For many years, the Center for Education and Socialization has been offering young people over 18 the opportunity to experience volunteer service in EU countries, where they are usually involved in working with children and young people, learn a foreign language, another culture and make new friends.
Our volunteer Andrija Ruža is one of 6 volunteers that COD prepared and sent for a one-year volunteer service in the German city of Halle. Andrija is a hard-working young man who, after finishing high school, decided to spend a year at the volunteer service in Germany. Considering that Andrija was involved in the work of KUD Jajce, COD Jajce, Novi Most, Brass Orchestra and other organizations for many years, volunteering in Germany was a natural sequence of his engagement and activity in social engagements.
Andrija has been in Halle for two months and here are his first impressions:
-I am currently doing a one-year volunteer service in the German city of Halle. The trip to Germany went well. The city is nice and nicely decorated. I like that it is full of greenery and parks can be found at practically every turn. Somehow, from a personal perspective and past experience, I would describe it as a combination of Zagreb and Sarajevo.
Probably because the city is more in the eastern part of Germany (former GDR), I imagined that I would not meet people from our region, but I was surprised that there was a considerable number of people from the former Yugoslavia. People are kind and collegial, but I can say that they are not temperamental like us and do not often show their emotions. For example, they have a concept of recycling and solidarity where a person puts things they don’t need, but which can be useful to someone else, into cardboard boxes in front of the house, and from those boxes anyone can take things they are interested in.
I am currently volunteering in an organization called Kita Bartholomeus Kinderhort. Children from first to fourth grade come to this institution after school for an extended stay where they have a fresh meal and various fun and educational events are organized almost every week.
I am very curious about what this volunteer year will bring me.
