Volunteering in Vilnius

Hello, my name is Vakhtangi, I’m 18 years old, from Georgia and I am volunteering for the European Solidarity Corps (1 year) project in Vilnius, Lithuania. 
I work as a volunteer at a day center “šviesa” for adult people with mental and physical disabilities.

My primary responsibilities as a volunteer are to assist center visitors with their daily needs, to help them during their classes, to provide them individual attention, and to engage in activities. I have a wonderful time with them, we are drawing, having walks, listening to music, constructing puzzle games, and so on. Especially now, during the summer we have so many exciting outdoor activities, on lakes and rivers. For example, last week we had a trip to the Lithuanian seaside city of Klaipeda, we spent a great time in the hot weather in the cool Baltic Sea. I have never met such warm, honest, and kind people as “visitors” of the center. They like spending time with us a lot. They are always ready and willing to share their emotions, thoughts, and, most importantly their works from the day. They give me wonderful emotions and sincere friendship. 

I am going to have a day of presentation of my country and I will definitely try to bake our country's traditional food  Khachapuri with my hands and taste it together with my friends at work.

I must mention that this project is a great experience for me, for several reasons: this is my first time to live abroad, the first time I live so far from my family, the first time I live with foreign-speaking volunteers, the first time I get used to create own independent life in a completely foreign country. Huuh…  It's a great challenge! I've been in Lithuania for four months already, and when I remember myself in the first days… :))) I see a lot of changes in myself, and I'm very happy about this rapid development. 

My sending organisation from Georgia is: Georgian Youth for Europe.

The project is coordinated in Lithuania by: Saltes.

Hosting organisation in Lithuania: Dienos centras "Šviesa".

Many thanks to all of them for such an interesting experience and opportunity. 

Warm greetings from Vilnius, 

Vakho Inasaridze

My time in Georgia

I have been living in Rustavi for three months now. I arrived on a cold February morning. Aleks and Nana picked me up from the airport and gave me a ride to my new home on Batumi street. In the beginning, I was a little bit lost in terms of my duties. I did not have much experience in the field of working with youth. But that wasn't much of an obstacle because I had great support from my coordinator and colleagues. Now I can say that I'm very well integrated with the team and, I get a lot of satisfaction from my work.

My daily tasks are mainly, conducting English lessons both one to one and in bigger groups. We also organize various educational and cultural activities. Besides that, I was involved in a couple of Erasmus+ youth exchanges. I'm very grateful for that experience I had now an opportunity to work with groups from Denmark, France, Lithuania and Latvia. Working with people from different countries, cultures and backgrounds brings a lot of diversity to my daily routine and is something I see myself doing in the future.

Besides work, there is also an extraordinary country to explore. I had an opportunity to explore Georgia before on vacation with my parents. I was amazed by both culture and nature here. When I found out that they are looking for volunteers here, I didn't hesitate for a second to send my application. Even though Georgia isn't a big country, the diversification of nature here is astonishing. You can wake up in the desert and go to sleep in a tropical forest the same day. I'm trying to explore Georgia as much as I can, but also the neighbour countries. I had an amazing trip to Armenia which was also my first time trying hitchhiking which was an experience that I'm going to remember for a long time.

I still have almost three months till I will go back to Warsaw. Without hesitance, I can say that decision to take part in the ESC project is one of the best decisions in my life. Every day I learn a lot not only about the work I do here or culture but also about myself. Meeting new people, trying different things and putting myself in new situations is something I think will pay off in future. I can only say that I strongly recommend to anyone taking the opportunity to volunteer in European Solidarity Corps, especially in Georgia.

Szymon

ESC in Rustavi - Katia's Story

Hello everyone! I am Katya, a volunteer at Georgian Youth for Europe. I came from Poland, even though I am originally from Belarus. 5 Months have already passed since I landed at Kutaisi in December to spend several months in Rustavi.

I had previously visited Georgia and was excited to come back! Georgia for me is a country of hospitable people and amazing nature and all these months I have spent here so far can only prove it.

My main activities as a volunteer include English lessons for youngsters and organizing various cultural and educational activities. For examples, in February we organized the first edition of YOUth TALKs, an adaptation of the TEDx format, where young people are able to share their personal stories. I have also organized a series of workshops related to Human Rights issues and political discussions on the topics such as the “Relations between Russia and Ukraine”. Apart from this, I am involved in some bigger projects such as Erasmus+ youth exchange that we had in April for young people from Georgia and France; I had a chance to prepare and conduct some of the activities. Currently we are planning a training course for Georgians about Hate Speech and how to deal with it.

My free time I usually spend with other volunteers from GYE or Scout Center or some GYE participants. Therefore, we sometimes explore Tbilisi together. I really love this city for the variety of things you can do there: I have been watched the spectacle in the theatre and visited an art exhibition. I have also managed to travel a bit and see the mountains in Guria and Borjomi and the seaside. But the most impressive for me were the mountains in Kazbegi as I have never seen such high mountains! The view was stunning! I hope to travel more and come to the neighboring Armenia as it is getting warmer.

I would encourage everyone to take this challenge to live in a new country as it is truly unforgettable experience!

ESC story - Shota Gelashvili

I can tell my story started from the Moment the plane landed in Vilnius. It was the 10th of January almost 3 months ago. From this moment I knew I had an amazing time ahead and I was not wrong. On the next day my coordinator took me to my work place at the Technic Center where we met my colleagues, children and the staff. 

