Bety reports on the training for the leaders in Slovakia

My name is Bety, I come from Czech Republic and since March this year I have been volunteering for Concordia helping in the office to send volunteers on international projects overseas and as one of the reasons to come to Brighton was to coordinate an international residential project, which Concordia generously offered to me, I decided to go for a training for the leaders of youth projects organised in Bojnice in Slovakia. I got an invitation just a couple of days before the project started, but I decided to go for it without any hesitation, because I knew I have still lot of to learn and I wasn´t confident enough about leading a group of international volunteers. Another reason to take part emerged itself from the description of the project: 70% of all transport expanses will be refunded after the end of the training. Well, interesting, even these possibilities exist within the wide european net of youth projects and training opportunities and everybody can go for that. The only limit is age, but since I´m under 30 I can participace in any of projects funded by european organisation Youth in Action. But the real catching point in terms of inovation was the fact that there was going to be a bunch of 20 participants from differnet countries, and all were going to be trained by experienced trainers, which sounded amazing and all together with the location in Slovakia (my dearest brotherland) I basically couldn´t say no. I bought my flight tickets three days before the project started, that may sound rushed, which scared me a little bit, but all these feelings were absolutely pointless, because one week later I was leaving the project with the notice of complete, deep and cheerfull satisfaction with an expression „I can do it“ on my face.

Having fun during one of our many team building games. Can you spot me?

 

Situated in a beautiful village of Bojnice, which gave us many daily and night opportunities for free time activities, the training was full of enthusiastic and open minded participants and especially with great professional trainers from Estonia, Slovakia, Cyprus and Czech Republic it was one of my best holidays ever. Our main goal was to write an international guidebook for future leaders of youth projects, which was supposed to teach us by the very elaborated method learning by doing how to lead a group of young people. During different sessions such as intercultural learning, conflict resolution, evaluation methods or project managment the trainers teached us how to handle with different (problem) situations, which can occur at a group of young people, how we should behave and act to satisfy the needs of each participant and whether it is possible at all. What I really loved about the project was that besides so much handy information we got something more and it was our self development. This was very insightful and I think all the participants noticed that and it brought all the group together. All the programme was just very well organised, the trainers as flexible as they could be and they gave us the best example. All I can say for the end is that i would strongly recommend this kind of training not only to future leaders but also for those, who would like to learn or reveal some new facts about themselves as personalities.  So if you see such a project is going to take place, don’t hesitate and go for it, because it will rock and I’m sure you will love it!

Roy on EVS in Germany - 2012

Roy (our EVS volunteer) reports on his 10 months abroad teaching fun and inspiring English classes at a Montessori school in Germany. Looks like great fun, we love the illustrations.

A year in English: speaking, playing, cultural exchange and having fun.

This year I've learned a lot from my place in the European Voluntary Service here at the Montessori school in Würzburg. I've tried to share my enthusiasm for discovering new things in life. I've worked everywhere in the school, from swimming and ice skating with the afterschool club, to debates on issues such as justice and climate change disciples with the FOS (college). I would like to thank the teachers with whom I had the opportunity to work closely together in the classroom, thanks for being patient with me when I was new and could not speak two words of the German language!

Our first English project: "Casper the Friendly Ghost"

Together with the 4-6 class we watched that old ghost film in English and talked about all the animals Casper  scared away. Afterwards, everyone took a picture from the movie and everyone wrote a caption describing the image. Finally, we recorded our own version of this spooky but happy story.

Our second English Project: The Mystery of the Icelandic Iceland

Once upon a time there was a precious treasure in a small museum on the island of Iceland.

Unfortunately the next morning the treasure was missing! Who stole it?

In small groups we answered this question and finished the story. With a lot of creative thinking we have decided what the treasurer was, who had stolen it, and if they manged to escape at the end. One example was that it was an old fossilized alien who was rescued by Lula, the lighthouse keeper.

Here are pictures of two other figures from the story. We used these images as inspiration to describe the drawings in the stories.

English learning center

In the English base I've worked with all students from the 4th to 10th class. With the 10th we've talked about their "Topic-based talks," and I learned a lot about dancing, graffiti, movies, skateboarding, gymnastics, and India. And with the 9th class we read a very interesting  and motivating story about Nelson Mandela.

Furthermore, with the 4-6th classes we have learned all about the face and many adjectives to describe it. We then drew a few faces and played a game where they had to guess the face that was being described. Here are two examples of our faces

We have also written a small English autobiography. I prepared a few topics and then each pupil took a piece of paper, folded it and turned it into a small book.

