Archive for the ‘EVS Experiences’ Category

Eka Kakulia from Georgia went in April 2010 to Latvia to work as an EVS volunteer at NGO Radi Vidi Pats. Below you can read about her experiences during her 6 months abroad:

It’s incredible how fast time can pass by. Especially when you are doing something great and exciting as your EVS project. Yes I’m volunteer but why I did it? It’s the most frequently asked question because I had nice life in Tbilisi (Georgia), full of happiness and love. I have wonderful friends, a good job which is creative, fun and offers different activities. Despite all of these I was crazy for an adventure, to live somewhere differently, challenge myself and feel like I am taking all opportunities that life gives. Then I heard about European Union initiative of the Youth in Action program I said why not?

For me it was some kind of experiment for refreshing my life but it’s most important and useful decision that I made to level up my personality. I left my family, my job, my friends and my usual lifestyle, but I never regretted about it, even just for a minute. I’m in Liepaja, Latvia since May 2010 as an EVS volunteer. My project can be described as 5 months full of joy, feelings, friendship, activities, adventures, experience, cultural shocks and tears (at the beginning because of homesickness, missing my family, my friends and at the end because of starting to think that it’s over, soon I will miss my friends in Liepaja with whom I have a lot of nice memories). Read the rest of this entry »

The Dutch Arnica went in September 2006 for 10 months to Poland to do her EVS. She teaches English at a school in Gorowo Ilawekie. During her EVS she fell in love with a Polish guy, Rafal. She spent almost half of her time in Poland with him and during her last month she even stayed at his place. When she went back to Holland, Rafal decided to follow her. One day later he arrived in Holland and after one month he found a new job. Last August Arnica and Rafal even got married!

Arnica and her husband travel twice a year to Poland to visit Górowo. They also organised a Dutch culture project in Poland: “Holandia po Polsku”. During this project Polish people could for example watch Dutch movies with Polish subtitles or could paint Dutch wooden shoes.

Arnica: “Our life is just perfect. Without EVS and Youth in Action, this would never happened to me. I will never forget my EVS in Poland. I just have to look at my husband to remember that great experience.”

Do you also want to share a special EVS story with us? Don’t hesitate and contact anita@noborders.eu.

Tsoghik Hayrapetyan (27) from Armenia went to Romania to work as an EVS volunteer. She has a great experience in voluntary work. She worked at many organizations in Gyumri. Tsoghik is a philologist, and for this reason she was teaching English in high schools in Romania and was engaged in youth work. Below you can read about her experiences during her 9 months abroad:

I am extremely excited about the possible opportunity to participate in EVS. I have great experience working with youth both in my work and in my extended family. I am also excited to share my culture with others and I feel this fits perfectly with the project’s desire for bringing multicultural activities to these youth. I’ll also have the opportunity to be a kind of ambassador and to represent my own culture from its strong and weak points, my own people with its past and present. Finally, not only do I hope to work but I believe the experience will allow the youth in Europe to teach me about themselves and about their country as well. Surely I’ll enlarge my scope of friends and mind. Read the rest of this entry »

Arman Sahakyan (26) from Armenia went to Romania to work as an EVS volunteer at NGO Ayrudzi. As he is a political scientist by profession he worked in the areas of human rights and democracy. Besides he communicated with representatives from different organizations, political scientists, as well as represent Armenia at different events and intercultural evenings. Below you can read about his experiences during his 9 months abroad:

I’m excited to be in an EVS project in Romania, because in this project I can find a lot of new things for me, and also it’s really a good opportunity for personal development. In this project each volunteer has the opportunity to organize any activity he/she wants, it gives young people the change to come with different ideas, to plan their strategy and tactics and finally act for reaching their goals. On the other hand I can find here a lot of friends, to share culture mentality, and to represent our country, culture, traditions, history etc. Read the rest of this entry »

1.  On MyEVS.net you will find many experiences, stories and photos of EVS volunteers in the world. You can read their stories, have a look at their pictures, add comments and much more.

2.  Read the best stories from the 1^st edition of the Scrpitamanent contest. Scriptamanent is an international writing competition open to young people who have done voluntary experience abroad. Download the book with stories full of EVS adventures.

3.  A few weeks ago we wrote a post about Ioana, an EVS volunteer from Romania who’s writing a blog about her EVS experiences in Belgium at the Joetz office in Brussels. Now, you can also follow Laura, an EVS volunteer from Spain writing about her EVS experiences in Belgium.

4.  Thinking about doing your EVS in Greece? Then first read some thoughts of EVS volunteers on the EDRA blog of the Greek NGO Social Cooperative Activities for Minority Groups – EDRA.

5.  EVS Magazine ContAct, a magazine from NGO Continious Action, full of interesting stories about experiences, adventures and thoughts of EVS volunteers.

