BRIDGES - Volunteering – a wonderful journey
Before this meeting I never seriously considered volunteering. Although I always wanted to be part of an association, I always had other obligations that prevented me from doing so. In some projects I was an active member and co-organizer. However, these were all completed within a very short time, and I didn't have the opportunity to get as much information as I wanted.
After my studies I started looking for a suitable internship position and decided to get involved in an NGO, the USB, in addition to the various companies I approached. In the USB I was accepted and with that my journey as a volunteer began.
USB informed me about their EU project Bridges, in which my participation was necessary. My supervisors Luiza and Chara, both members of the organization, made sure that I got detailed information about the project and especially about the event. I was told that this event would take place in a vocational school in Thessaloniki, which is mainly composed of young third-country nationals. I liked the idea, but I was not excited or tense about participating. I thought it was part of my duties. But I did not think that I would do anything special there. Although in the end this event was more than just special.
On the day of the project we first met with the colleagues from Antigone and drove to the school, which did not remind us of a school at all. The young people there are housed in an old building, without enough windows to let light into the rooms and above all without a courtyard where they can spend their breaks. How is it possible for them to spend most of their days in such a place?
The other members of the team, who already knew the conditions of the school, had the same dissatisfaction as I did. It was immediately clear to all of us that together we had to create an environment that would positively change this bourgeois atmosphere.
We were also informed about the everyday life of the students there, which was filled with school and work. Somewhere there I realized how important our project was and what we would do on that day. Because with our small contribution these children would have the opportunity for a big change in their everyday life.
Do you remember the excitement I did not have at first? Now what you did!
On this day the children had the opportunity to say what activities they would like to do and when their program would allow them to do them. We wanted them to show us their preferences, we did the rest. We started to decorate the room with pictures and made boxes with the names of the activities where the children showed what they liked with stickers. The atmosphere was much better. The team worked well together, we understood each other and the ideas of one person pleased the other. The atmosphere was very positive and we always tried to think of new things.
However, it was difficult to get the attention of the children. Some were quite far away and absent, as the teachers told us. We did not know what kind of attention we would get. My feelings were mixed at that time. I was especially nervous because I was looking forward to the children.
The children were starting to grow slowly. One of them even sang his own songs at the event and told us that he liked to write songs in his free time, after work or after school. Some of them were very distant and shy, others came directly to us, but nobody showed that he was looking forward to what he would do.
We started to talk to them about their everyday life and interests. There were also three translators to help those who were not fluent in Greek or English. After a while, the other children came with the teachers, looked at us with amazement, but started to play and there was a lot of laughter.
I talked to a teenager named George who helped us with the food distribution. He has been working since he was 14 years old and now at 17 he could not imagine what life without work is like. It was more necessary for him to work than to study.
Later, Ahmed, who timidly tried to teach the others cricket, explained that it is a popular sport in his country but that he has not been able to practice it since his arrival in Greece. As he explained, he began to feel more and more comfortable and the children watched him with interest and applauded to encourage him. When he was finished, he just sat there and smiled.
Somewhere there I felt deeply moved. I looked at John, a colleague from USB and we both had a feeling of satisfaction. These children live like adults, but much more intensely.