21

Interview

I met Olha during our on-arrival training in Volos in February. She is a motivated Ukrainian girl, who was volunteering in Athens until July 2020. She was working at the office, but in her free time she was documenting the daily life in Athens with her camera, proving she’s a very skilled photographer!

Erasmus+ Volunteer

Interviewer: What motivated you to become a volunteer? Olha: All the opportunities behind it: learning new skills, exploring what I’m good/bad at through trying, experiencing a foreign culture and so much more. I am a travel addict, so I could not loose such a chance of living and exploring another country.

Interviewer: What was your project about? Olha: My hosting organization does youth work, and I supported their projects through creating content for social media, writing articles for a youth-oriented blog, doing research on various topics, and developing ideas for future events and projects. Name Olha Teteruk Nationality Ukranian Hosting organisation The Institute of Research and Training on European Affairs Volunteering Volunteers united in diversity Place Athens | GREECE

Anything can happen, (...) “ and realizing it will spare you a lot of disappointment.

”organization and their project. Ask them questions Interviewer: What was the most important thing that you learned from this experience? Olha: To realize the fact that my expectations do not always (or rather never) match the reality and to learn how to cope with that. Interviewer: Do you think your ESC experience will be useful for you in the future? In what ways? Olha: Yes, as I realized that I enjoy writing and will probably look for a job that deals with that in the future. Having such experience on my CV is useful, especially since I want to work in the non-profit sector. There are also a lot of skills that I enhanced through this experience (including the lockdown) that will definitely be useful, such as self-organization and self-motivation, project management skills, cultural awareness etc. Interviewer: What did you like the most about Greece? Olha: The nature. Despite living in a big city, I got to travel a bit and was astonished by how beautiful the country is. And not only the islands, but the mainland as well! It made me dream of a road trip through Greece, so I’ll have to come back for that. Interviewer: A piece of advice for future ESC volunteers? Olha: Choose your project based on what you would enjoy doing or what activities you’d like to explore. Make sure you know enough about your hosting

if you’re not sure about something. And don’t have high expectations! Anything can happen, 2020 has proven that so far and realizing it will spare you a lot

of disappointment. Interviewer: This LINK edition is all about sport. Are you into sports? What kind of sports? Olha: I have never been particularly good at or into sports. I enjoy jogging and doing yoga but that’s about it. I’d love to do more outdoor sports, though.

Interviewer: What do you think are the benefits of practicing sports? Olha: The most important ones for me are that it makes your body healthier and it lowers stress level. Practicing sports also makes you feel better because of those “happy hormones”, so that’s what I choose to do when I feel down, and it helps!

Interviewer: What’s the role of sports in your country? Olha: I think it’s similar to other countries in a way that it brings people together as spectators of some popular sports, which is mostly football in Ukraine. Engaging in sports or some physical activity is becoming more popular each year with the general trend

of leading a healthy lifestyle.