Pročitajte govor predsednice Alijanse evropskih volonterskih servisa, mreže pre koje se godišnje razmeni preko 20.000 volontera, uglavnom u Evropi, a čija su Mladi istraživači Srbije - Volonterski servis Srbije punopravna članica, jedna od 49 članica nacionalnih servisa. Ona govori o uticaju volontiranja na lokalni razvoj i ilustruje ga dokumentarcem u nastavku o jednom od preko 2500 međunarodnih volonterskih kampova koliko se organizuje u svetu svake godine. Jedan volonter iz Srbije koga smo mi poslali je deo te priče, a naša predstavnica je na istoj konferenciji predstavljala MIS i regionalnu Mrežu mladih Jugoistočne Evrope.
Na konferenciji "Celoživotno volontiranje" u Ankari podržanoj od strane Volontera Ujedinjenih nacija - UNV.The Alliance President Ms. Chrysafo Arvaniti had the opening speech at the conference on Lifelong Volunteering organized in Ankara on 5th June by GSM organisation with the support of UNV. Keep reading for the full speech.
What I was invited to talk to about today, Is "International Volunteering and its impact on a local level".
I am here representing the "Alliance of European Voluntary Service Organisations". Alliance is an international network whose member organisations, our host here, GSM one among them, have managed in the last 30years, something really admirable. They have realized more than 25.000 international short term voluntary projects in local communities where over 300.000 international volunteers were hosted involved.
So what is international volunteering in local communities?
Above all, I would say it is relationship based on 3 main elements: the one of trust , the one of vision and the one of commitment of those involved. By those involved I am referring to local communities, voluntary organization and volunteers.
But maybe to present it in a better way, it is better to use a personal example.
In 1995, sth like 18 years ago, I participated for the first time as a volunteer in an international voluntary project. It was a restoration project and it took place in a small community, "almost completely forgotten" by the outside world in the northern border of Greece. And when I am saying almost forgotten, I am not over exaggerating. I still remember how scared I got, when the bus driver, told me: "I hope you know where you are going young lady, because not even the Germans during World War II had discovered that village". But I was determined to go.
For 21 days I lived and worked together with 15 other young volunteers from different parts of the world. They were people I was meeting for the first time in my life and yet in those days we shared an amazing amount of things. We shared the same work tools, the ones we used to help at the restoration of the village, we shared the same house, we shared the same dreams and later on with some of them we shared life, as some of them became dear friends of mine and still remain such. The 60 senior inhabitants of the village, after their initial reservation, made us feel like home, even though with most of the volunteers they had no common language of communication.
From this little village, which I revisited in the coming years as a volunteer, I have lots of moments to remember and cherish and in my view of the matter, they reflect the impact of volunteering on a local level. This is why I am sharing them with you, now.
So, what I will never forget, is the way the village was restored partly that summer and completely in the next 10 years with the support of volunteers who kept on going there, with the support of local community that kept on welcoming them with joy and with the support of a voluntary organization that kept on facilitating the whole process.
I will never forget the way, the people of the village kept on opening their arms and their houses to welcome those strangers with no common language of communication.
I shall also never forget the tears in everybody's eyes the day of our departure...
So as you may understand, apart from the village restoration, something very much needed for the local community, a complex on the one hand but very dynamic on the other hand process of interaction, occurred, impacting all those involved.
In 2011, my national NGO Citizens in Action, conducted a survey with the University of Salzburg on the impact of short term international voluntary projects in local communities. A group of researchers joined the volunteers, and based mainly on interviews, they focused on the question: "Which special skills and key competences do participants develop during such a project?"
This was a 3 week project in a small local community of Greece. There were 25 volunteers involved from European nations, Japan and Korea, aged between 22‐23, out of which 70% were female and 30% male. The activity they had to complete was to construct a new path to a monastery, local inhabitants used to visit and to clean the surrounding area.
According to the results, participation in an international voluntary project within local communities has main effects on the improvement of learning competences as well as of social competences and citizenship competences. Volunteers who participate in such projects develop interest on cultural exchanges and meeting new people, they get motivated to participate and to be confronted with unknown cultures and differences in acting and thinking, they develop the ability to handle uncertainty and uncertain situations, to think of alternatives, to handle the diversity of languages, to be open minded towards other cultures, to establish strategies to interact with them.
And what I am referring to, is just one example of the thousands of projects and the hundreds of thousands of volunteers.
Now a last thing I cannot also forget, is that the experience I have described in the beginning of my speech, has been a "turning point life"experience for me, where I learned that one can progress by helping others along the way. And this is the reason I am here today. And what I am talking to you about is not merely a collection of stories and theories, but it is the life myself and many other people, that I know and you may know or not, some of which already in this room, with us today...This is the life we/they have lived and do not regret. And how can one regret worthiness and meaningfulness which is another dimension of what volunteering in local communities brings in the lives of people.
A few days ago I received a message from a dear friend of mine who is a surgeon and a volunteer at Doctors Without Borders. He has recently been on a mission in Sudan. The message he sent me on the day of his arrival there read:
"Dear Chrysafo, I arrived today around noon and got into the surgery room at once. By surgery room I mean a tent where the conditions under which we operate, are tremendously difficult. I feel completely exhausted but now at the end of the day as I am standing outside my tent and looking at the sunset, I know that in spite of having nothing , I have it all..."
And this is meaningfulness I am talking about and cannot be measured in reports!
The following scenes are shot on such an international voluntary service programme that took place in a small village of the island of Tinos with 80 inhabitants.
Volunteers cleaned a path that was connecting the upper part of the village to the coast. It was
deserted and not used and was restored after the volunteer intervention. The documentary is shot by them and the scenes you will see are form the end of the project. The question is "If the path could hear you, what would you say to it"
Documentary show
http://www.morethanamarblepath.com/
This is what in a way local volunteering and volunteers involved in it, are: "open to the seas, open to humanity , open to life". Volunteers, involved in local development projects, do not necessarily expect to change the world at once. But they start by what Voltaire said: by planting a tree with others in a garden...
Volunteering and what it brings to people and communities, is not about lifestyle, it is about lifetime!
Thank very much you for your attention!
Chrysafo Arvaniti, president of the Alliance
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