Impresiile voluntarilor din cadrul proiectului Building Solidaity - Clara Mazziman

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.

Astăzi povestim cu Clara:

1. What did you do in your ESC project? 
I worked in a primary non formal school. I prepared activities related to the topics: Human rights, Peace and Global education and Sustainable development. I work in an international context with volunteers from Romania, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Denmark, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Netherlands. I participated and I implemented workshops about non-formal education and for the promotion of volunteering.

2. What motivated you to do an ESC project?
Make a break in my university studies, go abroad, discover an other country, other people and another culture, being active as a citizen for the society and also support a project which I share the values, take part of a voluntary project, learn from other way to live and to work, have an experience to work with children, practice and learn about non formal education, were my motivations to do an ESC project. 

3. Why did you choose this specific project?
Interested to discover another part of Europe I looked principally for projects in eastern Europe. There were a lot of possibilities to work with children, and I was interested in learning about non formal education. The project Building Solidarity was engaging for me because it’s in a nature-based school which I would be able to share my sensibility to nature. I found the main topics which were: Peace and Global education, Human rights and Sustainable development interesting to explore. Moreover, the project also proposed Romanian lessons.

4. What did you learn?
In general, we used to associate the word “learning” at “school” or “theory”, but I realised that I learned and I grew up a lot this year. Though I was out, for the first time of the school academic system. Through my volunteering experience, working and cooperating with others brought me a lot of pleasure, and possibilities to improve my communications skills and my responsibilities. I significantly improved my English and my abilities to give feedback or to talk about my feelings. Furthermore, I learned a lot about non formal education while participating in workshops and creating activities.

5. What was your biggest challenge and what did you enjoy most during your project?
At the beginning my English skills were a bit challenging, being my only way to communicate in this international environment I got quickly more confident and able to express myself correctly. Currently I’m happy that I improved this competence, English is important in so many contexts.
Related to my work, it was extremely gratifying to gain the trust of the children, to work with them and to understand and use more and more words in Romanian. I met a lot of wonderful people during my stage and I enjoyed sharing a lot of rewarding moments with them.

6. What would you tell someone who is about to do an ESC project, wherever that is?
If I would give advice I will say it's important to be critical of the offers of projects and to not go to the first you get accepted. I was lucky to find a project which has fulfilled my expectations and which I could learn and had a lot of pleasure to work with but it can be different. I know that it can be more challenging. We have the opportunity to meet other volunteers from different projects, during training and evaluation sessions provided by the National Agency. We exchanged about our experiences, and some volunteers were not working in an organisation which corresponds to their aspiration.