Building Stronger Communities Ebook by YMCA Romania

Building Stronger Communities

This E-book is the result of the project “Building Stronger Communities” ref No. 2020-RO01ESC11-079004 that hosted in Baia Mare, Romania, international volunteers from France, Portugal, Spain and Finland . This project is funded by the European Union through European Solidarity Corps Program.

Volunteers: Antonio Salvatierra Ortega- Spain Cristian Sanchez Cabezudo Serrano- Spain Margarita Santana Honorio - Portugal Marina Monje Jover- Spain Marine Camille Heinrich- France Sinni Tuuli Suominen- Finland

Partner/Support Associations : ALLIANSSI YOUTH EXCHANGES – FINLAND TAMBOUR BATTANT – FRANCE PROATLANTICO-ASSOCIACAO JUVENIL- PORTUGAL ASOCIACION BUILDING BRIDGES- SPAIN

Contents YMCA Intro Coming Here Living Together Working Together Covid-19 Romanian Classes Mentorship Personal Experiences Personal Projects Extra Activities Baia Mare and the International Community Exploring Romania Leaving from here Acknowledgements

YMCA YMCA or Young Men’s Christian Association is a worldwide youth organization, created in 1844, with more than 64 million beneficiaries in 122 countries. It is a non-governmental confederation with each independent local YMCA affiliated with its national organization who is part if the World YMCA and Area YMCA (e.g. YMCA Europe). Local and national YMCAs deliver programs, projects and services focused on youth development and a wide variety of youth activities, including providing athletic facilities, holding classes for a wide variety of skills and humanitarian work. The symbol of YMCA is the triangle for the holistic approach of the person - body, mind and spirit. YMCA Romania has 6 core values: caring, respect, honesty, responsibility, faith and diversity.

INTRODUCTION Hello everybody! As we all know, each community is struggling with different problems, either social, environmental or youth related. Our volunteer service was created to work on social inclusion, environmental awareness in schools and communities, support our association and show our culture to young people. Therefore, we as volunteers decided to take on a challenge throughout this not so good times and to embark into something new. A European Solidarity Corps project called “Building Stronger Communities” with the organization YMCA Romania, with its headquarters in Baia Mare. Our activities consisted in working on different fields and different social classes, from children and young people from disadvantaged communities like Craica, Pirita and Oborului where to young people from elite high schools . We went in the Roma community and to the Somaschi shelter two times per week where we taught alphabet letters, reading, numbers and simple math (2nd chance school). It was sometimes difficult to explain how to write or to read because of the language barrier, most of the children spoke only Romanian. Also we have been working in the night shelter attending homeless people to have a warm meal, to clean, socialize , etc. The experience with the Roma community is the one that deeply touched most of us. On one side, because of poverty, culture and education, far from our own lives and sometimes difficult to deal with, but on the other side because we become attached to these children and there are some faces of young people that we will not forget. Also we had inclusion programs with the smaller communities on the outskirts of Baia Mare - like Cavnic or Firiza where we did after school activities like: dream trap in wool, coloured salt, key holder in climbing rope and juggling balls made with rice and balloons, talking about mental health, environment, coordination and team, etc.

Another part of our project was to raise community awareness about the environment and climate change. That’s why in October 2020 we participated in a worldwide event organized by World YMCA together with UN Agencies and University of San Francisco- called Youth Led Solutions - where we developed a project called “YMCA Green Club '' that consisted in promoting environmental actions towards the local community. During the month of February 2021, we created a first part of the project that consisted of a World Cafe event where we invited people from the local community to take part and try to see what the response of the local community to the environmental issue is. Later, we had partnerships with several high schools in Baia Mare and Somcuta Mare and had consultation with 175 teenagers. Because we were in a pandemic scenario, we had to do the Green Club online. The consultation consisted in speaking with teenagers about problems and solutions related to climate change. Within the framework of the Green Club, we collected garbage with other associations of Baia Mare around the lake Firiza and we went to plant trees with the Forest District of Firiza and Rotary Baia Mare. These activities were very rewarding because we felt useful and we saw our direct impact on nature. This climate awareness program was implemented with the support of YMCA Europe.

