Engage in Volunteering
Opportunities to Build up
Communities
36 young people 6 countries 1 topic Cristuru Secuiesc 21 -28 March, 2017
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Day 1
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The first day of the exchange was more quiet than it used to be. The participant were a little shy, but till the end of the day we got more courage to talk and be active, thanks to all the activities we did.
In the morning after a fresh breakfast we had a nice ice-breaking fun and games that helped us to get to know each other. With the game we introduced each other with 4 senteces, which was very helpful for us, because in this case we had the chance to know some interesting things about the participants. When we closed the games we split into national groups and we all got a big piece of paper and we made drawings and short titles about our sending organizations. It was nice to see all the short presentations about the organizations and about their events, which helped also the get a breath about Erasmus+. But of course our facilitator Attila had a nice session about Erasmus+, it was fun, interactive and useful. We learnt many new fact about the European Commission.
Oh did you know that in Romania people eat at least 2 kind of food per day? Yes! They eat soup and the second corse and sometimes a dessert. We had apples for dessert, very healthy big and red apples. 2
After the lunch break we had some treasure hunting and the treasures were amazing ... a garlic, a toilet paper, a box of match .... We had a good time, we asked the local people about volunteering and EVS. Well, not many positive vibes, at least not in the town, not yet. Do not worry! We will change their idea about the attitude of volunteering.
Erasmus+ Treasure hunting Diary time Intercultural evening
We had an activity for our hopes, fears and contribution, with colorful papers and good thoughts. It was very nice. And we had the diary time, with some explanation. After an amazing dinner we had the intercultural night with delicious food and drinks from France, Slovakia, Hungary, Spain, Greece and Romania. And which was more fun, that the Romanians showed us some folk dances.
We had amazing folk dancers dancing for and with us. 3
Day
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It was a lovely sunny morning. After the tasty breakfast, we started the day with a name game- the blanket game brought a lot of fun and laughs as we tried to guess the names of the participants. For some of us it was a little bit difficult, as we didn’t know all the names.
Later, we kept strengthen the relationships and team spirit in a team building activity, we together figured out how to cross an imaginary dangerous river. Our facilitator Attila made us to think about the strategy even more when he played a crocodile. We shared our ideas and together we helped each other to succeed. We kept working in small groups in World CafĂŠ activity when we shared our ideas about volunteering improvements on various levels from local to interational. It was interesting to know each idea, everybody wanted to contribute. Although, we were already hungry, everybody was looking for the lunch.
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volunteering After the break we chose a place to volunteer from four options – kindergarten, gardening, cleaning of a cemetery and work in a town library. In groups we moved to the chosen places – we enjoyed playing with kids, planting flowers, picking up trash or sorting books. We felt satisfaction for our contribution. We shared our experiences in a public discussion. The evening continued with motivating activity – we shared our volunteering life stories to encourage each other.
That night Spanish guys showed us their culture, cities, typical dance and other interesting things about Spain. They made a game, put on some videos and danced. It was interesting to discover Spanish life.
g n i t i exc
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fun
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After this inspiring day, we hope to be one step closer to became better people.
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words about today
Being volunteer at with the children from the Family type of Houses Then when we created the groups, one stayed inside and the other went outside. One group went to visit the children in their facility. There were some children which were hyperactive, which made things much more complicated for us. On the other hand, they showed us a new game. This game consisted of tagging other players “ducks” and “geese” and chasing around in a circle. Later we tried to engage children in less playful activities and teach them something about the countries we come from. 6
D a y 3
We started the day with energizer, in which we had to create two lines and convey the impulse as fast as possible. The energizer brought people closer together, literally. Then Attila said us some information about Family type houses because depending of the country or the city its can be different, so that information help us to create later the activities for the children. We divided into two groups, but we made it with Greek numbers, so with this types of things we are learning more about other countries and it help us to increase our knowledge.
The other group made a timetable which was created with the different ideas of volunteers, so we didn’t have a leader but we worked together. The process to create the timetable was so nice because we played all the activities that we planned, so we spent so much time to created it. In addition, we wrote in a paper the materials that we needed to make the activities possible, so we would like to thank the organizers who provided us with the necessary materials. It was a great experience for us, we had fun and we learned many things, for example that we should have several different types of activities prepared, as we do not know in what mood will the children be.
In both groups, the children were very active and opened to us. It was then good to have feedback and evaluate what was done wrong or right to improve in the future. We spent the evening on a Greek night where we got to known the turism of the Greek islands. Finally we played to know the popular expressions of Greece. We finished the night by the Greek dance, named „Zobra”. All of us enjoyed it because we danced with Greek participants.
In conclusion, we will for sure be excited to
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continue with more volunteering activities.
Day 4
Friday Funday On the fourth day after breakfast our facilitator presented us the program of the day. The things we learnt were interesting but the experience was different. We visited the local Providence Association where we met some children with disabilities. Firstly we sang songs and rhymes with them. We think that we made them happy. Next we made some crafts from the things what we had collected during the morning (for example stones, branches, flowers, bottles, papers, buttons ect.). We made a big cat, a Saint Nicolaus and drawings. These was the children’s ideas and we helped them to create the products. After that we had some snacks and went to the yard to playing ball games. Theese two hours was a valuable experience to everyone.
