OUR EUROPEAN VOLUNTARY SERVICE by Moritz Matern Paula

OUR EUROPEAN VOLUNTARY SERVICE by Moritz Matern, Paula Blömers, Marko Birkic

What is EVS? • Part of the Youth in Action programme • Allows young people aged 18 -30 to spend from 2 to 12 months volunteering abroad • Voluntary activities in various fields, such as culture, youth, social care, cultural heritage, sports, environment, etc.

What is EVS? • IT’S FREE! – Covers board and lodging, insurance and allowance for the duration of the project • Involving different NGOs, local or regional public bodies, and profit making bodies active in the field of volunteering, youth, culture or sport

What is EVS? • Involved more than 50 000 young volunteers since its launch in 1996 • EVS aims at enhancing active citizenship, solidarity and mutual understanding among young people • Volunteers can acquire new skills and improve their personal, educational and professional development.

How to apply? • EVS relies on a strong partnership between sending organisations, host organisations and volunteers • EVS database

Reasons for applying • A completely different world to discover and experience while doing some good for the local community and developing new skills

Description of the project • „Learning active citizenship” – group EVS • Working with kids in an IDP-Community (Internally Displaced People) • People flew from the border to Armenia / the region of Nagorny Karabagh • Lived in Baku since then in the communities • Are excluded from society (most of parents are unemployed) • Vicious circle

Our task in the project • We are teaching the kids in the afternoon (after proper school) • We have different workshops • Overall aim: to gain confidence in the kids and spread european spirit • Break through vicious circle

How are we proceeding? • At the moment we have 4 workshops – Arts, Drama, English and Sports • We have one „classroom“ where we can work in • In each class there about 6 -7 kids

Baku

The clash between new and old Baku

- Architecture: Soviet buildings, grey areas vs. Lightened buildings, lots of fancy fountains (city center vs. outer areas of the city) - Mentality: Smoking and drinking for women, family hierarchy, marriage. . .

Baku- “City of crazy traffic“

Traffic rules 1. There are no rules except for traffic lights 2. No gap is too small to not fit through with your car 3. Two marked lines mean: Here at least four lines 4. Blinkers are there to flash others 5. Honking does not mean: “Attention!”, it means: “I am not stopping, so get moving”, also it might be a status symbol 6. Crosswalks don’t matter 7. Pedestrians don’t need to care about the traffic and start walking