Also, we worked with kids and young people from the foster house Dealul Florilor , a partnership with the DGASPC Maramures and we also contributed on creating the now famous YMCA Camps. Nevertheless, we talked a little bit from our cultures as well, so we created a series of intercultural events at the Baia Mare Youth Centre where we shared not only information about our cultures but also food and drinks and about the European Solidarity Corps Program. When the pandemic conditions got better, we managed to have 3 complementary activities with young people from different cities, Sighetu Marmatiei, Viseu de Sus and Cavnic. The complementary activities consisted of involving the young people in identifying the local problems, understand youth participations. The idea was to search which problems existed, like the lack of youth spaces or environmental problems, and after to find solutions. The aim was to gather information about how young people are seeing these problems and create a white paper that will be presented at the end to the

local council. At these sessions we had invited decision makers so have a constructive dialogue with the young people so their voice is heard and valued. We had many more activities with different schools and high schools, at Youth Center, sharing and doing non formal activities with children and young people about volunteering, mental health, sports, gardening, SDGs, non-discrimination, No Hate Speech, consultations for UE youth dialogue, etc.

Coming Here In a project that lasts one year (or six months for two of the volunteers) you come here one person and leave a different one. This, in the best way possible. In this project, you could discover yourself in the great context that YMCA Romania provides you. We are provided with a house, food and pocket money, three other amazing volunteers as flatmates, integration in Baia Mare’s society and a “job” that you can choose how much it fulfils you. When we came here, we knew nothing about Romania or Baia Mare, or about YMCA or our flatmates, and we also had something to learn about ourselves. How would we adapt and integrate here? Would it be easy to adapt to a new culture, new space, new people? Maybe we were living in a big city and moved to a smaller one, maybe we never had to communicate in Romanian or English, maybe we never worked with children or young people before or maybe you are not used to work in a team…. So many things to consider. There might be a lot of different reasons why we were pushed out of our comfort zone. This year, we grew a lot, since there were so many different situations to adapt to. Also, we get to know ourselves in a context completely unattached from what might be holding us down back home or keeping us from changing to a better us. This different context might make us feel freer to be ourselves.

LIVING TOGETHER In this project we live all four together in a flat that YMCA provides for us. It’s a nice flat in the south of the city, with a lot of sun and good memories! When we arrived, we didn’t find the decoration in a style that we could relate to so much. Therefore, all together, we started changing the house. Putting up our own decoration and moving the furniture, we made it in our style. Now, we can safely say that we feel it like our home. There is a big paper on the wall with the signatures of all the visitors. We created a “hang out space” in the kitchen by splitting a sofa we had in one of the rooms. When we want to spend time together, we all meet in the kitchen to speak, play chess or eat together. The balcony is arranged with some furniture for us to be able to sit and relax there. It’s very important for us to have our own individual rooms too. Each one of us has their own private space and in this way, we can assure a better quality of living in the house. It’s only natural to have the need for own space and time alone, since we live and work together every day.

WORKING TOGETHER We worked almost all days together, the four of us. For some activities, in the foster house or in the Roma community, we went two by two because 4 volunteers weren't needed. We learnt how to work in a team and to be tolerant with our colleagues, who are also our flatmates and friends. We try to put all our ideas and energy together, to take all the best skills and capacities of each of us. For some

of us who never worked with children before all was new. We learnt how to do it and we gave tips and supported each other when it was needed.

COVID-19 Working on this project in times of Covid has been difficult but enriching. We have had to learn different applications to work on the different contents with the young people and kids, talking about topics such as mental health, taking care of oneself in times of Covid, environmental issues, etc. At the beginning of the project all the activities were online: foster house, Cavnic afterschool workshops, Green Club activities and twice a month we had online workshops with Liceul Ucecom Spiru Haret where we discussed with their students about different topics from the opportunities that the volunteering is offering to you or how you can apply to go abroad in a European Solidarity Corps Program and what types of projects do they offer to… musical debates. Things got a little bit better after 2 months when we could finally do some offline activities and so we started to go to the night shelter in person. There we helped to prepare the meals for the beneficiaries – homeless people, to clean, to socialize, etc. Winter holidays arrived and we went back home to spend some time with our loved ones, but to our surprise when we returned, two of our colleagues decided that this programme is not for them and therefore returned to their homelands, so we were left with only two volunteers to continue with activities until the beginning of March when other two volunteers could fill the vacancies. Also, in March we managed to get vaccinated, and everything changed. We started going to the high schools to do face-to-face activities, we went to the foster house to meet the children, and we started going to the 2nd chance school in Somaschi shelter to work with Roma communities.

