Fondi Strutturali Europei - Programma Operativo Nazionale "Per la scuola, competenze e ambienti per l'apprendimento" 2014-2020. Asse I – Istruzione. Obiettivo specifico 10.2. – Azione 10.2.5 – Sottoazione 10.2.5.B. Avviso pubblico Prot. AOODGEFID/prot. n. 3781 del 5/4/2017 per il potenziamento dei percorsi di alternanza scuola-lavoro, tirocini e stage. Codice Progetto: 10.2.5.B-FSEPON-LA-2017-16
Liceo Scientifico Statale “Aristotele” Progetto di Alternanza Scuola Lavoro all’estero “Meet, Speak, Work”
“Everyone Has A Story To Tell…” Testimonianze dal mondo del volontariato raccolte dagli studenti durante uno stage di alternanza scuola lavoro a Chester, UK
David’s Story During my working experience at the Oxfam shop in Bridge Street I had the chance to work with many different volunteers. They’ve been all very kind and friendly with me and I had a great time there. But David F. has been much more than a colleague to me. He’s been an inspiration and a friend. We’ve spent hours and hours talking. I never thought a 75-years-old English man and a 17-years-old Italian girl could have so much to talk about. But I was wrong. He used to work in an oil society and he has travelled all around the world: he’s been literally everywhere! Think about a place: he’s been there. For example, when he was 50 he started to fix a boat in his free time and two years later he was crossing the Atlantic Ocean on it! Isn’t that the craziest thing you’ve ever heard about? Then he spent two years in the Caribbean islands, but then his wife got cancer and they had to get back to England. His wife died a short time later. But he’s not sad about it, he said that he feels blessed that the last period together was the most beautiful of his whole life. That’s inspirational and totally a goal. Differently from most people who have to face a loss, he didn’t lose his optimistic spirit and didn’t stop travelling. Since he saw the world and saw poverty all around the world, he decided to be a part of the Oxfam team. He’s been volunteering for 3 years now. He wants to make a difference. And I’ve never seen someone that proud of his work. He will always warm your heart smiling and making you feel at home.
The best thing about volunteering in his opinion is to make a difference, to make someone happy even for a minute, to be kind. He doesn’t do it for a profit, he does it because he’s been everywhere, he knows the world , and making people happy somehow is the most important thing in his opinion. I feel blessed I had the chance to meet him. There are few people like him in the world, and I tried to make the most of my time with him, trying to learn the most. One of those persons I will talk about in my future. I can’t even find the right words to explain how meeting David has been lifechanging for me.
Federica
Deborah’s Story While I was working at the Share Shop in Chester I had the pleasure of meeting one of the many volunteers at the shop, her name was Deborah. She was a kind soul, and she made my working experience much more enjoyable, since she was always there in case I needed help. When the shop was quiet and not many people were coming in, we used to talk about our lives , so we got to know each other a lot. I’ve always been interested in volunteering and the reasons that pushed people to help those in need, so one day I asked her the motives behind her becoming part of this organization, and the answer was pretty moving. She told me that she had been lucky enough to have been born in a loving, supporting family, but unfortunately not everyone is given the same chance. She explained to me that we don’t get to choose the family we’re born in: some people have to live inside a nightmare where there’s no roof on their heads, no food to eat and no bed to sleep in, but by being one of the lucky ones, she decided to help others by joining a charity shop. Her favourite part about being a volunteer was the interaction that she had with people, whether they were colleagues or people looking for help. She told me she loved talking to those in need, because there’s something about simple, heartfelt communication that takes people’s minds away from their problems and eases their pain.
The most rewarding thing of being a volunteer is seeing for yourself the change that your volunteering actions bring to people: you have the chance of seeing people get better because of your help, you get stopped in the street by people who once looked helpless, but eventually got back on their feet because of you, and they thank you for your help, and there’s nothing more rewarding than that, she said.
Francesca
Steve’s Story During my experience at the charity Scope in Chester I interviewed a volunteer who works there all the year, called Steve. He was born in Southport, which is a little town in the north-west of England, but he grew up in Chester, so he has actually lived all this life in Chester. He has many hobbies but his favourite one is cycling. He has been practising cycling since he was three years old and now he also watches cycling races on the
television. He likes reading,
too. His favourite topic is history, in fact he is so interested in the history of his country that he keeps saying that “Chester has an important history that makes it a picturesque town”. Steve started volunteering five years ago with the main aim of making a new experience because, as he said, “volunteering is the easiest way to make experience at work and to start off and build up your working career”. For him volunteering is a sort of school, where you can learn new things and improve your skills without the use of books. But during his time as a volunteer he has discovered a new world founded on helping others and donating oneself. In fact now he loves volunteering, as he can be part of a big organization and with all the other volunteers he can help disabled people just with the fact of donating a bit of his free time. Obviously he hopes to progress his career finding a paid job but for now he thinks that volunteering here in Scope is the best place to stay and make experience.
