New EVS volunteers are arriving
Here we are, waiting for a new group of EVS volunteers arriving at the beginning of March within a very special project coordinated by InCo organization: "EVS through the looking-glass".
The project was submitted for the last deadline of the program “Youth in Action ” (which ended in 2013 and was replaced by Erasmus+ ): therefore we wanted to seize this opportunity to give an added value to the program, InCo's work, and its partners but especially of the experience lived by so many volunteers we coordinated in the 7 years of the program (2007-2013).
From March 2014 to March 2015, 4 volunterrs coming from Russia, Spain and Hungary will undertake their EVS experience at Caritas Diocesi Bolzano-Bressanone and Villaggio SOS di Saronno in activities dedicated to vulnerable groups and children/teenagers. Besides the activities in the HOs, volunteers will look for (and tell!) the stories and experiences of the EVS volunteers (about 80 youngsters) who participated in this program with us - developing their own initiative. With InCo's support they will contact former volunteers, make short interviews, building the memory and finding out the impact the program had in the live of participants as well as organization. This should inspire all of us - and it is a wonderful learning opportunities for them, as well.
The project aims at creating an analogy with the novel "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland": Alice was wondering how reality could be on the other side of the mirror and, to her surprise, she ends up there, finding a world full of adventures. EVS is a unique opportunity, and for many youngsters it is a parallel reality, where they can experiment themselves. The 4 volunteers will have the chance to experience "EVS through the looking-glass, getting to know new cultures, experiences of other volunteers and the concrete impact of the projects (on a local level, as well as in the personal life of volunteers). Past and future of volunteers will mix themselves in a peer-to-peer initiative but, unlike Alice (according to whom life is just a dream), participants will see that EVS is a reality, with a wide range of results.