ROMANIAN CLASSES

Learning a new language can always be difficult but it goes a long way into fitting yourself in a new society. So, in order to speed up the process a little bit YMCA provided us with a youth worker from the organization that helped us learn the language. Our Romanian classes were once a week and we usually met up in the office. The lessons we took were in order to help us to be able to get around, ask for basic things, defend ourselves in case we needed to, but also to be able to communicate with people that didn’t speak any English whatsoever. Also, as we all know and as it goes with any foreign language, we learned it more for the day-to-day aspects, in the street, when we go shopping or when we go out for dinner or have a drink in a bar.

MENTORSHIP / MENTORING Now let’s talk about mentoring. For this program the organization decided to do a match-up between people that are working in the YMCA or have a close connection to it. These people are called mentors and each volunteer was assigned one mentor. The mentor’s job is to give you their full attention to your needs. A trustworthy person with whom you will work on different personal aspects during your volunteering, those sessions are completely private, it is a person you can trust and talk about any issue, any discomfort that happens to you in the volunteering and together you will be able to solve any problem. Also this persons supports you I creating a personal development plan and try to monitor you and create opportunities in order to fill your goals. Ideally would be to have one session per week, but if you need more sessions per week you can meet with your mentor without any problem. Mentoring sessions are around one hour but if you feel the need to stay more there is no problem. Also, you can have the meetings wherever you want, having a coffee, in the office, in a park, etc...

Personal Experiences MARGARIDA I applied to this project around two weeks before I arrived in Baia Mare. Ten days before the start of the project, I knew I was accepted. Those were ten surreal days. Out of nowhere, I had to tell everyone, friends and family, that I was going to Romania for one year. I had to get ready for something I didn’t know what it was, I had to prepare for the unknown. I packed my bags with only the necessary things, knowing that I would live in Baia Mare and therefore I could get my new things there. What I didn’t know is how much of a new life I would create in this new place, how I would create a new home, and how much these new things wouldn’t be just memories of a trip but part of me. I arrived in October 220, as did the other volunteers, and we met each other on the flat. On the first days we didn’t know anything about Romania, but we were certainly very well welcomed. We met a previous volunteer, Olatz, who showed us around the city. We met our mentors who met with us in different places and started to make us feel familiar with Baia Mare. YMCA did a big effort so that nothing was missing and so that we always felt comfortable in this arrival. Slowly, we started to work. Initially, the work was very new for me. Exposing myself in an online classroom full of kids or young people and catching their interest was not something familiar for me. My colleagues helped me overcome this, as well as YMCA, and together we kept working on this and building new things. This was mostly online work, and I must admit it was very unmotivating. Also, around November the Covid situation started to get worse and life in Baia Mare was not exactly exciting, as the cold also started to come. The winter in Baia Mare is very different from the one I usually go through in Lisbon. The cold truly stops you from being outside for a long time, the snow is beautiful from the inside but if you are outside with it, I felt it very hostile, as if it’s telling you that you shouldn’t be there, you should go inside. Sometime after we came back from Christmas, two volunteers of the project were showing a lot of reluctance in continuing the project. The situation in this time was hard, with the lockdown and online work, and I understood this frustration. This was a time when we had to be strong, but not only because we were in this project. Also, if we were at home, it would be difficult, a lot of countries were going through the same in this time. Eventually, Sini and Antonio left and me and Marina stayed alone in the flat to face two months of winter. This was a very introspective time of our project. We were going from a phase to a different one. After some time, two new volunteers were selected to live with us. Restrictions started to become lighter. Slowly, the weather started to improve and as the streets unfroze, it was like we also came alive again. Marine and Cristian came to give a new light to the project. It was also nice for us to finally be able to share responsibilities with more people. Everything was lighter and we discovered all that Baia Mare

