{"id":5545,"date":"2012-03-30T12:00:18","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T10:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/?p=5545"},"modified":"2012-08-15T22:27:28","modified_gmt":"2012-08-15T20:27:28","slug":"european-voluntary-service-for-aegee","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/2012\/03\/30\/european-voluntary-service-for-aegee\/","title":{"rendered":"European Voluntary Service for AEGEE"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Youth in Action Programme offers young Europeans a chance\u00a0to <\/em><\/strong>make a real difference in the<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0world \u2013 and to<\/em><\/strong> change their own lives \u2013 through the European Voluntary
\nService .<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

About EVS<\/strong><\/p>\n

The European Voluntary Service (EVS) is a programme offered by the European Union to all people aged 18-30. Main focus is on the process of intercultural learning by sending young people to different countries of Europe, where they work\u00a0as volunteers in a project of their own choice.<\/p>\n

The EVS spans a wide range of working areas, including projects about culture, sports, the environment, youth, social care, cultural heritage, arts, civil protection, development, co-operation, etc. Depending on the wishes of the volunteer and his\/her hosting organisation, the duration of the engagement can be between two and 12 months.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

A successful EVS project requires close co-operation among at least three key players: a sending organisation, a host organisation and the volunteer<\/strong>. One of the organisations involved in this partnership also plays the role of coordinating organisation and applies for an EU grant on behalf of the partnership. Organisations perform a number of roles: they identify volunteering opportunities and develop projects that benefit the local community. They also recruit and prepare the volunteers, host them, and ensure the follow-up.<\/p>\n

EVS activities can be carried out both individually or in group. Up to 30 volunteers can now participate in the same EVS project!<\/p>\n

Here are some testimonials of\u00a0 AEGEE members:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Agne (EVS volunteer in AEGEE-Las Palmas)<\/strong><\/p>\n

” Hola! My name is Agne! In February I came from Lithuania to Las Palmas\u00a0de Gran\u00a0Canaria to be a volunteer in AEGEE organization. I will stay here for 11 months\u00a0and I believe that this period is going to be one of the best in my life! I\u00a0have met some people who understood volunteering, they were happy, active,\u00a0intelligent people, but I have also met a lot of people who heard about it,\u00a0but did not realise what it was. The main message of volunteering is experience,\u00a0learning, and cultural exchange. I have it all and even more! No one asks me ARE\u00a0YOU HAPPY, because they see a smile on my face.\u00a0At the moment I am starting\u00a0to be a volunteer and it is amazing \u2013 I am meeting new people every day, seeing\u00a0new places, preparing new tasks. I have energy to do things that I have not\u00a0done before, do new activities, new ways to express myself, to find new\u00a0beauty in life. Being an EVS volunteer means breaking the language barrier,\u00a0travelling, communicating, exploring new lifestyle, finding a new inner self. Can\u00a0volunteering change the world? YES, because we are the world!”<\/p>\n

Gulay (EVS in AEGEE-Las Palmas)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cl am Gulay from Turkey. No, l am not a European but that does not matter in EVS. Everything\u00a0is possible for you with AEGEE members. EVS is a huge space of opportunities. lt\u00a0opened a new door for me.\u00a0 It brings mutual understanding (empathy) and\u00a0friendship between me and young people from different cultures. This article is\u00a0an amazing chance to share my experience, to act and react and to show my power\u00a0and it is the best way to discover myself during my project with AEGEE-Las\u00a0Palmas. l am so happy that they are involved in youth exchanges.\u00a0Finally,\u00a0l feel freedom in my blood with European people. Life is meant to show respect towards\u00a0other cultures and lifestyles. l am volunteer and l am proud of being a\u00a0volunteer every day.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Thomas from BEST and AEGEE Santander (EVS in Santander, S<\/strong>pain)<\/strong><\/p>\n

After graduating as an engineer Thomas felt that he did\u00a0not know the world well enough. He wanted to travel and heard about the EVS program\u00a0which he wanted to take advantage of so he sent some e-mails, prepared his\u00a0suitcase and his EVS adventure was ready to start. In\u00a0the Spanish city of Santander he helped supervisors at a youth centre in a\u00a0disadvantaged area. A centre in which young teenagers aged 11 to 17 receive\u00a0help for homework, they go on excursions, they practice sports and much\u00a0more. By helping out with this, Thomas learned about this environment but\u00a0also about himself whenever he felt useful helping others. The EVS experience\u00a0also gave Thomas the opportunity to discover a new country (he got to visit\u00a0cities like Barcelona, Madrid, Valencia and Zaragoza), a new culture, a new\u00a0language and new people. About the experience Thomas says \u201cThis adventure\u00a0helped me grow as a person and made me look at life in a completely different\u00a0way, I definitely recommend it to everyone to grab this opportunity!\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Ezter from AEGEE-P\u00e9cs and AEGEE-K\u00f8benhavn (EVS in Lille, France)<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWanting to prolong your AEGEE experience but you don’t know how? Do you want to live\u00a0an international life, be creative and help others do the same? Are you
\npassionate about ecology? What do you think of saving turtles in Turkey? Are
\nyou all crazy about rhythm and salsa? How about giving dance classes in Sweden? Are
\nmigration studies your thing? Would you be up for working with refugees in
\nSpain? You can have it all and even more with EVS! The \u201cL\u2019auberge espagnole\u201d
\nfeeling and the improvement in many different languages are really only
\npleasant side-effects of the long term adventure, an adventure which is more
\nthan highly recommended.\u201d<\/p>\n

So the question you may ask yourself now is why is my local not already an EVS host\u00a0organization? And why are we not already bringing volunteers from all over\u00a0Europe to help us with our local antenna projects?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You can also go abroad and have an amazing European experience. Find more information on the<\/p>\n

following website or contact me at luis.alvaradomartinez@aegee.org<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/ec.europa.eu\/youth\/youth-in-action-programme\/european-voluntary-service_en.htm<\/a><\/p>\n

Try it out! Go on EVS, and bring EVS to your AEGEE Local!<\/p>\n

Let us all EVS! VAMOS!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Written by Luis Alvarado Mart\u00ednez,\u00a0 AEGEE-Las Palmas<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Youth in Action Programme offers young Europeans a chance\u00a0to make a real difference in the\u00a0world \u2013 and to change their own lives \u2013 through the European Voluntary Service . About EVS The European Voluntary Service (EVS) is a programme offered by the European Union to all people aged 18-30. Main focus is on the process of intercultural learning by… Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":5631,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[8],"tags":[549,430,554,297],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5545"}],"version-history":[{"count":20,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10759,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions\/10759"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}