In conclusion I can say that, after this experience I agree with Steve: volunteering is the best way to make experience helping others.
Matteo
Nina’s Story During my experience at the Hoole Community Centre I had the chance of meeting many volunteers and many of them were foreign people who had moved to United Kingdom. One of them is called Nina, she is 41 and she is from Bulgaria. Nina moved to England 13 years ago with her children but she definitely settled in Chester just 2 years ago. She has 3 children to care for, many jobs to earn a living for her family and therefore a very busy life, but anyway she always finds the time to volunteer at the Hoole Community Centre at least twice a week. She told me that for her volunteering is an important aspect in her life. First of all ,she feels important and useful for the community and as she is an immigrate, she wants to give back to the community what the community gave her when she came here. She said that she found in the centre the warm welcoming she needed when she moved
in a completely new world
together with her family. The center helped her taking care of her children when she had to do long working hours or, through their cheap courses, offering the children the possibility to do many activities they couldn’t have afforded in private schools or clubs. Moreover there were many cheap language lessons at different levels, which offered her and her family a way to integrate better and faster in the community when they stated to handle the English language better.
She found that also the Hoole Centre Hobson’s Cafè is very important in that area of town. Chester is a quite expensive city, while the Hoole Centre Hobson’s Cafè offers cheap meals to everyone. Now she has got used to the new life and she doesn’t need the help of the centre anymore, but she feels that now it is her turn to make something good and help people who are living hardships as those suffered by her and her family.
Marta
Ronnie ‘s Story
Ronnie Passley was born 40 years ago in West Germany. His father, Jamaican, was a soldier while his mother comes from Saint Kitts and Nevis. Ronnie’s family moved to England when he was 5 years old and he has been living there since then. For this reason he feels totally English, despite the fact that, as he told me, he grew up following the Caribbean traditional culture. He spent his childhood in Leeds, before moving to Newcastle, where he studied art at university, and finally to Chester over 13 years ago. Now Ronnie is working as a teaching assistant and trainee teacher at Cheshire College South and West. When we met up for the first time, Ronnie immediately seemed to me a sociable, kind and enjoyable person and now, after a few afternoons spent together, I am certain about it. I helped him with a big painting that will be hung in the main hall of the Wesley Church Centre in Chester, where Ronnie has been volunteering for a couple of years. He mainly makes paintings representing his deep sense of community and struggle for equality, coming as a volunteer to the Centre every Monday and Thursday. When I asked him why he had decided to enrol as a volunteer, Ronnie surprised me by answering that he just wanted to feel part of a community by doing what he loves: art. He confessed to me that he is not even a committed
Christian, but he believes in universal equality and unity and that is what really matters to him.
Matteo
Gwyneth’s Story
With this article I want to tell the story of a person I’ve been working with for two weeks. It is a story of a woman, Gwyneth, who worked as a volunteer in Oxfam charity shop. She was born in Wales many years ago in a family where strict laws reigned and signed her childhood.Infact she tell us she lived following every day a preset schedule. This is the main reason why she decided to join the charity shop staff. She left Wales because of marriage and she started working in a real estate company. Due to many disagreements with the manager she decided to leave her job and after a while she became a baker but she resigned her dismissions few months later. Then she arrived in Chester full of new feelings. She tought about it a lot but ,in the end, she decided to start a new chapter of her life. Since she wanted to escape from the routine that distinguished her infancy, she took the decision of work for Oxfam. She has been working in the charity shop since 1997 and she still loves doing it. As Gwyneth says, there are many advantages on working here: chatting with people, socializing with everyone, doing every day new duties and ,above all, working for charity ,without earning nothing for more than twenty years.
This is a tiny part of her life linked with the Oxfam’s experience of which I’ve been part for a little while.
Pierluigi
Debby’s Story In my work experience in the hospice of the good Shepherd I had the opportunity to meet many people and talk with them about their lives and experiences. I've listened to many different stories but the one which impressed me the most is the one told by my manager, Debby, who has been working in the charity shop for three years. She started volunteering after her father passed away after a long illness in the Hospice of the Good Sheperd. Since that moment she had the feeling that she had something to give back to the hospice and to the community which supported the hospice itself. She had been once an employee in a big company and decided to leave it all after a career which had lasted 30 years , to work in this little and cozy shop surrounded by other volunteers who shared the same passion to help other people. She actually said that what she most likes about her job is the warm atmosphere and the kind people who she works with, always ready to help and support each other in a mutual and heartwarming relationship. People generally wonder why volunteers choose to donate some of their free time receiving apparently nothing back. I finally understood that the issue isn't actually about how much money they receive, because after all they don't care.