has to offer with sunny weather. Parks, lakes and terraces were our new homes. In this time, we also started to work more often offline. What a relief! I understood what it meant to connect with children, which was so hard for me in the beginning. We could give and receive energy in a natural way, next to each other, as it should be. With patience and perseverance, the project came to a much better situation. We overcame the darker times of Covid without knowing the future, us and YMCA, and we were all together very happy to see some light in the end of the tunnel. In this project I had close contact for the first time with very poor people living in very hard conditions. This raised my awareness a lot about the dimension of this issue. Also, it was shocking to deal with the strong prejudice against Roma communities in Romania. I truly hope that by working with them we have shown them something, a little bit more of the world, and that it is only normal to be treated as everyone else. Personally, living in Baia Mare and coming from Lisbon, I discovered the wonders of living in a smaller city. I was so happy to be able to ride my bike everywhere and to have so much time for myself. It felt like the slower rhythm was more adequate to a natural and more organic life that moves according to nature’s rhythm. I started to eat better and give more importance to better products and supporting local commerce. I started to give more importance to little things that made me happier here instead of being distracted by a big city like I used to. Of course, there are a lot of things that I miss about my home in Lisbon. And that’s only natural. The fact that I discovered I also like other lifestyles only makes me more tolerant and more prepared for my future. Living in Baia Mare helped me to break a lot of prejudices, many of them I didn’t even know I had. The things I missed the most about being away from home were maybe the people (friends and family), the food and the sea! I think I got more familiar with spending more time in natural places here. From what I remember, I used to be more afraid of these places and maybe the animals in them. My life was more spent in artificial parks than in the real mountains. Discovering Romania slowly, through different regions, was amazing. Due to the Covid, we travelled mostly inside, since we couldn’t go outside the country for a long time. That was maybe the best Covid restriction just because it allowed me to discover this amazing country. I remember the hills of Transylvania in Spring and how I was afraid I would miss them once I left for Portugal. I don’t think I’ve ever been in such a wildly different place as the Delta of the Danube. My flatmates even saw bears!

As the project comes to an end, my feelings are mixed. I’m excited to go back and see all the things I missed, but also, I feel like I’m leaving part of my life behind. I have made friends here that I don’t exactly want to leave now, but this is the premise of this project, to come for one year. It’s like a bubble. In this year, you are given a home, friends, work, a context. When this context is taken away from you, you can decide what to do. But as well, I feel like now is the natural time to leave, and that all took its natural course. I’m happy to take who I became here back home.

CRISTIAN Hello, I’m Cristian, I’m 25 and this is my whole experience in Baia Mare, Romania. I arrived in Romania on the 1st of March 2021. I was living in the surroundings of Madrid and looking for a new experience that would allow me to be out of the country and explore something new and different. I started by looking for different options, signed up for some offers like ``Au Pair'' on a platform where a family welcomes you in their home in exchange for taking care of their children at home. (I was currently in that situation in Madrid). After looking for a person to host me in their home in exchange for me looking after their child at home in Edinburgh, everything got complicated for me because of the Brexit and the Covid situation, and with the months passing and the situation did not change, I started to look for new offers and also started to look for volunteering programs throughout Europe, and it was when I found a company (YesEuropa) where I registered and I got offers all over Europe of volunteering with different jobs, I just had to apply for them. After a couple of days, the company sent me a video of a Spanish girl that they had interviewed to tell me how was her

