EVS on arrival training!

From 9 to 13 of june I took part to EVS on arrival training in Izmir.

We were 42 volunteers from all Europe, mostly of them are doing or are going to start EVS in Ankara, Istanbul, Antalya, Mersin or Gaziantep.

The goal of on arrival training is to provide volunteers with tools and information they might need during the project; it is about to inform  rights and responsabilities and introduce us to the social and culture realities  of the country.

In this five days we had different sessions and we discussed about different topics to make better understand what EVS is.

The four trainers introduced all the EVS aspects  throught non-formal education and we spoke about the role of Hosting organization,  sending organization, coordinating organization and National Agency.

They explained about the financial management of the EVS project, gave infos about the Country (Turkey in this case) and made games for team building  activities  for the group.

They suggested how to behave in case of conflicts or problems  and gave us recommends for reach personal goals and learning plan.

It was interesting to see how some volunteers have differents reactions towards similar situations according to their personaity and cultural background.

 We were mainly learning from each other by sharing our ideas. It was such a nice experience for me because for first time I am here I could  meet with others volunteers like me. I also discovered that there is a french girl doing Evs in Izmir since when I came and a greek boy that is just arrived one week ago. It was very important for me sharing ideas and listen to different opinion because most of all the time I do not have the possibilty to share my feeling with somebody in my same position.

On Thursday, we also had an excurision to Şirince

near Izmir, a village famous for wine production.

As the group was very big sometimes it happend that during conversation not everybody agreed with the same idea and it caused little arguments but the most important is that each one had the possibility to share their own  opinon and personal beliefs.

During sessions we also understood that mostly of the volunteers work with projects related to people. I do not know if because everybody like this subject or because Turkey associations create more projects about it. 

It was impossible to have good feeling with everybody but I am sure that with few of them I created such a nice and true friendship and for sure we will see each other again.

You can contact with us clicking one our facebook group.