I’m an EVS volunteer in Sondip since September 2017. I decided that volunteering in NGO abroad is a great opportunity to spend my gap year. During the whole year I gained some experience and new skills, I had many opportunities to meet a lot of people from different countries. I attended two trainings for EVS volunteers in Finland, which were really helpful. I met a lot of volunteers and found out more about EVS and non-formal learning. During my everyday life I worked in three different associations. First one was Yhdessä-yhdistys where every week together with Georgian EVS we lead English for kids and for adults. We also lead handicraft for kids and participated in mother and child club where we had to take care of kids. Another one was MPKK where I was helping with organizing meetings for immigrants and refugees. Also, in Daisy Ladies I had an opportunity to lead handicraft for women from different backgrounds.
As I have never worked with immigrants and kids, working in those organizations was a new experience for me. I didn’t know a lot about situation of immigrants in Finland so leading different groups and organizing meetings helped me a lot with understanding with what kind of issues they have to deal every day. Except working in Yhdessä-yhdistys, MPKK and Daisy Ladies, I was helping with organizing events in my hosting organization- Sondip.
Besides of working, I managed to travel around Finland and to 6 countries. I could see many amazing places as well as make new friends. I was also participating in different events, for example I was volunteering on Shift Business Festival what gave me an opportunity to interact with local people. I also participated in ’Idea Lab’, where we could share our ideas about dealing with issues people face every day.
I recommend going for an EVS to everyone because it’s an amazing experience you’ll never forget. Working and spending time with so many wonderful people as well as travelling made me feel like I spent this year in the best possible way.