My volunteering in The Netherlands as a Svitac volunteer – Tamama Čangalović, EVS
“As a Svitac volunteer, I spent a month (from 6 April to 6 May) in The Netherlands as part of the EVS programme: a European voluntary service that gives young people the possibility to spend up to 12 months in another country, doing unpaid, voluntary service in their field of interest. Although I was reading a lot before about EVS, and the beautiful experiences of young people, I never had the courage to apply. But when I saw the call from Svitac, I immediately knew it was exactly for me. So I decided to try out my luck and send my CV and motivation letter. I was very happy because soon after I received a mail confirming that I had been selected and that I would spend one month in Amsterdam working with children but also on various social projects of the organization Don Bosco. Thanks to good preparation in which I was helped with by my coordinator Milos Popic, I was completely ready and could not wait for the day of my departure. Although, nobody could prepare me for what was expecting me at my arrival in Amsterdam airport.
Goran (another EVS volunteer from Bosnia and Herzegovina) and I were very excited that we had arrived, but also very happy that we would have soon had some rest after a long travel day. However, I had a small problem. Or rather, I did not have one! My suitcase was gone, and the only information I received at the airport was that it would have arrived in a day or two. What a great start, I thought. Soon, I said goodbye to Goran, who went to Rijswijk, and I walked towards my new address in Amsterdam. A bit sad and worried, I was hoping that my suitcase will arrive as soon as possible, so that I could relax and start my new adventure. The warm smiles that greeted me at the door managed to change my bad mood, and also put a big smile on my face.
I met the other three volunteers from Ukraine, Spain and Italy and Dominiek and Biju who were our hosts, and mentors through our period of volunteering. In the first three days, we got to know each other, the organization but also the city. After that we went to Rijswijk to meet with other volunteers who live there and we organized a cultural evening. We wanted to present our country in the best of lights so we took the best drinks and specialities. Considering that my suitcase was still lost, Goran saved the evening. It was memorable, with a lot of dancing and laughing until late in the night. After returning to Amsterdam we started right away with the work.
We were very happy and enthusiastic about the work plan and programme assigned to us. And I was the happiest, because I finally got my suitcase. Laughing all together we came to the conclusion that I was finally “complete“. Our first volunteer mission was to design workshops for children aged between 6 and 12 years, who live in a poor neighborhood of Amsterdam and don’t have the opportunity to have some fun and activities during school holidays. Through our conversation we realized that we have different talents and we decided to use them all. So we came up with thematic days for children, such as the “Day of music” “Day of cooking” “Sport day” or “Day of art”. Of course before starting the workshops, we needed to inform the children about what we planned to organise in their neighborhood. So, we created posters and flyers that we distributed together with Dominiek in several schools nearby.
The first day when we started the workshops we were all very excited. Will the children come? Will they like the activities we prepared for them? How will we communicate with them? All these questions were crossing our minds. But the first day was a great success. At the end of each day we did a small evaluation so that we could improve the next one. Every day there were more and more children coming, and their smiles, hugs and at first shy “thank you” was our greatest reward. In addition to our workshops with the kids, we had the opportunity to visit the sisters of Mother Teresa, become familiar with their work and help them in the best way we could. Together with them we prepared food for poor people living in the streets. We met a side of Amsterdam, which is invisible to almost all tourists. As The Netherlands is generally seen as a developed country, I thought that the worst form of poverty was an unknown concept here. But I saw it is not like that. Talking with people who are at the bottom of the social scale, that get their only real meal during the whole day from the Sisters, was very touching. Seeing how much effort, love and energy the Sisters invest in their good work was really inspiring. I think we could all learn some life lessons from them.
As volunteers, we also contributed to the “Kings Day”. On the national holiday, the whole country celebrates the birthday of King Willem-Alexander. Everywhere there were parties, concerts and festivals in honor of the King. Together with local volunteers we organized a market in our street where we put on sale donated items such as books, clocks, pictures, etc. All the money we collected was invested in one of the Don Bosco projects in India.
Apart from our volunteer work we also travelled a lot. Together we visited the Keukenhof (“Kitchen garden”), the largest flower garden in the world. Through a nice bike ride we were able to enjoy the endless plains of various flowers. Together we visited the city Bruges in Belgium. An amazing and very interesting city, a large open-air museum could be said. We also had a few days free, to be able to get to know some parts of the Netherlands, which we were particularly interested in. So we had the opportunity to visit Rotterdam, Delft, The Hague or some other city.
Our last two days were the 4th and 5th May – two very important days in the history of the Netherlands. May 4th in the Netherlands is a day of remembrance of all the fallen soldiers and civilians of the Kingdom of the Netherlands who from the beginning of World War II (in the Netherlands this is May 10, 1940) in any war or peacekeeping operation lost their lives. At 20:00 the streets were full of people honouring the victims, through a ceremony and a minute of silence. May 5th is the day when the Netherlands celebrates the liberation in World War II. This day we helped to organize a big lunch in our street. About 80 people attended the lunch, including volunteers, neighbours and refugees. After lunch, together with other EVS volunteers I travelled to Rijswijk to celebrate our goodbye party. Until late at night we celebrated, danced and retold and remembered all the funny and sad moments of our EVS.
Through this short period we had the opportunity to meet each other, our cultures and traditions, different habits and ways of thinking. But life under one roof and the fight for the same goal made us grow together, take advantage of our diversity, and use it as our one of our strengths. Early the next morning, every one of us started the way back home, but with a great wish to meet again and visit each other.”
Tamama Čangalović, EVS volunteer, Svitac
April 2016 – May 2016
