Experiențele noi ne provoacă, ne aduc multe bucurii, prietenii și lecții de viață. În perioada septembrie 2019 - iulie 2020, 7 tineri entuziaști din țară și străinătate au făcut parte din echipa Green School, în cadrul proiectului Building Solidarity, un proiect finanțat de Corpul European de Solidaritate și implementat de Green School și Centrul de Voluntariat Cluj-Napoca.

Șerban este o persoană creativă, iar creativitatea aceasta s-a văzut în diferitele metode și paleta bogată de oferte la care au participat copiii.
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1. What did you do in your ESC project?
The main activity of my ESC project was to deliver afternoon activities and lessons based on Peace Education, Global Education, Education for Sustainable Development and Human Rights, at Green School Cluj Napoca, a private school with an agile learning program in which children spend most of their time in nature. During the stage I had to create games and informal ways to present the topics in order to be understood by the children and also to get involved in their daily school routine: meetings, lessons, games and many outdoor activities for exploring nature. In the morning I had to observe the morning lessons facilitated by educators which helped me to understand better their passions and interests.

2. What motivated you to do an ESC project?
My main motivation was to learn how to implement different educational approaches as a skill that can be useful for my future career and also to improve my English skills by interacting with international volunteers. A friend of mine attended an EVS project which was her best experience for that moment. She was telling me stories about travelling around Europe and amazing people she met, which made me pretty enthusiastic about starting an ESC stage.

3. Why did you choose this specific project?
During high school, as a volunteer in a youth association I used to work with children, our main activity being organising play days every Saturday for the locals. I had a lot of fun and I learned different ways of interacting with the kids. Since then I became interested in non formal education and creating games and activities.I chose Building Solidarity because it was the perfect opportunity to learn more about the educational branch by experiencing, but also observing professionists at work, which could give me a better insight about their work.

4. What did you learn?
The main things I learned are based on my work: how to create activities for kids and educational games, how to solve conflicts between kids paying attention to their emotions and also how to cooperate with colleagues. Living in the same flat with my colleagues I learned many interesting things about their countries and how their life is there, and more importantly I had the opportunity to observe the ways we spend our free time, different eating schedules and ways of cooking, their habits, priorities and goals. All these things gave me a different perspective which helped me to develop myself.

5. What was your biggest challenge and what did you enjoy most during your project?
I think the most difficult situation was to deal with all the changes in our schedule at Green School and also to approach every kid in a proper way, some of them being really difficult. Later on, the pandemic forced us to adapt all our activities online, which was not that pleasant. The things I enjoyed the most are living with my flatmates, especially having a lot of fun together watching movies or playing different games, cooking together and travelling together around the country.

6. What would you tell someone who is about to do an ESC project, wherever that is?
Just do it, go with the flow and enjoy every moment. It will not last forever and it’s the only one you can have, be aware of this!

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Experiențele noi ne provoacă, ne aduc multe bucurii, prietenii și lecții de viață. În perioada septembrie 2019 - iulie 2020, 7 tineri entuziaști din țară și străinătate au făcut parte din echipa Green School, în cadrul proiectului Building Solidarity, un proiect finanțat de Corpul European de Solidaritate și implementat de Green School și Centrul de Voluntariat Cluj-Napoca.

Adriana a avut multiple roluri în cadrul proiectului. Ea a fost unul din membri echipei de voluntari care a urmărit și a făcut oferte pentru copiii din Green School, multiplicând aceste activități în alte două școli, atât în zona urbană, cât și cea rurarlă. Pe lângă aceste activități, ea a preluat și parte din planul de diseminare.


1. What did you do in your ESC project?
In my project I mainly took part of the dissemination part with my co-worker, we had to organize events, flash-mobs, visual materials and attend radio interviews. One day per week we were going to observe the activities of our other colleagues inspired from the 4 topics of our project: human rights, sustainable development, peace education, global education. After this, our goal was to deliver activities in the public schools where they didn’t have much access to concepts such as non-formal education, nature-based education, agile learning.

2.     What motivated you to do an ESC project?
I decided to join an ESC project because I wanted to have a gap year between high school and university where I could experience more things and discover more about myself.

3.     Why did you choose this specific project?
I chose this specific project because I liked the objectives. For me it was very interesting to find out about a school like Green School which was totally new for me and never heard of it. Also, the diversity of my and my co-worker’s part of the project really made me excited because we had to do diverse activities which were putting us through different situations from where we had many chances to learn. 

4.     What did you learn?
I learnt more than I expected. My main focus was to find a way that will lead me to my desired career which I had to discover, but even more than that I learnt about beautiful values that I cherish now, I had the opportunity to understand and communicate better with the people around me and I think I learnt something from everyone I met during this stage and I’m grateful for having such a vaste team with inspiring stories.

