As much you learn, you realize that you still have a lot to learn. As much do you know about the world around you, you understand that many things still remain unknowable for you. Hello, I am Nelli and today I will tell you about my ESC experience. When I started to do volunteering first in my life, I realized that it makes me happy.  First of all, I really like volunteering and helping people. I started with my local organization and then I realized that there is a way to know people who are different from me, who live different life. As I was curious, I applied for a range of opportunities and finally it happened. I was chosen and I went to Hungary, where my pro...

Hello, I am Gor Khachatryan. I am 28 years old. I am from Armenia and have a Master's Degree in Linguistics. I would like to share my first impressions with you about my EVS in Craiova, Romania.   I was always wanted to have EVS experience and this project made my dream come true.   In Armenia, we always keep contact with our sending organization YIC, and with the our supportive coordinator, we didn’t have any problems concerning visa and other documentation. After the pre-departure meeting, I had already a complete idea about the project.   The idea to be in a foreign country, where you don’t know anyone is not so difficult for me, ...

The opportunity of voluntary service in Europe was given us by Gyumri “Youth Initiative Centre” NGO which is one of the most active organizations in Gyumri actively engaged in youth mobility and in involving them in community. We are doing our EVS in Ozal, Croatia, which differs from all the other countries with its unique nature, castle and hydroelectric power plant, which is much more powerful than the castle itself. The outer look of the castle is quite modern: it has been reconstructed and has lost its soul. The river Cupe flows across the city next to the castle and the hydroelectric power plant is constructed on that river. The project we do is called A.L.I.V....

Skills are never too much. Skills provided by international experience are never enough. Once you did your first step in intercultural environment then you want more and more! I did my first EVS step on July 2018. It was time to challenge myself in a new country and forget a little bit about the comfort zone. I and my lovely friend Yelena succeeded together ''Language and Cultural Challenge'' EVS program in one of the lovely corners in Central Europe: Szeged, Hungary. In the framework of the EVS, we organized two summer camps for Hungarian teenagers. We taught them both our culture and English. The diversity of volunteers made the program richer. We all had different ages...

I am writing from my house, which is only 500 meters away from the places where I study and work. I would like to say that my daily routine is awesome. I work at University of Economy in Bydgoszcz, where we organize various events, trainings, seminars for international students, and also we organize and participate in "Erasmus+" Youth Exchange Program. I also work in the Museum of Photography, where we help to organize exhibitions, events, etc. Besides working, I study and I'm also engaged in sports. I can say that this will be one of the best and happiest years of my life.I am really happy to help these people. Thank you very much for giving me such a c...

I knock on the door and come in. It is the time of Turkish Club. One of the participants reads “sach uzu, acly kisa, then translates “long hair, short brain”. - Our elders also say so, - the other participants add with laughter and then continue reading. It has been 2 years since 2016 that Gyumri “Youth Initiative Centre” NGO has been implementing Turkish Club. The club leader is YIC member Karapet Ayvazyan, who has lived in Istanbul for several years and now shares his knowledge with the club's participants. He says everything started with one of YIC hiking days. This was the first time he got acquainted with the organization and came with the idea of...

For a long time, I had been appealing to different institutions, both governmental and non-governmental organisations, to participate in international programs, but for some reason, or sometimes, without reason, it was not possible to overcome the established competition threshold and all I got were… refusals. A good friend of mine, Gayane, who was well-informed about all my efforts and attempts, advised me to visit one organization in Gyumri. She, in fact, knew that organization's mission, fair and impartial working style. And of course she knew the staff, which, fortunately, was not the staff I imagined. The organization was Gyumri “Youth Initiative Centre” NG...

Do you know the movie Lost and Found in Armenia? Well, long story short it’s about this guy who, more or less randomly, ends up in Armenia. Unlike the protagonist of the movie who’s American, I’m from Denmark, or Dania as people like to call it here, and I didn’t get abducted by a plane while I was parachuting in Turkey, but just like him I suddenly found myself in an alien country with a strange language, culture, and customs. “How did I end up here?”, I kept asking myself in the start. Since the summer of 2016 where I participated in an international volunteer project in France, I knew that I wanted to spend my year before university abroad by volunteering...

  If you would have told me a year ago that I will sit now in an NGO office in Armenia I would probably start to laugh and tell you that you are crazy. Mainly because I never heard anything about Armenia and it was never a country I thought I will visit. But yeah, now I’m here. And I’m really happy about it. Armenia is really different (and sometimes really weird) from everything I know starting from the language to the public transport. I think the first cultural shock I had was when I saw the Marschrutkas. I remember me looking at them for the first time and thinking “What the hell is that?“ and this thought accompanied myself through the whole time ...

I have heard about YIC from my friends who lives in Gyumri and I started to follow their activities. It is already two years I have been interested in their activities but before, when I used to live and study in Yerevan, unfortunately I was not able to be involved in various activities and events. But I had a goal to come back to Gyumri and be involved in their activities as a volunteer because they have been focused on youth's problems in my lovely city. And finally in June 2016 a 4 days seminar was organized by Youth Initiative Center NGO with the support of RAM Ministry of Sport and Youth Affairs. The topic of the seminar was “ Youth work and Youth workers” and...