Merhaba, Salut, Szia, Zdravo, Zdravei, Moi and most importantly Živijo from the 10 brand new EVS volunteers here at Zagorje Youth Center! We will be here for the next 25 days to spice up Zagorje and our own lives, creating beautiful gardens and acquainting the local people with our cultures. But firstly you would ask, what is EVS? EVS stands for European Voluntary Service, which is funded by the European Commission´s Erasmus+ Programme, whereby young people from all over Europe can travel to a new country, where they can spend from 1 month to 1 year as volunteers on a project of their choice. We are thrilled to be spending this month right here in Zagorje!
Why did we choose to come here? Well, this project will be a great opportunity for us to learn more about gardening, to share our cultures, to gain loads of new knowledge and skills, to make good friends and most importantly to experience how it is to live in Slovenia and especially Zagorje! We have already spent 1 week filled with activities in this lovely town. Firstly we spend a couple of days getting to know each other and Zagorje and also learning how to live and work with people from different cultures. We share 3 houses here in Zagorje so don´t be surprised if you see some foreigners wandering around in Špar or Saloon! Then we spent two days and an adventurous evening with a trainer from Ljubljana, where we bonded as a team through fun games and brainstorming. Last but not least we spent a morning with the Srednja Šola Zagorje students, where we played games which had an intercultural dimension, allowing us to learn more about Slovenia, and the students more about our countries.
The main focus of our project will be firstly gardening. We will try our best to make your town even more pretty, by setting up 10 high beams in places like Zagorje Park, Vrtec, Tone Okrogar Primary School and by creating a herbal garden in the Europark. However, there is another main reason why we are here, maybe you might have guessed it! This is to exchange our cultures both with you, people of Zagorje, but also with each other.
In the modern world intercultural exchange and intercultural learning are of very high importance. As technology, communication systems and transportation gets better people from all over the world are more and more likely to have to interact, whether they like it or not. Therefore, opportunities like this are extremely valuable, as people from different countries are different and learning how to approach them, how to work with them and how to live with them will not only make you more open-minded and tolerant but also can make you a more successful international entrepreneur! We encourage you to take up this opportunity and stop by the Mladinski Center Zagorje where you will find 10 smiling faces ready and eager to get to know you! We hope to see you soon. :)
Marisa, Nicoleta, Denisa (EVS volunteers)
