Hi ! I am Charlotte, I am a volunteer from France and I am actually 21 years old. I finished last year a degree in art history. I pretty liked what I studied but I am interested by so many things that it seemed to me impossible to remain in this field. It’s the main reason why I lived during my three years of studying many other experiences, mainly inside associative field. I started working with children with scholar and behavioral problems in a poor neighborhood in Toulouse and I discovered that I really enjoy working with youngster, especially with ones who are excluded of the system.I went in Cameroun working with a French-Cameroonian to create a scholar help system in a disadvantaged area of Douala. Then, I came in Cambodge, working with the NGO Pour un Sourire d’Enfant. I was working there with really poor children who work grabbing trash or who were into sexual or drug traffics. These both experiences impacted deeply my life. It became quite obvious for me that I couldn’t come back and live my daily routine in France without carrying about others. I keep traveling, doing my last year of study in Erasmus in Portugal. After that, I was uncertain about what to do this year. I heard about Evs and I was immediately interested by this program, above all because I already know that I wanted to stop momentarily my studies. I started to check the projects, looking for what was proposed instead of destination. Indeed I love traveling and I believe that each place can enthrall me and that I have something nice to learn about everyone and every culture. I found then the Share volunteering project that attracted me immediately because it showed a really different way to act with youngster : instead of considering them as a target of a change, it was about teaching them to be actors of that change. So I am here !
I am working in the three school of Marasesti and the high school with three other volunteers from other European countries. I am learning a fourth language, which is amazing (yes, I speak actually English and Portuguese that is quite incredible for a French person) and I am discovering the Romanian culture which was completely unknown for me some months ago. The only fear that I had because to come here was about the winter, but I am pretty lucky because it wasn’t that cold this year ! I really enjoy to work in a little association and a little town because we know everyone and it’s easier to have an impact in the community. Moreover Marasesti is a poor place so Romanian people are always wondering why a French girl is actually spending her time in that area, which is funny for me because I like to be here because people are really welcoming and nice with us. Besides our association is like a little family and everyone, especially our mentor Alina did everything to make us feeling at home. She helps us a lot because she is coming with us at school and helps us to translate from English to Romanian our instructions. We do many different activities with children, which is what I like the most in our project. It’s really challenging because we must create new activities every week. We are developing with them actually some project about the main issue they face in their daily life like violence, pollution, poverty and homeless dogs. We make them think about these problems and about what can they actually do in order to improve their community life because they CAN do it !
Vezi și versiunea în română a articolului.
