Claudia's experience in Bulgaria
28.11.2019
My ESC (European Solidarity Corps) project at the association “International Initiatives for Cooperation,” located in Razlog (Bulgaria), began in March 2019. The main focus of the project I worked on was the organization of activities for the local community, especially through the use of non-formal education methods. Together with other volunteers, I was involved in organizing activities for children, adolescents, and adults, as well as additional activities that helped strengthen our civic spirit, teamwork skills, creativity, and expressiveness.
During the first months, the activities I was involved in mainly concerned non-formal education for children at a primary school in Razlog and Italian language lessons for adults. As for the latter, at the beginning I faced some difficulties because, first of all, not speaking Bulgarian, I had to conduct the lessons in English, and moreover I was a beginner as a teacher. Over time, however, I improved (both in my level of Bulgarian and in my teaching skills), and now that I am at the end of my ESC experience, I can say that the Italian lessons are one of the most fruitful activities I have been involved in.
Regarding non-formal education activities, during the first months (from March to May) we were not able to offer high-quality activities, as there was a lack of a leader who could organize the topics to be addressed and plan the activities to be carried out. Other activities we took part in included preparing handicrafts for Easter and visiting a retirement home, where we shared meaningful moments with the elderly (for example, cooking banitza, a typical Bulgarian pastry).
BANITZA & PAINTED EGGS FOR BULGARIAN EASTER
During the summer months, we focused on organizing a summer camp for children in the center of Razlog. Thanks to this activity, I further developed my skills, especially my confidence in working with children, creativity, expressiveness, communication skills, flexibility, and teamwork. We organized many interesting and engaging activities, such as treasure hunts, obstacle courses, simple scientific experiments, and arts and crafts using recycled materials (tetrapaks, plastic bottles, toilet paper rolls).
Between July and September there was a significant turnover of volunteers, which meant that I found myself being the most “senior” volunteer. This greatly contributed to the development of my leadership and group management skills. In mid-October we started going back to school, and the academic year began very well because, with the new group of volunteers, we developed a new organizational methodology. This approach involves choosing a weekly theme and planning activities related to it. Among the topics we covered were recycling, science, Halloween, and interculturality (taking advantage of the fact that we all come from different European countries).
In addition, we started visiting an orphanage to spend time with the children, who are always very happy to see us and spend time with us. A few weeks ago, we also started English lessons for kindergarten children, a completely new activity that has nevertheless proved to be very rewarding. Another regular activity we are involved in is helping the staff of a local center for people with disabilities paint statues to be sold at markets. Personally, I have never had great artistic skills, but I enjoy this activity because painting helps me to concentrate.
During these months we carried out many other activities, and a single article would not be enough to describe them all. I participated in the on-arrival and mid-term training, through which I met many volunteers from other cities in Bulgaria, with whom I shared trips, weekends together, as well as projects and ideas. I traveled a lot and had the opportunity to see beautiful places in Bulgaria and the Balkans, and to get to know local people.
I met many people here in Razlog who introduced me to Bulgarian culture and with whom I will certainly stay in touch after the end of my ESC project. And it does not end here: we carried out many other fruitful and interesting activities. We organized several intercultural evenings in Razlog (Spanish, Italian, Bulgarian, and Jordanian themed), during which we shared food, drinks, and traditional dances from our countries. I volunteered at the Gay Pride in Sofia; together with our team and some local teenagers, we took part in Bulgaria’s Cleaning Day campaign and cleaned a forest in Razlog; and we also had the opportunity to dance in front of the people of Razlog by preparing a truly nice and engaging show featuring traditional dances from all our countries of origin.
Claudia Pecoraro
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