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After the lunch we went to the „Súlyosan sérültek központja”. There were 26 orphan children with disabilities who are living together. The caretakers told us how the centre works and makes the children’s everyday life better. They showed us the bedrooms and playrooms. After we went to outside and play, dance with them. It was very difficult but exciting in the same time.
Finally we went to the local river and started collecting garbage, we selected the plastic waste from the others for recycling. We cleaned the place with the kindergarden teachers.
At Friday night we had French night where we got more familiar with their special cousine during playing "the hang man",we sang together their national anthem and watched a beautiful short film of the country. Last but not least we tried compté with vin rouge and blanc which was brought for us by the French guys. In conclusion it was the most difficult
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but the most grateful day to us.
Cleaning the river side in Cristuru Secuiesc On the 5th day our task was to join to a public event with the locals for the celaning activity. We started to hand out some flyers in the morning to raise people's awareness about our project and ask for their help in our work. People were gathered on a large field from kindergartens, orphaneges and schools for the programme beside our team.
Day 5
Here, after the mayor made a short introduction of the project we were devided into many groups. Our group went to one section of the Küküllö river to clean up the waste covered riverside. We collected more than 20 garbage bag full of waste. It was surprising for us to see how this activity involved such many people. We saw how important is to protect our environment especially in Cristuru Secuiesc.
Tace care of our inviroment
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Ou Ea r ne rth he eds lp
While we were cleaning the river side we met 2 little girl, they were between age of 7 and 9. They came to us and asked what we were doing. We told them, that we are cleaning this area, and we also told them why are we doing this. They were very impressed and they wanted to join us. It was amazing to see how this two little girl wanted to help and do something for the inviroment. „Our Earth needs help” – one man said at the trash collection, and he was right. But we were very proud because, when we asked people to help, many of them came. The afternoon was very useful and succesful for us, for the community and for the Earth. On Saturday night the Slovak group made a very good and interesting presentation about their country. We were glad that we learned a lot about their culture, inventions, nature, foods and traditions. In the end we danced traditional Slovak dances which are quite difficult to perform.
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Day 6
Easy Sunday
On Sunday, since it was raining and hailing much, we could not go to playground and do volunteering, so we did some team building activities. We were seated randomly on chairs all over the room and we had to find a strategy to not allow Mozes to sit down on an empty chair. It was fun and useful, we really enjoyed this part of the day. After that we talked about the European Volunteer Service, we learned some helpful things about other international organization from France - Service Civique. Workcamps, payed volunteering opportunities and other solidarity corps volunteering options were also discussed.
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relaxing
We have had a really interesting and at the same time very weird energizer similar to job interview : we had to be quiet throughout the whole activity and use our intuitions to guess what it was all about.
People today were very active and keen on discussing. We were happy because we had a little time for ourselves in the afternoon. There are only two days of this youth exchange left, so everyone is trying to do as much as they can to have a good time while volunteering in this beautiful Romanian town.
At the Hungarian night we played a game, where we had to conquer the country by answering questions about Hungary. The pink team won the game! Then the Hungarians did a presentation and we sang together a traditional Hungarian folk song. It was a very interesting night!
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Day 7
Our day started early in the morning. After breakfast we traveled by bus to Miercurea Ciuc to visit the headquarters of the volunteers center, where Peter from Care2Travel held a presentation about their work with payed volunteering. Each year they have about 150 - 200 volunteers from all over the Earth. Some of them are coming and visit the country after they finish their studies. Some of them give donations as well. The organization said, the volunteers keep them alive and help them to run the organization. Then Sandor talked about the legal process of volunteering on their institution, DJTS Harghita and their relationship with the government. We had a conversation with the man about our experiences in volunteering and the situation of volunteering in our countries.
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waouu! After that we took a walk to the restaurant and ate lunch. After lunch we had some freetime to go sightseeing then we visited the dog shelter by bus. There a woman talked about the situation of the dog shelter, their cooperation with Germany and the history of the place. We played with the dogs, petted them and had fun. Then we headed back to the hotel. When we arrived we had to say goodbye to one participant of the program, because she had to travel away earlier. Finally we ate dinner and went to bed soon.
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We started the day sadly eating breakfast because we knew, that today is the last day. But then our Birthday girl, Petra, introduced a new energizer to us and we were all cheered up suddenly.
DAY8
In a good mood and in a sunny weather we went to a local playground to help to renovate it. Firstly we split into groups. Some of us started to pick up the litters, some were refreshing the sand area, and the others were smoothing wooden stuff on the playground. It was needed for the painting we did later. Not even we helped to make this environment more beautiful and safe for the children, it also took us back to our childhood memories. Since we are quiet a big group, it took us short time to help this community.
Renovating day
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After lunch we had a presentation about volunteering in Christuru Secuiesc, that was held in A.T.A. office. While watching photos, we summarized all the activities we were involved in during this project.
After coming back to the building in which we stay, we received either youth passes or certificates. Then we were suggesting some ideas for future projects, that ATA might possibly organise. At the end we were talking about the feelings and experiences that this project left in our hearts forever.
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