Archive for the ‘EVS Experiences’ Category

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 »

EVS!? What is that? “Just a crazy good time”

That’s just one of  the many positive quotes I heard while watching short movies about EVS on YouTube. But it’s not the words that make me go crazy and gets me excited. It is the smiling faces of young people that have a good time in a foreign country.It is the faces of toddlers and elderly people who are affected by young volunteers in many ways. The curiosity you see in a young Bulgarian child’s eyes while playing with the ponytail of a German young adult, and the music in the background that gives me goosebumps. It’s young people being themselves, inspire and try to help another.

It’s only happiness we see on YouTube, even though there might not only be happiness on an EVS experience. There can be hard times, when you miss your family and friends, or when something happens that might be weird in your eyes, or when something sad is happening that affects you. But that’s also what EVS is. You learn by experience, about other cultures, you get rid of prejudices, actually, you get closer to your inner core. You learn what’s important in your life, what you want to do with your life. Actually, EVS gives you the opportunity to meet yourself.

What I’ve discovered by just looking at short EVS movies on YouTube is that EVS changes you in a direction that gives you more meaning in life, and all the new friends you gain is worth mentioning as well.

ADVIT Moldova experience report by: EVS volunteer Hannah Rees, United Kingdom

After a day of travelling I sighed a breath of relief as I met my mentor at Chisinau airport. We jumped into a taxi, not a seatbelt in sight, and one of my very first impressions of Moldova was the roads, or in places the lack of. Pot holes were swerved round on the lane-less roads as we drove up the wide highway and entered the capital through the ‘Gates of Chisinau’; two vast apartment blocks on either side of the road reminiscent of the USSR era. Yet, these were exactly the stereotypes of Moldova that I had heard back home; poor infrastructure and vast concrete blocks left behind from the Soviet times.

However, I was soon to discover that Chisinau, and Moldova as a whole, has far more to offer than what fits into these stereotypes. One of my favourite things about the city is its greenness. Vast parks are found in every district and tall trees line the majority of the streets. Another favourite is all the markets selling fresh produce from the countryside, second-hand clothes at bargain prices and flowers in all the colours under the sun. Read the rest of this entry »

Ioana (23), an EVS volunteer from Brasov (Romania), is currently working from the Joetz office in Brussels. She started her EVS project in March and at the end of May she launched a blog about her Belgium experiences with its ups and downs. On her blog she talks about EVS in general, EVS at Joetz and EVS in Belgium. Ioana hopes the blog will one day become an instrument for all young people in their search for an EVS insight and she it will providing a platform for dialogue around EVS. Do you want to get an insight of her Belgium experiences and read more about EVS? If the answer is yes, then visit her Joetz EVS blog.

Ganziantep Training and Youth Association is an EVS hosting organization in Turkey. On their website you can read comments from volunteers about their EVS experiences. For example about the experiences of Johanna Smit (20) from Germany, who worked with and for children in various associations like nurseries or centres for young people with disadvantaged backgrounds or difficulties in their daily life. She gave English lessons and organized leisure activities such as excursions and games. At the end of her EVS project she wrote this letter to the children.

Johanna: ‘My project can be described as 8 months full of joy, feelings, friendship, activities, adventures, tears, experience AND baklava. One of the best things about the association was that we had the possibility to meet lots of new people from different countries. Now I have friends all over the world.’ Are you curious to other EVS experiences in Ganziantep? Please visit their website.

Abbas Zahidi (24) from Azerbaijan went in March 2008 to Romania to work as an EVS volunteer with Roma people and disabled children. Below you can read about his experiences during his 9 months abroad: ‘EVS experience was definitely one of the best experiences in my life!’

‘First of all, I would like to notice, that the project where I have participated was the biggest one in Romania and one of the biggest in Europe. We had 52 volunteers from 18 countries. It meant, we had chance to discover many-many cultures.’ Read the rest of this entry »

As you could read in the category ‘In the spotlight’ doing your EVS in Moldova is quite an experience. Below you can read the reports from 5 EVS volunteers about their experiences in Moldova:

Wiebke Alina Knäpper:
‘Doing my EVS in Moldova I’m facing many new challenges, so I can always learn something new – Using the marshrutka, working together with NGOs etc. Moreover I enjoy to get more and more independent in mobility and in using Russian language. At the beginning we had nothing to do and I had doubts if I will find a place for me, but now we had an on arrival training and I started to work. Our project allowed us to live first in Komrat than in Chisinau, so we could see the contrast between more rural Gagausia. While people in Komrat produce homemade wine, honey and kompot, people in Chisinau have a more urban lifestyle. We have much opportunities to choose our working field according to our interests and skills. Soon each of us will decide in which organization he wants to engage.’

Read the rest of this entry »

‘Nice to meet you, I’m an European volunteer and proud of it!’

Last October EVS volunteer Ruben Bortignon (24) from Italy moved to Finland for one year to work for a coordinating organization. He has a lot of different tasks…for instance helping with the EVS applications and creating PowerPoint presentations about Youth in Action. In the near future he will also attend a training to become a mentor for short term volunteers and he will be involved by organizing a youth exchange.You are able to follow Ruben on his own blog (in Italian language): Ruben il Finnico! But especially for the readers of the YouthNetworks blog, Ruben wrote a report about his experience… in English!!

‘Here you go, you’re into it! At last you are having the experience you have been dreaming so long about! You’re alone, no friends, no girlfriend, you’re not in your town, neither the air your breath nor the sun that shines are the ones you’ve grown used to: you’re in Finland! Now there is no excuse: it’s you and the unknown; and two paths diverge in front of you… either you fight, or you go back home.…. Read the rest of this entry »

Audele Uruguay is a sending and hosting organization from Uruguay Latin America. The Uruguayan Association for the Promotion of Spanish as a Foreign Language is an organization that brings together people who want to promote and teach Spanish as a foreign language.

On their new blog you are able to read experience reports of EVS volunteers. For example Dionysia, a Greek EVS volunteer writing about her stay in Uruguay and Melisa, an Uruguayan EVS volunteer in Slovakia. Or read about the experiences of Lisa from Germany, a high school and Spanish Student in Uruguay: “This trip was amazing for me, I want to come back, and maybe it is possible in two years. My family was so nice to me, Guillermo was beautiful and the classmates in the school were nice. I found a second family and new friends… Read more on the Audele blog.