ESC Story from Lithunia

Sveiki! I’m Tatia Meladze, 24 years old, from Tbilisi, Georgia. Since November 2020, I’m volunteering for European Solidarity Corps project in Vilnius, Lithuania. Within the project I’m working in the day center for adults with mental and physical disabilities. I’m here to support the visitors of the center, plan some spare-time activities and help them with their classes or with their daily needs.

Planning different activities, during Covid pandemic isn’t easy, especially when restrictions in Vilnius are getting stronger and stronger, but we are trying to think of as much various activities as we can.

Vilnius is very nice city. The weather is quite cold here, but when it’s sunny, the best activity is to walk in old town, or visit nearby forest-parks. Also people here are very nice and welcoming. Even if there is a language barrier between us, they try their best to show their benevolence, using just body language and mimics.

Being the part of the project for me means, getting amazing and diverse experiences. First of all, living with intercultural people is giving me so much knowledge about differences and similarities between different countries, cultures and people. It feels like I’m living in Lithuania and 2 more countries at the same time.

It’s already the end of my fifth month living here and I already feel that I’ve gained so much things. Firstly, the people I met and got friends with, experience of being independent, confidence, I tried myself in different things and found my hidden strengths, career related growth and very special thing – second family. It’s a whole new experience to start living with fully strangers, but the best part of it is realizing, that these people create a safe place for you, which you start to call home and they are the huge part of it.

I believe this project will make huge changes in me and will give me the kind of experience I will be proud and very thankful for, all my life!

Šiltų sveikinimų iš Vilniaus!

ESC story from Lithuania

Hello, my name is Sofi, I am from Georgia and I am working as a volunteer in Lithuania, Panevezys from November. Winter in Lithuania was very cold and dark, but I adapted and now I enjoy the project and spring.  At  first I was very confused and I was thinking  about participate but my sending coordinator helped me make the right decision and  nowadays  I think that it is the best decision in my life to came here. It’s very big experience of life. 

I graduated from university online, from Lithuania. I was studying psychology, so my volunteer service here is working with children with special needs. I worked like this in Georgia as well but here I have deepened my practical knowledge and I hope that this experience will help me both – in career and in life. 

Yes, I talk about life often, because I think this project teaches independent living in Europe, makes you stronger and more confident, which is very important. Another benefit is that you learn new thing every day from new friends who are from different countries and you learn all this in English of course.

Now, I have to go, because today I will receive a second dose of Pfizer vaccine. Good luck to you all.

With love from Lithuania 

ESC Story from Poland

Cześch! My name is Tamara. I’m 25 years old and  I live in capital of Georgia, Tbilisi. Now I’m a volunteer of European Solidarity Corps project in Kraków, Poland. Before this project I’ve tried myself in different studies and jobs. I’m always searching for new challenges in life. And here I am. I fell in love with Kraków during the very first week I arrived. Beautiful streets with amazing architecture and wonderful views. Everyday I’m meeting new people from all over the world so with Poland I’m exploring many other cultures, their traditions, humor, lifestyle and it’s an amazing experience for me.

As an ESC volunteer I’m supporting Zespół Szkół Specjalnych nr 11. I’m supporting children and teachers with their daily goods. Everyday we have different activities with different topics, like: music, little entertaining experiments, crafting, painting and so on. My school is like a huge family with amazing teachers and children. 

In our project we’re trying to build eco-friendly attitude and we’re working on Zero Waste idea. So we’re having online workshops and trainings about this subject and we’re cooperating with different local communities.

In our project we have amazing group of volunteers and living with them is wonderful and full of interesting moments. Despite the current pandemic situation we’re still motivated to do different activities and of course IB Polska stands with us. Very soon all of our volunteers we’re starting to make little challenges between our flats about Zero waste idea, like: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle. 

As for now I’m very happy to be here and to have the opportunity make all this wonderful things with amazing people."

ESC story from Poland

Cześć I am Nutsa, and I am a volunteer in Poland. I started my project 6 months ago in a small village called Długopole Górne.  Desire to do a volunteering service came after my short-term EVS experience. My short-term EVS was one of the best thing that has ever happened to me. I have collected lots of memories, skills, experiences, friends, opened new horizons and met lots of new people. After this amazing experience, I was waiting for the right time to do long-term EVS.

Poland already had my heart before I came here and the reason, I chose Poland is that I was extremely interested about its cultural traditions, language and people.

In my hosting organization I am working in the office. Mainly, I have done presentations, workshops and other interesting activities. During this time, I have gained new skills such as teamwork and collaboration, organizational skills, critical thinking, computer skills, etc.

I am an animal activist. I deeply care about animal rights and welfare. I feel committed to spread awareness on animal cruelty. One of the workshops that I have done was about Animals in Entertainment which gave me an opportunity to present and talk about this topic with the youngsters. I can say that it was very successful workshop that I am proud of.

Furthermore, I had time for creativity which helped me to organize interesting and fun activities.  I organized Olympic games which turned out greatly interested.

During these 6 months I have discovered a lot about Poland. My journey in Poland was quite adventurous, filled with experiences and challenges.  Moreover, with our Polish language classes which was provided by my hosting organization, I am able to communicate with Polish people.

Briefly to conclude, lots of great things has happened to me during my time in Poland and I think it was great decision to come here.

And what I believe is that “You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” – Alan Alda

ESC story from Lithuania

It’s my 6^th month here. It took kind of a long time to get to know all the teachers and kids well but right now everything is more simple and interesting than it was in the beginning of my project. 

From the first month I started to do a simple musical activities. Depending on children’s age the games are different. With the help of the teachers and tutors I’m teaching them musical notes, terminologies, the origin of musical instruments and the way they sound. I tried to teach them some English songs with the simple melody and lyrics and it went very well. Sometimes I’m using body percussion, which is the best way to feel the rhythms and it’s also very funny as well. 

We had a several presentation about Georgia (we even made a Khachapuri), Georgian nature, alphabet and calligraphy. We created a little book, where kids decorated the Georgian letters. Every week all of the groups have a new subject and their working around it. 

Besides the activities which I’m planning by my own I’m also mixing that subject with music as it’s possible and I think their learning process is becoming more interesting and exciting.