Taking the smallest steps to achieve the biggest dreams
--------------------Reeli Jantson 20 years / Estonia â–şâ–şEVS in Romania 2011
Every volunteer is a dreamer. They dream of equality, justice, solidarity and understanding between people; as well as of sustainable ecosystem and enough resources for everybody. In brief, they dream of a better world. They cannot stand the misery and suffering of others, they feel the need to take action and to change something. They have the social sensitivity that keeps them from just sitting back and watching another day go by, without showing a sign of better future. I was feeling the same, when I started my European Voluntary Service in Romania in August 2011. We were a group of six volunteers, all of us having big plans and loads of motivation. The main theme of the project was environment, and since the first time we walked the streets of our new hometown we started recognizing problems, waiting to be solved: homeless dogs wondering around small mountains of garbage amongst abandoned houses; over-usage of packaging in shops and markets; pollution of the river and unhealthy drinking water in the tap; and so on and so forth. We started brainstorming and gathering ideas to find solutions. Being ambitious and having the picture of a totally reborn city in our minds, we were so impatient to start the action. Unfortunately, one after another the obstacles started to appear on our way. First and foremost, we realized that our vision of the project was not the same as of our hosting organization. All of us had expected to start working in an environmental NGO with essential tools and competent people, but instead of that we just found ourselves in an association that promotes the opportunities in European Union. Although this made saving the world, or in this case, our new Scriptamanent #3
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