Romania seen through the eyes of a Palestinian ESC volunteer

 

Romania seen through the eyes of a Palestinian ESC volunteer

Dear readers,

    I am Ahd Jaradat from Palestine, volunteer in Ramnicu Valcea, - ,,Solidarity for Nature'' project.

    I would like to talk about my experience in Romania with Europe Solidarity Corps.

    First I will talk little about Romania as a country, Romania country of southeastern Europe.  The national capital is Bucharest. Romania was under Soviet influence after the end of the World War II. Free elections were held in 1990; in 2007 it became a member of the European Union (EU).

    Romanian landscape is approximately one-third mountainous and one-third forested, with the remainder made up of hills and plains. The climate is temperate and marked by four distinct seasons. Romania enjoys a considerable wealth of natural resources: fertile land for agriculture; pastures for livestock; forests that provide hard and soft woods; petroleum reserves; metals, including gold and silver; numerous rivers , More than 15 rivers, the most important is the Danube river the longest one in the world. And a Black Sea coastline that is the site of both ports and resorts.

European Solidarity Corps ( ESC) :

    I Joined with an International volunteering Program in Romania country, with European Solidarity Corps ( ESC).  my goals through my Participation are to develop my career qualification on workshops management and social work activities with the schools and increase the natural awareness for the students, so I worked with my team monthly to put our plan during our meetings, our plan contains the activities that we have to do it through the months, our partners like schools or youth centers, monthly reports and newsletters for the work evaluation.

    The Name of the Program that I am participated with: Solidarity for Nature, I am a part of a group of volunteers coming from different countries and with different backgrounds. We were working in Vâlcea County in order to help local communities moving towards a sustainable future.

    The PROJECT: main goal is to contribute protecting the environment and to promote ecological education.  Participants Countries: Palestine/ Jordan / Morocco / Tunis/ Spain/ Turkey.

    The most important activities that I was working in are, workshops and lecture courses, we discussed important topics such as claiming changes especially in Europe and the high temperature in Romania as an example which become the most important issues that they are suffering from.  We were very interesting in the subject of the recycling and to teach the student about it, through visiting companies and factories are working on recycling, such as electronic tools, computers and fridges. Moreover, we coordinated for the cleaning campaigns in local gardens and parks and planting the land. On the other hand, we saw that activity of the hiking in the natural places such as hills and mountains with local community in Romania on of essential activity, because this activity teaches the participants meaning of the responsibility and respects. We can’t forget this activity teaches us the meaning of the time and how we can use it for positive consequences.

    On the other hand, I would like to talk about this activity as a personal experience, how this experience impact positively in my personality, it made me more in depended person, take the decision  by myself, think and to choose the right for me, the ability to find the solutions for what situation I face.  We know our life full of experiences and surprises.  To live alone far away from your family and community, that mean you have to be strong enough to face all the challenges that you would face, you will meet good and bad people, maybe at first you will expect that everyone will help you, if you faced problem or bad situation, I would like to tell you, Not all the people are angels or as you expected them to be, so you have to be strong to accept this fact.

    Through my experience I met a lot of people from different countries and cultures, languages. I decided to develop my language through open decisions and conversations, culture exchange and know more about European Culture and Romanian culture through participated in Cultural days  with my program and Palestinian Embassy activity for culture, and I can’t forget my social  participation with Romanian group for the Hiking in the mountains on holidays and participated with National Cinema for movies and plays.

 

    Thank you for your listening, I hope you get great time. I wish you all success and suppressing opportunities

 

Un articol de Ahd Jaradat , voluntar în cadrul Corpului European de Solidaritate.