EVS Midterm evaluation

557941_10151626276974924_1366881025_nDuring the voluntary service period the volunteers have two trainings. The first one is when they arrive to the hosting country, that one is called “EVS On-arrival training” and then if their voluntary service lasts for 6 months or more, they have to attend the “EVS Midterm evaluation” as well.

In my case, my project is for 6 months, so between 09th to 12th April, I had my Midterm evaluation in Kočevje, the place in Slovenia where you can find bears! But lucky me, I didn’t see any ;)

It was four days with others volunteers addressing different themes like: My EVS so far, Hosting environment and me, The volunteering in the youth field, EVS as a learning experience, Strategies of good communications, Conflicts, Recognition of non-formal learning, Youthpass and The rest of my EVS life and coming home.

Our training was led by three trainers, Simona Muršec and Vesna Bitenc and also the EVS coordinator Jerneja Modic. About the volunteers, we were 10, from 3 differents countries: Portugal (2), Spain (4) and Germany (4).

During the training we discussed some practical information about EVS and we also discussed about personal questions like:

– What is there for me to be in Slovenia and in the local community?
– How is the environment? What is important to me?
– What is easier and more difficult? What could you do to change or how I can manage?
– How to use the seminar to help my learning and personal processes?
– What motivates me to be involved in youth organisations (or organisations working with youth) and what would it take to stay involved also after I finish the EVS?
– How will/would you use the competences gained during my EVS for myself and for the benefit of other young people back home?

At the beginning of the training I was not so motivated. Maybe because I was too tired and also because of the first impression that the rest of the group gave me.
But in the end, that idea changed. The group was growing, allowing that more unity and complicity were present. The themes were becoming interesting and the fatigue disappeared.

It was a great and enriching experience that allowed me to learn and understand some more important things about EVS and also about Slovenia and Slovenian people!

 
Ana Margarida,
the portuguese volunteer in MC ZOS ;)

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