experience in a volunteering in Romania. After watching the interview I decided to contact her privately to get more info and know a little more in depth, and talking to her, casually I found out that in her volunteering project was a vacancy of a Spanish guy who just left, and she told me to apply in her volunteering. So, I contacted Alina (the boss) and..... Here I am, in less than a month I went from being in Madrid to being in Romania volunteering. I arrived in Cluj Napoca on the 1st of March during the night and my friend and coordinator Tudor picked me up from the airport, and together we went to what I would call home for the next 6 months. Once I arrived in Baia Mare I had to stay 14 days locked in a room for quarantine, where they provided me with all I needed. Even though being confined in a room alone for 14 days can be a bit boring and frustrating, I did manage to meet my new colleagues through the window and online, but after these days, I could finally go out and move in my new house and get settled in. Now let me tell you about my volunteer experience. I am with the internationally known YMCA association in Romania and we are currently doing our volunteer service on a European Solidarity Corps project called “Building Stronger Communities” Practically what we do daily basis in our volunteering is working with disadvantaged people from the Roma community, helping them in social inclusion. We also work in a foster house, where children have been left without families for different reasons, and our job is to go there and do different activities with them. We also have another project called Green Club in which we are raising awareness about the climate, and we have different activities where we talk about the environment and try to teach future generations on how to take better care about the world. Also, we had a series of 3 Complementary activities in smaller towns throughout the county where we try to find out different aspects from the young people lives -from what kind of youth activities, they are participating on to what can they do for the environment in their region and how to combat pollution and to have a talk with the people from the council to express their needs and their solutions for a better community. My free time in this country is being invested into travelling and getting to discover what this country has to offer. Since I don’t like the cities very much, I like to discover the mountains and the natural landscapes. Romania offers incredible landscapes and beautiful nature, you can see animals in freedom that I have not seen in my country, bears for example

What I don’t quite like about this country is the fact that they do not care about the nature and animals. People here don’t have a culture about recycling and adoption of animals and unfortunately, I saw a lot of rubbish in the mountains and a lot of abandoned dogs on the streets.

MARINA Hello! My name is Marina, I’m 22 years old and I decided to come to Romania for 11 months while studying an online master in Spain. Taking the decision to come here was not easy, at the beginning I was afraid that I would not be able to combine my master's degree with volunteering, I only thought about leaving volunteering if I was not able to combine them, but when I arrived here and I knew my weekly schedule I knew that I would be able to do both. Romania has surprised me with its landscapes, the friendly people who live here, I couldn't have chosen a better city to live in than Baia Mare. Here I have become fond of hiking in the mountains, where I come from there are no mountains but here, I have been lucky to be surrounded by them. This project has opened my eyes to how the poorest communities live and how little awareness there is about caring for the environment. It has shown me how to work with vulnerable groups with one obstacle in the way, language. At the beginning it was very difficult to communicate with the children without them knowing Spanish or English and without me knowing Romanian, but little by little, with body expression, and learning the basic words in Romanian, I have been able to communicate without any problems. Changing colleagues in the middle of the volunteering was difficult but rewarding at the same time, since two colleagues who did not feel comfortable with the project left and two other colleagues came with fresh ideas and a lot of energy. I take both good and bad things from this volunteering. As in every team some tension can arise since we as volunteers wanted to do the activities from one perspective and our coordinator saw it from a different one. In the end we learned how to work together so that the activities would have the best results.

On some occasions I have not felt safe in this country as there is a bit of discrimination against women, especially in the Roma communities. I had to learn to be valued and respected as a woman without being able to explain in words how I felt because they did not speak English. I learned to defend myself physically and mentally, for me being difficult to understand their behaviour coming from a country with a low rate of discrimination towards women. On my return to Spain, I would like to continue to be part of the youth community and my YMCA association because I feel that everything I have grown here I can continue wherever I go.

MARINE I’m Marine. I’m 22 years old. Last summer I decided to leave my studies to apply for others, because I was unhappy with my training. Unfortunately, I was not accepted in the other studies. One year appeared in front of me without any plans. What to do with this entire year? And how to use it intelligently? I decided to follow my ideas and to do things that I never took time to do because I was in the fast rhythm of life. One of my ambitions has been for a long time to do a humanitarian or volunteering mission in a foreign country preferably. During the quarantine in France, it was not easy to have any plan and even less aboard! I searched on the website of the French civic service, but any organization answered me….... Therefore, I decided to act and to do the things that were important to me, first in France. That’s why I became a volunteer in the Red Cross, and I worked in an association called Handicap Service 35 where I accompanied disabled people in their daily tasks. I felt useful but I missed something. Something exciting, something new and something that took me out of my comfort zone: going abroad. After many months of searching on the website of the European Solidarity Corps, with the help of my sending organization Tambour Battant, one organization answered me! I decided to take this opportunity and came to Romania. I was a little bit afraid because my level in English was awful and during all my life, I avoided speaking other languages. Also, I didn’t know what