5.     What was your biggest challenge and what did you enjoy most during your project?
The biggest challenge was for me the constant change of the dynamic. Even if I enjoy the new, sometimes I couldn’t adapt that better and this influenced my attitude. But on the other hand, I enjoyed meeting so many different and beautiful people right in my country. And I can’t omit that this project helped me discover myself and what I want to do next.

6. What would you tell someone who is about to do an ESC project, wherever that is?
I would tell them to be patient and calm and always let space for kindness. 

Experiențele noi ne provoacă, ne aduc multe bucurii, prietenii și lecții de viață. În perioada septembrie 2019 - iulie 2020, 7 tineri entuziaști din țară și străinătate au făcut parte din echipa Green School, în cadrul proiectului Building Solidarity, un proiect finanțat de Corpul European de Solidaritate și implementat de Green School și Centrul de Voluntariat Cluj-Napoca.

La final de proiect am întrebat voluntarii care sunt gândurile pe care le iau cu ei în noile aventuri. Fiecare dintre ei a trăit diferit această perioadă, unii au fost alături de noi toată perioada proiectului, alții au venit mai târziu.

În următoarea perioadă veți putea citi testimonialele lor., astăzi este rândul lui Bart.

1. What did you do in your ESC project?
In my ESC project, which was called Building Solidarity, I volunteered at an elementary school called Green School, in Cluj-Napoca, Romania. We did this with a group of 5 volunteers (2 romanian, 1 Bulgarian, 1 Italian and me from the Netherlands). Our project initially was about educating the kids of the school in the subjects of peace education, global education, sustainable development and human rights. Next to this we also did a lot of playing games and doing overall fun activities. We were supposed to do this in the school of course, but after two weeks of doing the regular project we had to work from home because of the Corona quarantine. From home we did daily activities with the kids on zoom, varying from playing online games, to sports, to science experiments. 
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2.     What motivated you to do an ESC project?
I was motivated to do an ESC project in the first place to work in a country I didn’t know in order to discover it during my gap year. I also wanted to meet new people from abroad and this seemed like a good opportunity.

3.     Why did you choose this specific project?
Building Solidarity looked almost perfect to me. I like to educate children, even more when it comes to educating about sustainability which is my field of study and green school offered me this opportunity (although it didn’t really turn out the way I wanted because of Corona). Apart from the work, Cluj-Napoca seemed like a great place to do this kind of project. It is a buzzing city with a lot of young people in a country I didn’t know before with much to explore in its surroundings. 

4.     What did you learn?
From the work I did I learned that teaching young children takes some more patience than the older kids do, but it turned out to be a lot of fun. In these times I also learned new things like playing guitar and sewing (we made face masks with our volunteering organisation for the less privileged) that I liked more than I expected. I also learned more about myself. I learned to listen more to myself and that it is okay to give myself the time I need when I encounter something negative. 

5.     What was your biggest challenge and what did you enjoy most during your project?
The biggest challenge was staying inside most of the time during quarantine without a lot of distraction. The thing I enjoyed the most during the project were the people I worked and lived with, since we always made the most of it even though the situation was tough. 

6.     What would you tell someone who is about to do an ESC project, wherever that is?
Just go for it. Don’t have too many expectations and do whatever you like the most in your new country. And even when it doesn’t always go as planned, know that there will always be something positive to take from this experience. Also, try to get involved with the local culture as much as possible. 

Urmăriți-ne și citiți și ce spun colegii lui Bart.

Proiectul Building Solidarity, co-finanțat prin programul European Solidarity Corps al Comisiei Europene şi implementat de către Centrul de Voluntariat Cluj-Napoca în partneriat cu Green School Romania, în perioada iunie 2019 – septembrie 2020, a avut ca scop principal implicarea unor tineri din diferite colțuri ale Europei în activități educaționale bazate pe concepte pedagogice moderne, în cadrul Green School, precum şi în cadrul a două şcoli publice din mediul urban şi din mediul rural.

În total, în urma celor 10 luni de voluntariat, cei 7 voluntari, dintre care 2 români, au însumat 4465 de ore de voluntariat. O parte dintre aceştia au avut ca rol principal realizarea de activități bazate pe temele principale ale proiectului: educație globală, dezvoltare durabilă, drepturile omului şi educație pentru pace, promovând totodată în rândul copiilor din Green School voluntariatul, multiculturalitatea şi solidaritatea.  Doi dintre voluntari au replicat metodologia învățată în cadrul a două şcoli publice: Şcoala Gimnazială “Ion Creangă” din Cluj-Napoca şi Şcoala Gimnazială Luna de Sus. Aceştia au avut ca rol, atât promovarea proiectului şi a programului European Solidarity Corps, cât și  diseminarea rezultatelor în cadrul comunității. 

Nu ezitați să ne urmăriți, în curând vor apărea și testimonialele voluntarilor și a copiilor din Green School.