New experience in training course “Service vs. Learning = Volunteering”

Training course “Service vs. Learning = Volunteering” was held on September 1-10 in Sfantu Gheorghe, Romania. I had an opportunity to participate in this project as one of the three representatives of Lithuania and it gave me a lot of new and useful experience.

Sfantu Gheorghe

There were three participants from each of these countries: Hungary, Greece, Turkey, Malta, Italy, Slovakia, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Norway and Romania. I was surprised by this wide variety of nationalities. At first it was quite hard to communicate with each other, but during the training course we had a lot of tasks in mixed groups, so day by day we made new friends and all became like one big family. Teamwork helped us to get over our timidness and boundaries.

During the training course

Next thing I would like to point out is what I have learnt in this training course. I got to know a lot of new information about volunteering and its importance in our life, management and organizing of voluntary activities and projects. It was a great experience when we had an opportunity to participate in real voluntary activities – we were divided in four groups – each had to do voluntary activities in different places: dog shelter, Orko community house “White house”, nursery school and Youth office. I had a chance to take a close look at the situation in a dog shelter – it was really an interesting experience.

What is more, we had an opportunity to travel and visit famous sightseeing places in Romania such as Bran castle which is known for legends about Dracula, Brasov city, which is recognized as one of the most beautiful cities in Romania and the capital city Bucharest. I really enjoyed spending time traveling.

Bran Castle

To sum up I would like to say that it was a great experience – I have met a lot of new people from different countries, got to know more about different cultures and traditions, volunteering and management of voluntary activities. I appreciate the work organizers did during the training course and the new experience I got from it.