to expect about the country, the culture and how will be the next 6 months. Everything was unknown to me! I never lived in another country during this period, I never needed to speak only foreign languages without any French around me and I never worked with children (I only helped my mother sometimes in her kindergarten classroom). When I arrived, I was confined for 14 days in a room. During this time, I didn’t feel I was in Romania. It was more like a break in my life, a time to think about myself, to watch movies, draw and listen to music, to do online activities. But in the last few days, I was impatient and excited to begin this new life, to see the flat, to meet my flatmates and to start the activities with the children. Everything went well, I’m so glad that I arrived in this flat in the middle of lovely flatmates with always a good atmosphere. I felt like I was part of a team, and we were supporting each other. I really enjoyed doing this mission. I became very attached to some children. I worked for the first time close to a very poor community, I saw where they live, their culture and their habits. It was difficult to see all these people and these children there. These memories will stay in my head for the rest of my life, but it reminds me also to continue to help and to never give up also when you don't really know if it’s useful. I was also sad to see that in Romania, the Roma Community is not considered equal by most of the other citizens and there is still too much racism in the country. This is also true for the LGBTQIA+ Community who suffer a lot about discrimination but also the women who endure the traditional culture and masochism comments. Being international volunteers, we tried to discuss and to encourage the young people to think about these “hot subjects” to open their minds and not just think like their parents. Maybe if the next future volunteers will do the same as us, their point of view will change in many years and the next generation too… With this new experience of traveling, I understand how I appreciate being in a country for a long period of time like this and how we are soaked in culture after that experience. I discovered so many different landscapes in Romania. From the beautiful hills of Maramures, the expanses of swamps and lagoons of the Delta Danube to the impressive Carpathians Mountains with the famous Transfagarasan road. An untouched nature, still preserved, where it is possible to see wild horses, pelicans, squirrels or bears, if you are lucky! Something I really like to be attentive to is the culinary specialities of countries. It was nice to discover this from the local people or the other volunteers who arrived before. In the future, I know that I would like to stay more time in the country where I travel, not only one week as before. Also new perspectives open to me, to do a civic service in another country or to do an Erasmus year during my studies. Finally, all my fears disappeared, I discovered that it was not so difficult to speak other languages. On the contrary, how easy it was to learn when you live in the country, and you are around him in daily life. I’m so glad when I understand the menu in a restaurant or when I can teach some Romanian words to my mother! I will try harder to improve this language skill! I think I grew up a lot during these 6 last months, I discovered a lot about myself. The process is not finished but all become clearer in my head, I start to understand who I am and who I want to be. It will be difficult to leave this place filled with memories, with faces of volunteers, friends and children. And that’s the best part of my volunteering and the one I’m most attached to.

Sini

Hello, I’m Sini and I come from Finland. The experience with the YMCA Romania even though it was a short one, it was indeed a very nice experience. Beside the regular activities with young people from highschools, foster care houses, she co-facilitated consultation for the EU dialogue with young people, consultations that are done by the YMCA Romania every year for the National report that needs to be presented to the EU institutions. She liked very much conducting some of these consultations because gave me the understanding and the perspective of young people from Romania about the Spaces and youth participation. Morevover, she presented in some online event to young people and community organizations and volunteers about the UN Security Council Youth, Peace & Security Resolution 2250, the good practice of Finland in developing a national action plan to implement and support the resolution. I have managed to participate in 2 European Youth Goal Consultations. Also, I have managed to participate in a meeting with the Swedish Ambassador in Romania and have a chat with him about the youth policies in Romania. Being passionate about youth policies, Sini was one of the main engines for the World Café event that reunited young people and organizations from Baia Mare to identify the main problems of the community related to climate and environmental issues and to identify solutions and directions to be followed in order to create a better livelihood. It was hard period because the Covid pandemic influenced all the activities, mainly the work was done online, only the social work was offline. The team faced lockdown, restrictions, travelled when the situation was better and allowed mobilities in a safe way, trying in this way to adapt and be resilient. The international experience offered by European Solidarity Corps is a very important one in the growth of a young person, bringing new knowledge, intercultural understanding and flexibility, awareness about different situations and issues – like culture, discrimination, stereotypes, laws and policies , etc but also about self in a new context, new mentality, new colleagues. All these developments are very important for the personal and professional development and carrier of the young people. Due to new professional opportunities, her service ended after 4 months of volunteering in Romania.