The most important thing for those admirable people is the satisfaction and the sensation of fulfilment which comes back to you after doing something good for other people.
Ludovica
Taylor’s Story Taylor is a guy I worked with during my work experience in Chester, in the Claire House, a charity shop just next to the Bus Interchange. He's 17, but he left school, because his life is different from mine, or from our idea of a normal everyday life, and that's why he particularly attracted my attention and my interest. Few years ago, Taylor started suffering from depression, and that made his school life very hard. So, last year he decided to leave school, since in England compulsory schools is until 16 years of age In June, he started volunteering for the Claire House, finding out suddenly how nice it was to work with other people and how appreciated his efforts were. For the very first time in his life he felt motivated about something: motivated by the fact that the fundraising he was helping to foster was for a good reason, motivated by seeing how happy he could make people feel, people who often feel alone, just speaking with them for a few minutes. He also noticed how helpful it was for his personal situation: volunteering gave him a sense of accomplishment he had never had, and made him start to interact with people. At the end of the day, Taylor finally found his way. Every morning he wakes up in his small village 7 miles away from Chester, he takes the bus for 1 hour and he starts working and doing what he loves.
He also started an afternoon school, to complete what he should have done in the last few years. I’m sure now he is a completely different student.
Andrea
Fatima’s Story
Fatima da Silva Perez was born in 1976 in Portugal. Her father was a pottery seller, while her mother was unemployed because she had to take care of Fatima’s four younger sisters. Their economic situations was very difficult and they didn’t have enough money to survive, so when Fatima was 11 years old she was compelled to start working. She started working for a cobbler, helping him repairing shoes , bags and stuff. She only worked during the afternoon, because during the morning she still had to go to school. Fatima was a responsible young woman and she knew how important studying was for her future life, notwithstanding those difficult economic conditions she was living in the present, so she kept studying even during her working sessions. She hadn’t great marks in scientific subjects, but she loved studying English and she was quite good. She followed English language courses during all her High school period and when she finished her compulsory studies, she decided to move to England to look for a job. She used the money she had carefully saved during the previous years to pay the journey and she moved to Chester in 1986. Initially she was hosted by a friend she had known the year before during a cultural exchange. She luckily found job in less than one month and she started working for Barnardo’s.
Ten years later she got married with Jake, the friend who had hosted her at the beginning of her adventure in the U.K. and from whom she won’t separate. They’re now happy together, economically stable and they have a wonderful daughter.
Francesco and Gabriele
Penny’s Story
Working at The Port Grocery Store in Ellesmere Port near Chester, we had the pleasure of meeting several people from quite many different backgrounds. At the end of the first week we had a significant encounter. We met a tiny little woman showing Asian traits . At first, she was a bit on her own as she seemed too shy to even try to talk to anyone, but then we decided to take the first step. We changed immediately our minds! She was very friendly and even thanked us to have talked to her in the first place as she would never have done that alone. Her name was Penny and that was her first day at the shop. Initially we assumed she was from China or a country as such, but then we discovered that she had come from the United States, as she had been living there almost all her life, having moved there when she was only 3. She had married a British man who worked as a manager in a famous international company, and so, when he had to come back to England, she decided to leave the country she had been always living in to follow him for love. In the United States, before moving to Great Britain, she had worked for a big automobile company. Arrived in her new house in Ellesmere Port, she found herself without anything to do. This is the reason why she decided to have a look around in order to find a job she would have been happy of doing. After one month of research she came across The Port Grocery, a local enterprise that has as main purpose the fight against food waste, therefore she decided to join in to get involved in helping Ellesmere’s community.
Federico and Saverio
Conclusions and Thanks
Following the suggestions of the Human Library Movement and the teaching methodology of Storytelling, it came the idea to collect simple people’s stories: their experiences, their reasons to be volunteering in Chester. The main aim was to invite young people to listen to and sympathize with other people’s lives, overcoming linguistic, cultural and generational gaps. The students discovered how beautiful it was to get to know people not through a social network, but in real life, sharing a day’s work, a sandwich, a smile. The interaction was spontaneous and authentic, not biased by the need to answer a questionnaire on a form. This research has taught to the students and to me many useful lessons: that life goes on in bends and turns, that difficult moments can be overcome with the help of others and everyone, giving a bit of its time, can make a difference in somebody’s life. We have so much to thank for! I want to thank my group of students for their enthusiasm and commitment in the success of this project and really hope they will treasure their Chester experience in their memories in the years to come.
Prof.ssa Claudia Fontana