Hello, I am Bahadir. I hope you are all fine. It hasn’t been long time just 1 month since I came to Slovenia, but I want to tell you some things. I work as a volunteer at both Mladinski center Zagorje ob Savi and Varstveno delovni center Zasavje.

When we first visited VDC, to be honest, I was a little scared because I had no experience or opinion with disabled people. I had the chance to observe the employees and users there for a long time in the first weeks. In fact, it was a good idea not to start work right away, because I didn’t know how to treat people, how they would treat me, and the reactions I should give.

As we saw each other constantly in the following weeks, I started to get to know them and they started to get to know me. I feel more comfortable now, and even though I didn’t speak Slovenian, I was trying to communicate with them somehow.

And I was trying to help the employees, even in a small way. My colleagues are wonderful people and I am very happy to work with them. I attended many events with VDC in just 1 month. I played games with people in the gym,

I attended a theater performance and visited another city for a summer event organized with my colleagues.

Now let’s come to the youth center :). Since I generally interact with young people in my own age group here, it was not very difficult for me to adapt. Yes, it was not easy to communicate quickly with people because I was a bit shy at first.

But when we look at it now, everything is fine. Every Friday, young people come to the MC and socialize. Some of them are playing guitar, chatting and playing different games. I started shooting and editing videos here. Last week, there was an event about the European Parliament at the center and I was assigned to shoot videos and photographs.

It was the first big event because there were so many people and I had never had such an experience. In MC you have the opportunity to talk to people and learn about their culture, and if you want, you can teach your own culture.

We have come to the end :) Yes, these were some notes from my first month and were about what I did. Everything is fine now, I hope everything continues like this and see you in the next blog.

Bahadır Ünsal

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Prvi koraki v Sloveniji

Pozdravljeni, jaz sem Bahadir. Upam, da je z vami vse v redu. Od mojega prihoda v Slovenijo ni minilo veliko časa, le en mesec, vendar vam želim povedati nekaj stvari. Delam kot prostovoljec tako v Mladinskem centru Zagorje ob Savi kot v Varstveno delovnem centru Zasavje.

Ko sem prvič obiskal VDC, me je bilo, če sem iskren, malo strah, saj nisem imel nobenih izkušenj ali mnenja o invalidih. V prvih tednih sem imel priložnost dolgo opazovati tamkajšnje zaposlene in uporabnike. Pravzaprav je bilo dobro, da nisem takoj začela delati, saj nisem vedel, kako naj ravnam z ljudmi, kako bodo oni ravnali z menoj in kakšne reakcije naj podajam.

Ker smo se v naslednjih tednih nenehno videvali, smo se med seboj že začeli spoznavati. Zdaj se počutim bolj udobno, in čeprav nisem govoril slovensko, sem se poskušal z njimi nekako sporazumevati.

Poskušal sem pomagati zaposlenim, čeprav na majhen način. Moji sodelavci so čudoviti ljudje in z veseljem delam z njimi. V samo enem mesecu sem se z VDC-jem udeležil številnih dogodkov. V telovadnici sem z ljudmi igral igre, obiskal sem gledališko predstavo in drugo mesto na poletnem dogodku, ki smo ga organizirali s sodelavci.

Zdaj pa pojdimo v mladinski center :). Ker se tu običajno družim z mladimi iz svoje starostne skupine, se mi ni bilo težko prilagoditi. Da, ni bilo lahko hitro komunicirati z ljudmi, saj sem bil na začetku nekoliko sramežljiv.

Toda ko pogledam zdaj, je vse v najlepšem redu. Vsak petek pridejo mladi v MC in se družijo. Nekateri med njimi igrajo kitaro, se pogovarjajo in igrajo različne igre. Tu sem začel snemati in urejati videoposnetke. Prejšnji teden je bil v centru dogodek o Evropskem parlamentu in bil sem zadolžen za snemanje videoposnetkov in fotografij.

To je bil prvi večji dogodek, saj je bilo toliko ljudi in še nikoli nisem imel takšne izkušnje. V MC imaš priložnost, da se pogovarjaš z ljudmi in spoznavaš njihovo kulturo, in če želiš, lahko poučuješ svojo kulturo.

Prišli smo do konca :) Ja, to je bilo nekaj zapiskov iz mojega prvega meseca in so se nanašali na to, kaj sem počel. Zdaj je vse v redu, upam, da se bo tako nadaljevalo.

Se vidimo se v naslednjem blogu.

Bahadır Ünsal

Projekti prostovoljstva v okviru Evropske solidarnostne enote mladim nudijo priložnosti za prostovoljsko delo. Odgovarjati morajo na pomembne potrebe družbe, prispevati h krepitvi skupnosti in ob tem prostovoljcem omogočati, da pridobivajo uporabne izkušnje, veščine in kompetence za svoj osebni, izobraževalni, socialni, državljanski in profesionalni razvoj, s čimer se izboljšuje njihova zaposljivost.

Več o programu Evropske solidarnostne enote (slo. ESE, ang. ESC, bivši EVS) si lahko preberete na povezavi: http://www.movit.si/ese/projekti-prostovoljstva/