Zovem se Desu, imam 29 godina i dolazim iz Tallinna, glavnog grada Estonije. Studirao sam filozofiju, ali sam zatim otkrio neformalno obrazovanje. Nakon sudjelovanja u brojnim razmjenama mladih i treninzima, shvatio sam da je, u usporedbi s akademskim pristupom, praktičan rad puno učinkovitiji i osobniji način za otkrivanje i učenje o važnim temama, ali također potiče razvoj socijalnih vještina i bolje razumijevanje svijeta općenito. Stoga mi je sada san razvijati karijeru u radu s mladima kako bih prenio sva iskustva koja sam stekao kroz Erasmus+ prilike. No, za to sam smatrao da mi treba više iskustva i alata, zbog čega sam se odlučio na dugoročno volontiranje i tako otkrio DKolektiv i Društveni atelje.

Nakon tri mjeseca volontiranja, doživio sam iznimno toplu dobrodošlicu od strane ljudi koji tamo rade -počevši od prvog video poziva za moju prijavu, koji se prirodno produžio izvan planiranog vremena. Iako često svi imaju puno obveza, uvijek pronađu vremena za popričati i provjeriti kako smo. Što se tiče samog rada, zaista poštujem ono što rade za svoju lokalnu i širu zajednicu, nudeći prilike ljudima svih dobnih skupina da sudjeluju u različitim aktivnostima, ali i pružajući mjesto gdje ljudi mogu jednostavno doći i družiti se - ostajući vjerni svom imenu "društvenom ateljeu". Osjećam se ispunjeno što sam mogao biti dio te zajednice. Budući da djeluje i kao volonterski centar, upoznavanje drugih volontera bilo je izvrsno iskustvo, jer su svi vrlo susretljivi, rado prelaze na engleski čak i ako si jedini stranac, i uvijek su spremni za druženje ili općenito podrške.

Najveće iskustvo koje sam stekao tijekom volontiranja bilo je izlazak iz vlastite zone komfora kroz vođenje English Speaking Cluba kao facilitator te vođenje energizera za mlade tijekom jednog treninga koji smo organizirali. To mi je oduvijek bio izazov - koordinirati većom grupom ljudi i imati dovoljno samopouzdanja da aktivnost učinim zanimljivom i interaktivnom za druge. Iako sam uvijek među onima koji se vesele energizerima, nikada nisam mislio da ću ih moći sam voditi i pritom biti siguran da neću zastati ili nešto zaboraviti, a da pritom sve bude zabavno za druge. Iako ovo volontiranje možda nije trajalo dugo, stekao sam mnogo samopouzdanja i novu perspektivu za ostvarivanje svojih budućih ciljeva.

Naravno, nijedno volontersko iskustvo nije potpuno bez stvaranja novih poznanstava. Kao što sam već spomenuo, stekao sam nova prijateljstva s lokalnim volonterima s kojima sam provodio vrijeme i izvan DAteljea, što mi je pomoglo da se bolje integriram u Osijek. Također, ljudi koji tamo rade učinili su radne dane u uredu puno zanimljivijima kroz razne razgovore koje smo vodili. To me podsjetilo zašto želim volontirati i raditi u području neformalnog obrazovanja, jer su to ljudi s kojima je lako uspostaviti dublje odnose i preskočiti površne razgovore. Zbog toga još više cijenim ljude.

Sve u svemu, ovo iskustvo ostavilo je snažan i dugotrajan dojam na mene. Organizacija, Osijek i ljudi ovdje - u ovom kratkom vremenu učinili su da se zaista osjećam kao kod kuće i dali mi razlog da se ponovno vratim i ponovno ih posjetim.

 

ENGLISH VERSION:

My name is Desu, I’m a 29-year old young person from Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. I used to study Philosophy, but the I found out about non-formal education. After participating in many Youth Exchanges and Training Courses, I decided that compared to academia the hand-on approach is a much more effective and personal way to discover and learn about important issues, but it also promotes social skills and finding out more about the world in general. So, now its my dream to pursuit a future career in youth work to give on all the experiences that I have gained through Erasmus+ opportunities. But for that I felt I needed more experience and tools for that, so this is why I decided to do my long-term volunteering service and how I found out about Social Atelie.

Having been a volunteer for 3 months, I have gotten nothing but a warm welcome from people working in there – starting from the first video call for my volunteering application, which went naturally over the intended time. And even though there are many times where everyone is busy, but they still make time to reach out to each other to see how everyone is doing. As for the work part, I really respect what they do for both their local and surrounding communities and offering opportunities for people of all ages to come and participate in different activities, but also offers just a place to people to come and socialize - staying true to their name Social Atelier. I feel fulfilled to have been able to be a part of that community. As it also works as a volunteer center, meeting with other volunteers has been a blast, since everyone is very accommodating by switching to English, even if you are the only non-Croat there and always up to make some plans or help out with something.

Biggest experience that I have gained during my volunteering is pushing myself out of my shell to run the English Speaking Club as a facilitator and hosting energizers for the young people during one of the Training Courses we hosted. That has always been a problem for me – to manage a large group of people and be confident in myself that I can make the activity entertaining and engaging for others. While I belong to the group of people who are always excited whenever an energizer is going to happen, I never imagined that I could manage to run it myself and ensure that I won’t stutter or miss something and making it fun for other people. So, even though this volunteering experience might not have been the longest, I have gained a lot of confidence and perspective in pursuing my future goals.

No volunteering experience is of course complete without making new connections. As previously mentioned, I made new connections with the local volunteers with whom I spent time also outside Datelje and how helped me to integrate better into Osijek. But also, the current practitioners there made the office days much more fun and interesting through the different talks we had. This reminds me why I want to volunteer and work with non-formal education, because people who are also interested in that are the people with whom it is easy to make deep connections and skip the small talk. It really makes me appreciate people.

All in all, this experience has left a long-lasting impression to me. The organisation, Osijek and the people here  – during this short time it made me truly feel like I’m at home and gave me a reason to return and want to visit it again.