We have written, all in English, something about where we come from and where we live, our hobbies and interests, and our inspiration and our dreams.

Roy Clutterbuck

Amy on EVS in Sweden - 2012

"...I have grown in confidence and it has been a brilliant experience..." 

My name is Amy, I am 23 and currently on EVS in Sweden. I live in Stockholm and work for a youth exchange organisation called Youth for Understanding (YFU). I have been here for 7 months now and it has been a fantastic experience thus far. I am part of a project called `World Coloured Glasses´. Along with three other EVS volunteers from Germany, Turkey and Mexico our job is to travel around Sweden, visiting schools and holding workshops with Swedish students. We inform them about the opportunities to study abroad with YFU and discuss topics such as stereotypes, prejudices and discrimination, to enhance intercultural understanding and celebrate diversity.

In effect, we are like substitute teachers for an hour and a half, and have the freedom from YFU to devise a workshop that we feel is interesting and insightful for the students, whilst at the same time bringing a little bit of our cultures into the classroom. In the beginning, the prospect of having to present and talk to a classroom full of Swedish students was a little daunting, but that was part of the challenge of taking on this particular project. With every workshop I have grown in confidence and it has been a brilliant experience to meet with so many young, motivated and interesting students, whilst gaining lots of practical experience and personal development in such a short period of time. I would highly recommend readers to participate in EVS. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to live in the beautiful city of Stockholm, make friends with people from all over the world, and help the organisation to spread an important message of what the European Voluntary Service stands for; mutual understanding, peace and solidarity.

Fly the flag for volunteering around the world! The Video!

Last year Concordia and many of our overseas partners took part in The Flag Tour 2011.

The Idea…. was for a flag to travel around the world visiting many international volunteering projects. For 9 months, from March to November 2011, three flags travelled all around the world visiting 60 projects and events of 33 voluntary organisations involving more than 1600 volunteers. Concordia finished with the flag in November for our big General Assembly that we hosted in Southampton (the flag is now hung up in our office).  The flag raised awareness of volunteering, The Alliance, promoted international volunteer projects and ran alongside the European and International Year of the volunteer 2011.

Concordia was very much involved in the whole process, from the design of the flag, to co-ordinating the flag around the world and making sure it didn’t get too lost (it did disappear a few times and got stuck in customs) but this was all very much part of its journey!!

Finally we managed to put all the pictures and comments into a small film.  Enjoy!

Tugba on EVS in the UK - 2012

"Before I came here I heard about England; there are red phone boxes at every corner , double deckers are all around, nobody go outside without an umbrella , people drink tea at 17.00"

I am 29 years old and from Turkey. I have been in Brighton in England for over 7 months.There is a cliche among EVS volunteers which is ''Time flies when you are doing EVS.'' First I have to tell you this cliche is very true , yeah it really flies!

Here I work for YMCA which is a charity organisation for community and young people. Mostly I join the sport sessions to support youth workers, recently I satrted to run my own sessions as well. The variety of social activities is really wide here.So I gain many experiences in different areas. Actually this is the biggest important thing about EVS, you cannot even imagine how many new different experiences you could have and how much they teach you during your EVS. As an example , I was an extravagant person before and I never managed to organise spending my money wisely. But here, I have learnt how to use my money effectively. So even the factors you might consider as difficulty (like EVS Money is limited) can teach you a lot.

I want to mention about my time in England a bit more. We all know there are some stereotypes about cultures , nations and countries. Before I came here I heard about England; there are red phone boxes at every corner , double deckers are all around, nobody go outside without an umbrella , people drink tea at 17.00 and English people are a bit cold and formal... I cannot say telephone boxes, double deckers disappointed me but it made me suprised how friendly and welcoming English people are, the opposite of their grey and cold weather. EVS gives you the opportunity to experience it on your self.


And of course the main purpose of EVS...
Yes, working as a volunteer gives you the sense of fulfilment and real satisfaction as you would not expect. Especially I felt in this way when I worked with kids with special needs. It is so easy to approach them, you can even communicate with them by eye contact and it sometimes tells much more than verbal communication. This is an experience which you have to have it on your own to comprehend what it really means.

I can tell you even more about my own EVS experience and elaborate it, but it would be boring. I hope you will enjoy your own EVS experience.