Antonio My name is Antonio Salvatierra from Spain, and I am going to tell you about my experience with the European Solidarity Corps. First of all, I will tell you that I did my service from October 2020 until February 2021 in the Romanian region of Maramures, Baia Mare in the North of Romania. It was the first time that I had been out of the country for so long and I had a lot of concerns about it, before I left, I was very well informed, and I felt supported by Alina the director and Tudor the coordinator. The project is called Building Stronger Communities and deals with different opics such as social inclusion and environment, participation. We had activities in different schools, dynamics about climate change and what we could do to improve the situation, Romanian classes, mentoring and many more activities. At the very beginning we had to do many online because of Covid but then things improved a bit and programs we did them in person – like the work in the night shelter, second chance school, etc. I lived with and met many people from different countries who were living in Baia Mare and that opened my mind and gave me many ways of seeing the world. In this project you don't have to worry about food, accommodation, transport, everything is provided by the organisation including pocket money. In my case I didn't have any English competences and I didn't know how to work with a computer, the organization told me it's ok, you can learn, and they gave me confidence and empowered me to have the resources to be more self-sufficient. It's been many months since I've been there, and I realise how useful it has been both professionally and personally. I would recommend all young people to do this volunteering and I would like to thank all the people who have helped me, the whole team at YMCA and my colleagues.

Personal Projects Within the framework of the European Solidarity Corps, each of the volunteers created a personal project. Margarida She decided to create her personal project by sketching some historical buildings from the city for an expo at the Art museum, helping the museum with translation of different materials into Portuguese and creating a video about a painting that she considered the most interesting from the art gallery.

Marina She decided to create a series of storytelling workshops for kindergarten kids with a light panel. Also, she repeated her workshop during the Summer Camps and we have to admit that all the times it was a big success, kids loved the methods used the light table .

Cristian His personal project was related to a cause very dear to him. The animal welfare. So, in order to raise awareness for the abandonment of dogs on the street he created a PhotoVoice event by exposing a series of black and white photos with dogs that were abandoned.

Marine Her personal project was team multisport events. The purpose was to encourage the young people to practice sport for their health but also to discover different sports, play in mixt teams and learn about tolerance, fair play and coordination.

Baia Mare and the International Community Baia Mare is where YMCA Romania headquater is located and where we work. It's a city in the North-West of Romania in the region of Maramures. It’s surrounded by mountains that are part of the Carpatian mountains. This small city atmosphere created by the natural beauties that surround Baia Mare (lakes and mountains) makes it a very special place to live. Life in Baia Mare is both calm and never boring. There is a lot of cultural activity, from concerts to theatre pieces and events created both by local prestigious institutions and volunteers, local and international. You don’t need to go too far to escape and enjoy the surroundings of Baia Mare. Just walking or taking the bike for a few minutes will allow you some incredible views and a very strong connection to nature. In our project, we had the chance to get to know different communities in the city. We worked with kids and young people from different ages and coming from very different situations in Baia Mare, and in this way, we feel like we understand the city very well. YMCA gave us the chance to be integrated here and provided us with the context to be an active citizen of Baia Mare.

While it is a great opportunity, as we are in Romania, to know people from here and get integrated in their society, it is also very exciting the number of international volunteers that are working in Baia Mare and the community they create. Anyone can become a volunteer, so this community is very

diverse. It’s a great way to break stereotypes and let go of your prejudices to get to know all the international volunteers who are always up to being very active and to go hiking, traveling, doing sports or just cooking together and sharing their culture in many ways.

ROMANIA I don’t think any of us knew much about Romania before coming here. Unfortunately (or fortunately, because tourism can ruin a country) Romania doesn’t have a clear image that is sold to foreigners. Maybe one of us knew about Romania’s famous castles, or about the mythic figure of Dracula, but not much more. We came across a very welcoming country. We won’t lie about some cultural differences that were not so easy to overcome, but we chose to feel connected to the amazing discoveries we have made here. It is undeniable how fascinating it is to live in a country with so many natural parks and untouched forests, where there are still bears and wild horses, where many natural wonders that have disappeared around Europe are still conserved here.

