Dealing with Coronavirus as an European Solidarity Corps Volunteer

DEALING WITH CORONAVIRUS AS AN EUROPEAN SOLIDARITY CORPS VOLUNTEER

WHO WE ARE

EUROPEAN SOLIDARITY CORPS

AWA • Active Women Association is a nongovernmental and nonprofit organization which goal is to promote social inclusion and empowerment of vulnerable groups such as youth, seniors, women and and minorities. They actively promote tolerance, gender equality and civic society values.

The main channels they work through are: nonformal education, social campaigns, networking & coalitions, strategic learning partnerships, lobbying, advocacy and counselling. Since 2002, AWA has been actively engaged in different projects in North Africa, Asia and Europe.

The European Solidarity Corps (ESC) is the new European Union initiative, which creates opportunities for young people to volunteer or work in projects in their own country or abroad that benefit communities and people around After completing a simple registration process, european territory.

ESC participants could be selected and invited to join a wide range of projects, such as helping to prevent natural disasters or rebuild afterwards, assisting in centres for asylum seekers, or addressing different social issues in communities, usually in the EU state members.

PROFESSIONALS DANIEL Teacher Daniel is one of the braves who had the courage to leave his job at the university and start from scratch as a teacher in a primary school. It's easy to share his decission when you spend just five or ten minutes with him. The way he understands learning is far from traditional methodology, and it is not strange to find tools like hammers or saws during his lessons. Hiking is one of his passions, but he also enjoys water a lot and even has turned paddle-surfing into a new religion. Daniel is not only a teacher, but a student too: during these last months he has been improving his Spanish with the idea to go back to the country he fell in love with more than twenty years ago.

HOW DID CORONAWIRUS AFFECTED DANIEL'S WORK? CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO

ANIA AWA Being a volunteer during one year in Germany changed Ania's life perspective, until the point she has decided to work helping others to start their own projects. Gratuated by Jagiellonian University, she has turned her studies in anthropology and sociology into a way to change the stereotype some Polish have about foreigners: “They must learn that 'the others', although they don't speak Polish, aren't monsters!". After working hard in a task that many people consider titanic even nowadays, AWA's coordinator likes to spend time in the nature, the most effective way to escape from the city, breath some new air and come back again to the routine full of energy.

VOLUNTEERS ANA Georgia Life is like a film: sometimes good, sometimes bad. That's the easiest —and also the most precise— way to describe Ana, a lover of the seventh art and everything which is related to. Graduated in Business Administration in Tourism and Hospitality, she was working for a while in a travel agency until she decided to quit and look for new challenges. For her, Poland was just a coincidence: “I loved the project and wanted to know about alternative methods of teaching. So I chose according to the project, not to the country”. Although the future is not clear yet, she is now spending most of her time reading articles and blogs about democratic education

HOW DID CORONAWIRUS AFFECTED ANA'S WORK? CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO

DAVID HOW DID CORONAWIRUS AFFECTED DAVID'S WORK? CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO

Spain Under that armor made by honor and straightness, we can find a good friend and a simple man. His year in Israel as a soldier, living and breathing the war, has changed him in a way he could never expect; but he also learnt that, even in hell, there is always a ray of hope. Unconditional fan of a sport based on cooperation like football, David prefers to go on his own and build a path for himself. That's why he felt more than surprised when he attended as a special needs teacher for the first time: his pupils saw beyond the mask that covers his face and found a mine of empathy, understanding and willingness to help the others.

CLARA HOW DID CORONAWIRUS AFFECTED CLARA'S WORK? CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO

Spain As a specialist in sign language, Clara has dealt with many difficult situations; but she always finds the way to build a bridge between human beings and carry on, making perseverance and patience her main values. Working as a teacher has made her look always for new ways of leraning, turning education into a complex process of feedbak quite different from traditional classes. She is also a bleeding heart, specially with her homeland: there is not major who defends Lugo in a better way. If you ask her about what should life be, the answer will be clear: enjoying nature, reading poetry from time to time and having a drink with Janis Joplin on the background.

MUBERRA TURKEY Who could say that a mech engineer would end up teaching girls and boys with special needs? After four long years working between machines, MĂźb decided to take a break and do something "totally different". Why Poland? She was in the country as a Erasmus student and fell in love. Travelling is one of her passions, as she always try to seize any little amount of time to take her backpack and go to the unknow. Actually, many of her friends were once strangers in a unexplored place. To make "a better world" for everyone is one of her dreams, something she considers impossible if people don't go abroad and experience different cultures and ways of life.

HOW DID CORONAWIRUS AFFECTED MUBERRA'S WORK? CLICK HERE TO WATCH A VIDEO