Resources for Youth Power- A1: Armenia
GENERAL INFORMATION
In the context of the “Resources for Youth Power” project our 2 Volunteers, Kostas and Ioanna, were hosted by the organization “Future in our hands” in the city of Yerevan, in Armenia, and became part of their multicultural team.
As is the case for every ESC project, each of our Volunteers had a designated coordinator (tutor), who was their key reference point for task-related support, and a mentor who helped their smooth integration in the social and cultural life in Sardinia and facilitated their self-reflection and personal growth through this learning experience!
ACTIVITIES
In the first couple of days of their placement, Kostas and Ioanna got familiarized with life in Yerevan, their work environment, and their responsibilities.
As time progressed, the Volunteers adapted to their new home and working environment and got involved in many different activities. For the second part of this project, the activities were divided into three sectors: PR support, administrative logistic support, and event organization.
PR Support
For PR support the volunteers had to work with digital tools to create promotional material (banners, posters etc.) for the activities, graphic designs, photos and video making and editing, sharing calls for projects, and creating material for Erasmus+ promotion.
Administrative logistic support
During their project, the volunteers had to support the hosting organizations in logistics. They had to support the preparation of activities, to run workshops with the facilitator, and after the end of each activity, they had to write reports and share the results with the PR team. Also, they learned to shortlist applicants for other projects and they were involved in the selection of participants. Last but not least, they had to provide information, educational opportunities, and experiential growth opportunities.
Event organization
Of course, after the volunteers had some experience, they got to organize events on their initiative. They had to create workshops for local kindergartens and schools twice per week, they organized movie nights, debates, and open-air workshops. Also, they had Armenia language classes, and they had the opportunity to organize Greek language classes for the local community.
End of the Placement
Upon their arrival back home, EKO had a “post-project” evaluation meeting, in which Kostas and Ioanna could make an overarching evaluation of their volunteering experience and reflect on how they could utilize their experiences in their future pursuits for further education, employment, or civil society engagement.
Together we explored available possibilities in the context of different programs under the ESC or other contexts:
Erasmus for Young Entrepreneurs-EYE
As a follow-up, after the end of her program, both participants stayed in Armenia, because they wanted to continue their work there. Kostas, returned after one month and continued to volunteer in EKO and he took part in an ESC solidarity project about mental health, that still is ongoing. Ioanna stayed in Armenia for eight more months, since the Armenian organization offered her to stay as a member to continue her activities with children and the local community.