Also, none of us had ever lived in a former communist country and we learned a lot about Romania’s past while we were here. History and humanitarian lessons, and of course, being part of YMCA, what solidarity really means to us and how we would like to practise it in our lives.

LEAVING FROM HERE Leaving from here is a mixed feelings situation. On one hand, we all have things we miss back home. On the other hand, it’s hard to leave a place where you have already created roots. We created new habits here that we are afraid to dismiss again back home. But also, we are extremely motivated to create a new life in our home countries instead of going back to the same one we had before.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS YMCA TEAM -DAN CARPOV- PRESIDENT YMCA ROMANIA -ALINA POP- EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR YMCA ROMANIA -TUDOR RUS- PROJECT MANAGER AND COORDINATOR -CALINA NISTOR- MENTOR -EDINA CATANA- MENTOR -ANA CATANA- MENTOR -OLATZ LAGO SILVESTRE- MENTOR -ALEXANDRA CANTA- MENTOR & PRESIDENT YMCA BAIA MARE -DANA KISS- ROMANIAN TEACHER & YOUTH WORKER -ROXANA PASCAN- EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR YMCA BAIA MARE LOCAL PARTNERS -APELE ROMANE, SISTEMUL DE GOSPODARIRE A APELOR MARAMURES -ASOCIATIA SZMISZ SIGHETU MARMATIEI -ASOCIATIA MANSIO -CENTRUL SCOLAR EDUCATIE INCLUZIVA BAIA MARE -CENTRUL DE TINERET BAIA MARE -COLEGIUL ECONOMIC PINTEA VITEAZU CAVNIC -COLEGIUL NATIONAL GHEORGHE SINCAI BAIA MARE -COLEGIUL NATIONAL MIHAI EMINESCU BAIA MARE -COLEGIUL ECONOMIC NICOLAE TITULESCU BAIA MARE -COLEGIUL NATIONAL VASILE LUCACIU BAIA MARE -DGASPC MARAMURES -DAS BAIA MARE- CENTRUL DE REABILITARE SOCIALA PENTRU COPIII AFLATI IN SITUATII DE RISC -DJST MARAMURES- CENTRUL DE TINERET BAIA MARE -FUNDATIA DE VOLUNTARI SOMASCHI BAIA MARE -GAL BAIA MARE -LICEUL UCECOM SPIRU HARET BAIA MARE -LICEUL TEHNOLOGIC TRANSILVANIA -LICEUL TEORETIC EMIL RACOVITA BAIA MARE -LICEUL TEORETIC IOAN BUTEANU SOMCUTA MARE -LICEUL TEORETIC “BOGDAN VODA” VISEU DE SUS -MUZEUL DE ARTA <CENTRU ARTISTIC BAIA MARE > -YMCA BAIA MARE -YMCA CAVNIC COORDINATORS OF DIFFERENT PROGRAMS -ALINA COMAN- LICEUL UCECOM SPIRU HARET BAIA MARE -ADINA COSTINAR- YMCA CAVNIC -ADRIAN HOCHIA-ASOCIATIA MANSIO FIRIZA -BIANCA TATAR- CENTRUL DE TINERET BAIA MARE -CLAUDIA STOICA- COLEGIUL ECONOMIC PINTEA VITEAZU CAVNIC -GABRIELA LUCACI- FUNDATIA DE VOLUNTARI SOMASCHI -IOANA HOCHIA- ASOCIATIA MANSIO FIRIZA -OANA ENASEL- MUZEUL DE ARTA <CENTRU CULTURAL ARTISTIC BAIA MARE> -GHEORGHE SILAGHI- CASA TIP FAMILIAL ‘DEALUL FLORILOR’

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Disclaimer This publication is a result of the project “Building Stronger Communities” organized by YMCA Romania and funded by the European Union through the European Solidarity Corps. The content of this Ebook and views set out in this publication reflect the views of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official opinion of the European Union, institutions and bodies nor any person acting on their behalf cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained herein.