Everything always has to come to an end and now there is less than one week left of our ESC experience here in Santa Maria la Carità. We are really sad to leave, but at the same time we are very thankful for this opportunity. In these eight months we have had time to do many things… Even though there is this pandemic that we bet no one has missed. The best about volunteering has been to live in another country, experience new cultures and meet people from around Europe.
Going for a volunteering experience is a very good opportunity, if not even THE BEST ONE! To be able to go to another country, having the travel, accommodation, insurance and food paid and even getting some pocket money, is something that literally anyone can do. It is great that The European Commission is financing a program like this for all the young people, between the ages of 18 and 30, in Europe. Especially for young people with fewer opportunities. Anyone can do it, there are no requirements of education or experience whatsoever. The only thing that you have to do is to sign up in the ESC portal!
Individual volunteering has opened up our vision on many things: the understanding of different cultures, languages, and people in general. Also, what other opportunities there are within the Erasmus+/ESC programmes. In the future we would love to go for an Erasmus+ exchange with the University and for sure some Youth Exchanges. We also want to try out the Volunteering Teams experience somewhere in Europe.
We highly recommend everyone to join the European Solidarity Corps and sign up for a volunteering experience. You will not regret it! And don’t be scared to go alone, you will meet a lot of nice people on the way. Good luck finding a project and maybe you will be the new volunteer for A.Y.F.E. Last but not least, thanks for reading these blog updates since this will be the last and hopefully we will meet somewhere in some project.
Ciao a tutti! //Clara & Smilla
Active Youth for Europe 