Volunteering around the world

 I’ve been a volunteer for over ten years now and I have participated workshop that Educational centre Kadis 2002 has organized for volunteers. My first steps into volunteering shoes were connected with one of the elderly people’s homes in Ljubljana where I was going once a week to give company to a nice old lady that was living there.After finishing high school I oriented more into international volunteering – volunteering where one of the biggest emphasis is on intercultural learning and exploration of different cultures through voluntary work. 

I started visiting international voluntary workcamps, organized by international organization Service Civil International (SCI), which totally hooked me so I participated in one camp every summer. Work on my camps was very different, from helping with organization of international ethno festival in a small village in Belgium, helping with renovation of autonomous production center in Berlin or painting a big storage house with natural red paint in an almost forgotten little village in the middle of Finnish countryside. Each of those experiences was very rewarding and made me learn about many things in life; about local cultures where the camps were taking place, about different working methods and last but not least – it enabled me to meet people from all around the world, make friendships with them and have a night-lasting discussions on many various interesting topics, which also broadened my minds for sure.

After more than 6 different workcamps and half year long European Voluntary Service that I made in Finland I can say that volunteering has changed me to quiet a big extent and influenced my way of thinking, where not everything has to be connected with money and efficiency. I have realized that some of the best possible working atmospheres is when everybody is doing things together with the same intentions, when there’s no talking about the money but about a common goal that becomes a part of everybody from the group.

And after all, volunteering gave me many things, from good work experience to improved social and communication skills, therefore I actually cannot really call volunteering a free work, but something rather different, inspiring and fruitful.

Maruša Vukelić