On this blog you can also read more EVS experience reports in the blog category ‘EVS Experiences”.  Do you also want to share your experiences with us? Please, contact anita@noborders.eu

ADVIT Moldova experience report by: EVS volunteer Kärt Koosapoeg, Estonia

The date then was the 12th of April. An important religious day celebrating the rising of the dead. Our goal for that day was to experience it according to the local Moldovan traditions. Weeks before we were told that all the people will leave the comfort of their homes and city surroundings to take some time off and head to the graveyard to meet with their dead grandparents and the weirdest part suggesting that people eat with the dead. Of course we were curious, who wouldn’t be?

We got an invitation from a volunteer we had met a short while back to join him for this holiday in a city called Comrat. Our host was waiting us already in the graveyard when we arrived in the middle of the city. At first we feared of getting lost, but after arriving we noticed that a lot of people with food were moving in one direction, so of course using our logic we started following people with food supplies and in no time soon we arrived to a big blue church. There were two big tables simply covered with abundant food and drinks and a priest went around putting holy water on food. Read the rest of this entry »

ADVIT Moldova experience report by: EVS volunteer Ronja Wӧstheinrich, Germany

It’s incredible how fast time can pass by. Especially when you are doing something as great and exciting as an EVS in Moldova. So when I got the invitation to my mid-term training I couldn’t believe that I am already halfway through my stay here. But it is true and thus I took part in the mid-term training in May in Lalova, Moldova. During these three days we talked a lot about our so far experiences, problems we had encountered, our learning process, goals for the second half of our stay and even plans for the time after the EVS. Read the rest of this entry »

ADVIT Moldova experience report by: EVS volunteer Helene Thau Jackson, Denmark

Raindrops were landing on my head as we stood surrounded by a sea of achievements, wrapped in blue plastic bags. We had been through sweat, blood, and tears, walking the paths of mud and garbage and now, finally, we could see the result of our hard work. In front of us stood around 50 plastic bags filled with all the trash you could imagine; clothes, cups, condoms, car parts, bottles, bags, bones, diapers, gadgets, shoes, tin, toys, toothpaste and I could go on.

We were around 30 volunteers who had faced the rain and decided to clean up Riscani, the north part of Chisinau. Not only us, but all over the city, few brave people had defied the bad weather to clean up the capital. “Cleaning up Chisinau” was initiated by ADVIT in cooperation with Art Labyrinth, AVI and Youth Generation and was set up not only to clean the parks in Chisinau, but also to create awareness of environmental issues in Moldova. Read the rest of this entry »

ADVIT Moldova experience report by: Ingrid van der Heijden, The Netherlands

“Bine at venit!” echoed though the Charity Centre for Refugees in Chisinau on the 8th of May 2010. The sign to start the day was given and “Ziua copiilor” (Children’s Day) had officially started. After a short presentation of the day, given by Alf and Chris, two international volunteers, the 141 exited children could start to discover what was waiting for them. Some of them knew immediately were they wanted to go to, while others looked doubtfully around for a few minutes before they made a decision where to start.

Only a little later all the children managed to make a decision between activities such as football, making bracelets, twister, limbo dancing, face painting, making windmills, origami, dance workshops, juggling and the big bouncy castle. Between all these activities there was special guest “Clown Jozef” walking around, ready to make the most amazing figures out of balloons for the children. “Ziua Copiilor” was initiated and organized by four EVS volunteers hosted by ADVIT Moldova. The activities were prepared and carried out by the 25 of ADVIT’s international volunteers. Read the rest of this entry »

ADVIT Moldova experience report by: EVS volunteer Maxie Riemenschneider, Germany.

I started my EVS in Chisinau, Moldova in September 2009. At this time, my only hosting project was an “Animation Centre for Children and Youth”. The first month there were ok, not always easy (as I had to get used to the mentality at first), but always interesting. After a while the feeling that I also want to do something else as just working with children grow in me. At the same time, I got more and more concerned about the Moldovan stray dog problem. A dead dog is lying on the sidewalk for more than 2 weeks and nobody cleans it, on a walk to home at night dogs are following me with the hope to get some food or just some minutes of affection, while another dog is dying just right in front of me on a poisoned peace of food.

Reasons enough to search for an organization which work with dogs, and try to help these, in my eyes, wonderful animals. With the support of Marina, one of the ADVIT-angels, I found the dog shelter “Casa Katharina”, situated outside of Chisinau, based on and financed from a German organization. Already on my first visit there, I completely fell in love with this place. You enter the gate and immediately 120 dogs start to bark, run to you, jump up on you and try to catch your attention. Right away it was clear: This is meant to be my second EVS Project! Read the rest of this entry »