, Belgium, Mexico and Romania. Despite my elementary English I didn't have big problems communicating, they were all patient and understanding and thanks to this environment I was impressed to know the diversity of culture and tradition of the different countries. In the following days I collaborated with them in some nearby schools with children of all ages. It was a very strong experience. I helped blind children to express themselves with artistic games, I played with other kids to give them the opportunity to open their minds, to be curious to know the world wit

Sandro and I arrived in Romania at the beginning of April. The first fifteen days were quiet intense because we were meeting Romania's environment, new work space and a lot of people. Among them, the Norwegian team. Through their stay we created workshops around the thematic of multiple intelligence. By small groups we started to run it in different types of schools, some that has high failure rates, particular community appurtenance, some with autistic or blind students. I was not used to this kind of work, with this kind of audience in this new environment, so the learning process was highly stimulating and efficient, despite the fatigue. The common life and structure of the place we stayed was an interesting human experience, as Alin, our host, and Nikolia, made us feel comfortable and introduced us to the Romanian life. Meanwhile Mihaela try her best to support our arrival and planning our activities. So, the Norwegians and us get the most we can from this experience. After tho