In the beginning of March 2018, the first five volunteers of a new volunteery project (Act for you Act for all) have arrived to Izola, each coming from a different country: France, Portugal, the Netherlands and two of our neighbouring countries, Italy and Hungary.
With their activities, they will help to shape the program of PiNA, The Youth Center Koper (CMK) and EPI center in Piran. They will be joined by two more volunteers coming from Greece and Italy, who will be part of the activities in Središče Rotunda and Šent (Slovenian association for mental health).
The first five volunteers spent their introductory Friday morning in the company of their mentors, where they had the chance to arrange all of the administrative issues at hand as well as the opportunity to get to know the local environment and do some team-building exercises.
Our two EVS volunteers, who came to PiNA on the 1st of March are Stefano (Italy) and Jim (the Netherlands).
Stefano is a volunteer from neighbouring Trieste, passionate about art, getting to know different cultures, innovation and music. He works at PiNA as a video editor. We interrupted him just as he was working on a jingle for a podcast. Since music plays a big part in his life, he occasionally works as a DJ in clubs and at festivals. The furthest his DJ-ing has taken him so far is Japan, where he also lived for a few months. He likes his work and people in Koper a lot. Compared to Trieste, people here are younger and more direct, he says. He lives, together with some other volunteers in Izola, a town that is to him the most beautiful one on the Slovenian coast because it is “small and cosy.”
Our other volunteer, Jim, comes from Alkmaar, a city in the Netherlands famous for its football club and big cheese market. He is interested in 19th-century literature, classical poetry and philosophy. He also holds a Bachelor degree in Political Science. The project he is currently working on is AgriGo4Cities, the aim of which is to employ Participatory Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture as a powerful and emerging method to improve public institutional capacities. He said adapting to the new environment was easier than he first expected. The thing that surprised him the most is how well Slovenian people speak English; not only young ones but also older people he met. His favourite city on our coast is Piran, he was especially impressed by the sunsets there.
During their 9-12 month stay, they will help to promote volunteering as such, build their competences and knowledge and reap the benefits of the work they perform to help the development of the host environment.
