The participants of ESC (European Solidarity Corps) project, sent by LDA Georgia, share them impressions.

Marita Laghidze and George Burjaliani arrived in Bordeaux, France in September 2019, where they will spend an year with other participants from other European countries. They taking part in the project, organized by a non-governmental organization - MEBA – Maison de L’Europe Bordeaux-Aquitane. The project is called – “The ambassadors of European Values”. The major goal of the project is to raise awareness among French pupils, adults, associations about European values through non-formal education.

What is EVS/ESC?

European Voluntary Service (EVS), which is already official known as European Solidarity Corps (ESC), is part of European youth initiative Erasmus+, which allows young people 17-30 to travel to any European country for 2 weeks to 12 months, live and work as volunteers.

There are many different projects, so it’s to find one that suits your interests and abilities. Higher education or working experience is not required. The only thing that matters is MOTIVATION! Most importantly, all costs are covered by the European Commission – no matters it is two-way travel tickets, visa fees, living costs or pocket money. It can be said that this is a unique opportunity to live abroad, travel, meet lots of people and get new experience for free.

The project

I think my project “Ambassadors of European and Olympic Values” is one of the best among all ESC projects. During my stay here I met a number of other project volunteers and I can say that none of them are as much diverse, different and interesting as our project is.

This is a 12-month volunteering project implemented by Maison de l'Europe Bordeaux–Aquitaine (MEBA), in collaboration with Comité Départemental Olympique et Sportif (CDOS) in Bordeaux, France. George Burjaliani and I, two Georgians selected by Local Democracy Agency Georgia, have been participating in this project for seven months now.

In total 24 volunteers are involved in the project, including 10 French and 14 European, from 9 different countries (Romania, Spain, Portugal, Cyprus, Serbia, Germany, Italy, Finland and Georgia). The group is divided into small groups of three persons, the so-called “Trinomes” and each Trinomes has an individual annual plan, which includes many different activities. The main mission is to share European values, to spreads sports and healthy lifestyle through non-formal education. The activities include working with different age groups in school, presenting your own country, planning various workshops and games on the topic of Europe and sports.Also, we making Radio shows where we talk about lots of interesting topics of course around the main mission; In order to promote various European languages we participate in the events, called „café linguistique”. We are involved events about sport and health for people with disabilities, such as adapted football, skating, etc.

The France

One of the positive things of project is France. France always was dream country for me and because of I was learning French for long time, whenever I’ve found this project, I realized that was the one which I was searching for. Bordeaux is really the best city for such kind of projects, because it doesn’t as huge as Paris is, at the same time it is not so small to feel lack of things. Whatever you want you can find in Bordeaux. Beautiful architecture, a lot of green park, river, university, cafes, bars, night life and even the ocean, just an hour drive away.

At the first time, the only thing that scared me was the prices, because living in a big city in France is quite expensive. However, if you distribute budget properly, the amount provided money by the project is more than enough and is it possible to save some money for travel.

About French language skills – The language was not a big deal for me and for George, because we both had some knowledge before coming here. However, for those who have never had contact with French, it may be a bit difficult to participate in the project. Despite this, French language skills are not the main requirement of the project and organization is trying hard to support during language learning process. There is an online platform, where you can work yourself your own, besides we have language classes with volunteer teachers, which is very helpful. For this reasons French volunteers are also involved in the project. Also, daily communication has a big role in process of improving speech skills, everything just depends on the diligence.

The Reasons why you should participate in the ESC project

To summarize all this, here are some reasons why you should become a volunteer at the European Solidarity Corps:

. Experience of living independently in a foreign country – Our country, where we have been born and raised, where lives our family and friends, is a comfort zone for us. Living in a foreign country will help you to expand your comfort zone, give you new skills and lifetime experiences.

. Meeting with interesting people – ESC gives you an opportunity to live in multicultural environment, meet new people from different countries, with different culture, values and experiences.

. Learn new language – The best way to learn a foreign language is to live in a country where this language is spoken. Learn language of host country is one of the important parts of volunteering program, therefore the project provides all the needed resources and opportunities.

. Will got new skills – There are thousands of different ESC projects, so, you will definitely find the one, which will be fitted with your interests and profession, will give you necessary skills and helps you advance in your career.

. Contribute to doing valuable work – Take care of the personal or professional development of volunteers is not the only aim of ESC, one of the important aims of ESC is to support different local communities and proved them with more opportunities. As a volunteer, you becoming a part of all this work and sharing your knowledge/experience with others.

. Explore yourself – As usual, we can’t find some free time to think about ourselves in everyday life. During ESC you will explore that you don’t know much about yourself. Leaving the comfort zone will help you to discover new skills and abilities in yourself and find out what brings you joy and what works best for you.

. Participation in the project is completely free – how many times have you refused to travel because it was too expensive for you? Frequently you can’t find a project where absolutely all expenses are covered, ESC is the project that you don’t have to pay anything from your personal finances.

. ESC is a unforgettable experience – which will definitely help you in life and never regret!