Sofía Rodríguez Michelini
Photos provided by Sofía Rodríguez Michelini and/or taken during her project.
My name is Sofia. I’m from Uruguay and I’m 22 years old. I’m a volunteer in Poland, doing an EVS in EFM organisation.
When I knew that I would do a voluntary service in Poland, I was very happy because I knew that this experiences was going to be great. I’m a volunteer in my country too, so I really enjoy all this kind of experiences and it helps me to grow in different ways.
First of all, before coming to Poland I was very excited because it would be my first time for many things: fly in a plane, spend time abroad for several months, be in Europe, seeing snow, speaking in English with others, and so on.
A few days before living my country I felt afraid because I didn’t know how would be to communicate in a different language, live in another country with different traditions, the different thoughts and also, whether. As well, live with more people from different countries in the same house, who have their own traditions, opinions, way of living, etc.
But when I arrived to Poland, since the first moment that I’ve been here, I felt very good, because the other volunteers and the members of EFM were very friendly and funny.
I gained a lot of new knowledge about different things, for example: new energisers, activities and workshops from where I can take some ideas to do in my country when I come back. I know more about other cultures because I could meet nice, friendly and interesting people. I had also the opportunity to visit some beautiful places in Poland and in Europe too. The part of improving the English is for me an extra point for doing an EVS, because it wasn’t my main goal when I came to Poland but now I want continue improving it.
The activities that I was involved giving support were: in various YoutMaSter, in one Youth Exchange “Be, Eat, Fit, Repeat”, some workshops in schools about our project “Enter Digital Era” and in a Training Course called “YOUth On Board”. We also did a Street Campaign within a project called “Get Up Stand Up”, about Human Rights; more specifically, Women and Children Rights. Also we had the chance to support writing a new Youth Exchange project about education.
In the YouthMaSter I had the opportunity to do some things similar to what I’m used to do in my country as a volunteer, like work with youngster. This also gave me the chance to learned different things, which were: new concepts and workshops related with time management, SMART concept, teamwork, negotiation skills and think in a critical and creative way, etc. Here I had the greatest contact with the Polish people and the easier way to know more about Poland, their language, music, dances, typical dishes, interesting places to visit and so on.
Supporting in the activities of the Youth Exchange and the Training course, gave me the possibility to meet a lot of people from differents countries, a really big multicultural exchange about language, traditions, food, music. But also opinions and knowledge. Is living in a week a lot of experiences and having fun with the others, at the same time that I was learning from the activities that I was supporting and also from other people.
We were doing some workshops in the schools about digital tools and access to internet for our project “Enter Digital Era”. One part of the workshops was that the youngsters had to complete a questionnaires about this topic. Then we collected all the information about it and we sent it to Arcistrauss, that is our coordinating organization. After this, they will send it to one university in Mexico and another in Turkey because they will do a study with that.
Coming to Poland and live this adventure is one thing that I never imagine that will happen to me, at least not now. I’m always thought to do a volunteering service in another country, travel and so on but I have never imagined that this could be possible for me.
Because of that, I’m really grateful with this opportunity because it gave me a lot of enriching experience, a lot of happy moments and was full of new knowledge. I was able to develop some personal skills and I learned a lot that I will use it in the future.
Another thing that this project gave me and also gave to my brother (who came here for Christmas and my vacations) was the chance to do an amazing trip in three weeks around seven countries, visiting nine cities. That for me was like a dream that I saw very far away to come true and I’m very happy for that.
For me being a volunteer are all this things: is living a lot of enriching experience in a short time and is one of the things that the people would have to live once in their life. Once being like a minimum.
For finishing, just to say a big thanks to the life, and of course the organizations, to have this amazing opportunity that I will keep in my mind and my heart forever.
Mario Benedetti
Here you can see a trailer of Sofía’s project. Visit our Gallery for more 🙂
Enter Digital Era
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EDE project brought up some really interesting and useful outputs. Check them all out on our new EDE Website.
Sofía Rodríguez Michelini project: 590020-EPP-1-2017-1-IT-EPPKA2-CBY-ACPALA
Erasmus+ Programme – Key Action 2 – Capacity Building in the Field of Youth “Enter Digital Era”
Sending organisation: El Abrojo
Hosting organisation: Europejskie Forum Młodzieży
Coordinating organisation: Associazione Culturale Strauss
