EVERYTHING IS PERSONAL. INCLUDING THIS BLOG.
How to survive as an ESC volunteer?
20 tips to make the most out of this experience
Are you feeling lost? You don’t know what to do with your life? Have you just finished high school and you don’t know if you want to work or keep studying? You know that you want to go to a university, but you don’t know which one? Or have you just finished three to five years of university and you are not ready to work yet? Or are you just bored with your life, and you want to do something new, something different, something meaningful? If you are one of these people and you’re feeling a little lost in your life, you are in the right place, because I have the perfect answer for you: you should become an ESC volunteer.
ESC stands for European solidarity corps, and if you don’t know what this means, you don’t have to worry about it, because in this website you will find every answer. I will explain what becoming an ESC volunteer means, how it works and how you can survive being one, and everything will be accompanied by my personal experience. You just have to be patient, and everything will be clearer.
How does the volunteering work?
On the website: https://europa.eu/youth/solidarity_en you can find different projects in every country in Europe and all the information you need. Each project is unique, it may take place in a kindergarten, in a school, in a community center, in an office, in the nature, you can work with kids, adults, people with disabilities, kids from difficult backgrounds or with seniors.
When you find the right project, you have to send your application in and if you’re lucky you will be selected to be a volunteer, and then you can start a new experience. The European Solidarity Corps volunteering is open to young people aged 18 to 30 years. And it can last from 2 to 12 months. It is free: no contributions are required to join, and you will receive monthly pocket money to cover expenses. Travel and accommodation costs are covered too. And you will also be assigned mandatory health coverage. You will be followed by a sending organisation and a receiving organization. Both of them will help you with the training to become an excellent volunteer. And also, the receiving organization will organize different activities and events to meet other volunteers, and to learn more about the new culture. If you want to become a volunteer in Denmark, just like me, the receiving organization would be Dansk ICYE.
What is Dansk ICYE?
Dansk ICYE (International Cultural Youth Exchange) is a non-profit exchange organisation primarily for young people aged 18-30.
They send about 150 Danish young people to the world for exchange and volunteering every year and receive about 60 foreign volunteers in Denmark. The idea is to give young people from all over the world the opportunity to travel and learn about new cultures. The concept of ICYE's is that volunteers live with local host families and volunteer on a project. Over many years, young people all over the world have helped others and made their mark on projects and host families, while at the same time, their stay in a new culture has left its mark on them. The aim of this association and of the volunteering experience is to facilitate exchange between young Danes and other cultures, and foreign young people and Danish culture. If you want to read more about volunteering in Denmark or read more about Dansk ICYE and their exchange program, visit www.icye.dk/volunteer-dk/.
Why should you do it?
As I said before it is easy finding yourself in a strange place in your life where you don’t know what to do and where the only question you ask yourself every day is: what am I going to do with my life? It is a hard question that a lot of people have, so don’t worry about it. Like everyone else you will find your path, but to help find the right way you should try something new, something different, to broaden your horizons, to know new things, and for me that helpful thing was leaving for a volunteering experience, and I recommend you to do the same. Travelling is always a great decision, because when you travel you have the occasion to learn a new culture, a new language and to meet new people, and thanks to that, you can change the way you see the world and the way you think. And you can come back home and bring something new and nicer to your home country. You will learn something, that can be useful for your country in which you live in. But doing a volunteering experience is more different than a trip. You will spend several months in contact with people from another culture, every hour of every day, eating with them, talking with them, and experiencing every tradition and holiday with them. You will work with them and learn a new job and maybe a different way of looking at life. You will understand what you would like to do and the differences between your home country and the one you are going to. You'll see the differences and understand if and why the country you're going to is better, than the one you were born in. You can meet new people, because you will always find the possibility to do something with other volunteers, who are from a different part of the world, and you will find yourself in a room full of different people from different countries, quite a whole world in a room. And thanks to that, you will not only know the culture of the country in which you are in, but other cultures as well. You could also find your soulmate or some friends for life. And in this way, you will always have a friend in a different city, a friend you can always count on and a home wherever you want to go. You will experience a whole, new, different way of living. And you can willingly help, you can grow up while you’re doing something fun and important, you can learn new skills and a new language and definitely come back with unforgettable memories. And I’m sure that when you go back to your home, you will miss every single thing and you will want to start all over again one more time.