It took me about two or three weeks to adapt with the new workplace, new people, new environment and the harsh weather of Lithuania, coldness and frost. The month started with already planned classes with children who are taught robotics, coding, new technologies, inventions and new programs. It was a wholly different experience for me. I've never been in touch with coding and programming. I had to learn everything from the bottom. We also had some chemistry and physics as well as some crafting classes. We are of course made robots again. I spent some time with all the volunteers and they are amazing, adorable, intelligent people. We plan meetings together, we moderate conferences together, we plan Mutual projects together which are going to be about minorities, their rights and future possibilities in post-soviet societies. In February , pretty much everything was the same. There are classes which are already planned. I have to help teachers check for supplies, charge all the robots and iPads, and come up with some new ideas regarding the follow-up classes. 

In the beginning of the March 4-5 days we had on-arrival training in Trakai (Lithuanian Bakuriani) . I met so many new people and new volunteers from other cities like Kaunas, Klaipeda, Panavejis and Vilnius. We spend time together. We came up with new ideas. We exchanged our opinions regarding their personal projects. In the end I got acceptance from some volunteers that we are going to plan one project together which will not be a personal project but a group project for all volunteers.

 After we arrived it's been kinda ironic. because we live 3 together in my apartment, me, one from azerbaijani, one from Turkey. In February Turkish girl had covid, in march azerbaijani girl got positive and now I'm infected too, so Covid doesn't give us any chance to travel around to see new places, at the same time the weather is not perfect shining, it's always cloudy and cold that we are waiting for summer to come. 

One of our teachers' ideas was to create a Lithuania country shape from computers and electronic details. I loved this idea from the moment she told me and we started working on the project. It was from February till March 11th. On March 11th Lithuaninans have another Independence Day. to be exact its independence restoration day. so this project took us 2 weeks to prepare all the materials for the shape, To make that shape smooth and representative. The project was so massive, the shape is about 2 meters in length and 1 meter in width. It drew the attention of national television and we were on one of the afternoon programs. The teacher and I were talking about how we did it, what the main idea was, what challenges we faced and also I mentioned about volunteering, the awareness in society and what volunteering means in general. so many people do not know about it as I'm not living in the capital. I live in a small city called Siauliai. We also mentioned the war in Ukraine. This topic is crucially important for Lithuanians as well as for Georgians because North's neighbor is Russia for us, and Lithuania has borders with Russian plus Belarus. 

I also have to mention my presentation which took place on 24th of February in one of the schools our Center has educational activities. I explained to little children where Georgia is, what language we speak, what Georgian people actually look like, and how the Georgian alphabet is completely different from everyone else's. They got so interested they learned some Georgian words such as, Gamarjoba, Madloba, Nakhvamdis. After that we had some quiz about Georgia, main questions like what the currency is, what the capital of Georgia is, what language we speak, and so on. The winners got some Georgian coins as a souvenir and they were so happy. With Legos we built Lithuanian and Georgian flags.

I also have to mention the interest people show when I say that I'm from Georgia, but actually I don't say that I'm from Georgia I say I'm from Sakartvelo, and they know what I mean by that because Lithuania is the only nation which decided to call us by our own name, as we call them by their names and it's Lietuva, not Lithuania. I feel included and warm-hearty welcomed here. 

I was planning a new lesson for kids in second and third grades with robots. Oh, they have to code the way on Georgian maps. For example they have to go from Tbilisi to Kutaisi or from kutaisi to Batumi, but it will be on a code map with robots, they have to use some symbols, front, back, turn and recording puzzles and get their own way through. Now I got tested positive with covid-19 so probably I have to stay at home for the next two weeks and I will have some time to think about and get my project more sophisticated and come up with new ideas as well. 

While I'm volunteering here I also study in Georgia Ilia State University online and this is 1 + challenge for me too. Maybe because of the distance, time difference and that overlapping schedule. But I do what I love the most, I talk with children, I'm in a creative environment and I meet so many new people who are absolutely adorable. In the meantime I made friends with future leaders. I would say as currently we are working on projects which will help European solidarity Corps raise their standards. To make it short everything is going great and we keep working. So my project is supposed to be 1 year. It's been just three months. I have nine months left. One fourth of my project is already covered and I used this period to get used to the environment, people, social rules and the country in general.

Ana Dekanosidze - ESC Story from Lietuva

Hi everybody. I’m Ana, 25 years old. I’m doing volunteering in Lithuania, Telšiai. Telšiai is a small city with beautiful lakes.

I work with youngsters to help their informal socialization. This is a long-term volunteering program and I will stay in this country for one year which I believe, is a perfect opportunity to get to know this country well, expand my horizons and acquire new skills.

I studied Cultural Studies at University and that’s why for me it is extremely important to meet new cultures and people. While I’m staying in Lithuania, I’m learning Lithuanian language which helps me to understand this culture and people better.

Volunteering is about giving and being happier, however, it can be challenging as well - prior to my arrival here, I was thinking that I would interact with youngsters in English, however the reality partially met my expectation; A lot of them do not speak English at all and thus, that was a huge challenge at the beginning of my volunteering. That’s why, I decided to find other ways to interact with them: such as entertaining and educational activities to improve communication with them.

It has been only 2 months since I am here and I already overcame challenges I faced, made friends and gain a deeper understanding of myself and the world around me. ESC volunteering gives you an opportunity to discover new passions in a relatively less stressful environment and helps you to broaden your perspective in many directions.