More Than Just a Volunteer

 Working in Ukraine

My colleges from Pangeya Ulitma

The working day of an ESC volunteer heavily depends on one's ambition and their NGO's projects. Some volunteers may have a typical nine to five job, whereas others may work primary in the evening. For me, it's a nice mix of both where I do get a flexible work day preparing to teach and run actives at night. Some of the actives and class are composed of the following:

Language and Cultural Clubs

My main activity for this project is preparing weekly language and culture clubs both in English and in Dutch. With these clubs I try to build a lesson plan based on the communicative learning method and instead of testing the students for prior knowledge, I give a small lesson on a topic related to either the Netherlands or an Anglo country. From this we learn interesting facts or new vocabulary that will lead into a speaking exercise. This will allow the students to have a chance to practice speaking either Dutch or English.

First lesson at Anglo Club

 

Photo Club 

My main responsibility in this project is managing the photographers. I make sure that their is a topic, someone to present the topic and upload any photos members wish to share. In future, I will organize a few exhibitions and also a photo competition to complement the learning we do in the photography club.

Second Lesson at Dutch Club

 

Political Engagement and Debating Club

During the preparation of this project I and my colleague Oleg - a local member of Vinnytsia debating club - had an idea to teach participants the debating, so that we could grow the group into a place where we debate political topics in a constructive way. Sadly, there was not as much enthusiasm for this as I and my colleague Oleg had. Therefore, we have decided to change our approach and create a series of training weekends. Where we will combine the training for partaking in international debating tournaments and public speaking in English. We hope this new approach will still achieve our original objects while attracting a wider audience.

Debate Club
 

Creative Writing and Media Production 

This is by far turning into my favourite project and the one I feel I can learn the most from. This project is divided into two main areas of focus. One area is leading a creative writing group and helping people find their inner writer through exercise and giving feedback on their work. Our main goal with this project is to publish a book made up of the short stories created by those who part took in this learning journey. The second area of focus is writing articles about the history and the intercultural aspects of the city of Vinnytsia. The format of personation for this project is still in its planning stage with the City Council, but, hopefully, an official record of this work will be published somewhere officially.

Event of our first Creative Writing Event

To Conclude

 I am very excited about the writing aspects of my work and the  learning defiantly a lot about how to mange multiple projects and events. I did not expect to make up a large part of the work while working at an NGOs. If you are reading this and think 'Wow, what a lot of work' you would be correct as this is easily a full work load. However, I want to make the most out of my ESC and would like to try as many different things in order to slowly narrow down what I like doing and hope, maybe to make a career out of the skills I have learnt during my ESC.  

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