My volunteering in The Netherlands as a Svitac volunteer – Anela Kozarevic, EVS
“Thanks to Omladinska organizacija Svitac, I was a participant of various workshops. Thereafter I became a volunteer. After volunteering in Brcko, I received an invitation to volunteer for a month in the Netherlands.
My EVS lasted from July 20th to August 21st 2016. I spent my first day there meeting the other volunteers. There were about twenty of us in total from eleven different countries. Of course, there were also the volunteers who had already been there for a longer period of time.
I spent my first and second week there getting to know the other volunteers. We had different activities every day as well as interesting workshops based on the work with the children, and how to improve their team-work.
Other than doing the workshops, we visited some of the cities in the Netherlands (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Delft, Gouda). We had the assignment to investigate and find these cities by using the Internet, having at least six persons in each group.
The last three weeks we spent in the Don Bosco centre where we organized different games for the kids from 4 to 15 years old. Every day at 9am we had a meeting, during which we had conversations and decided about the activities that would be held that day. After working with the kids, there was the evaluation meeting which was 30 minutes long, where we also talked, suggested new things, etc. We always had enough time for a rest and entertainment.
Every weekend we had organized trips, in which we visited smaller towns in the Netherlands, finding out more and more about the tradition and culture of the country. We also visited Belgium, where we spent a day visiting the cities of Antwerpen and Brugge.
The last three days we spent together, getting ready for the trip back home and planning the goodbye parties. I would recommend the EVS volunteering to everyone, because for me it was a beautiful experience, where I met a lot of new people, learnt a lot of new things, and last but not least, expanded my circle of friends.”
Anela Kozarevic, EVS volunteer, Svitac
July-August 2016
