Nicosia, the largest city on the island of Cyprus, has hosted, starting with the beginning of November 2017 and ending with the last days of April 2018, an EVS focused on Youth Activities.
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| Being warmly welcomed |
A total of 15 participants that came from Romania (Eduard, Victor and Ramona), Italy (Sofia, Massimo, Alice), Greece (Christina), UK (Fiona), Ireland (Caolan), Armenia (Julieta), Ukraine (Alex) and Portugal (Ruben, Joao, Constanca), formed 3 different project teams: Youth for Youth, Youth for Sport and Youth Edutainment.
The Youth for Youth 4 (4th generation of EVS) had, as main task, creating events to tackle youth topics such as unemployment, money management, social inclusion, international opportunities, entrepreneurship, cultural development. Other activities were: weekly radio shows, cooking for us and the other volunteers, private Greek classes, various trainings, writing on the EVS Blog (you can check the articles here) and taking care of the Youth Center where the participants had most of their 7 hour-a-day work.
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| The team |
The EVS was a great opportunity to experience other cultures, with a lot of benefits included: getting trained by the National Agency (about EVS, Youthpass, ERASMUS+ and other European programs), having accommodation and transportation covered in Nicosia, being given pocket and food money, Private Medical Insurance and the YouthPass certificate at the end of the project.
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| Experiencing different cultures |
Here is what Ramona thought of the experience:
"All in all, it was an interesting experience, I learned about myself and others, I grew as a person and I became a more informed European citizen. I highly recommend EVS (or the future European Solidarity Corps) to all young people, even if it can be difficult at times. It will be worth it!
Working with so many different people, ages from 18 to 30, made me more flexible in thinking, patient when needed, but at the same time more assertive. I needed to work on my patience as it is not easy living and working with people from different backgrounds. I became more assertive as I realized my personal time is quite a precious resource and I have the liberty to spend it as I see fit."
Find out more information and opinions about EVS here.