On the days of 10.-14. October 2016 in Maribor, an event organized by SALTO-Youth Resource centre named Volunteering forum took place, and me with Ioana were a part of it as well. The event was intended to focus on discussing and reflecting on transnational volunteering in Europe and its partner volunteering countries, inviting coordinators, youth workers and various officials from organizations dealing with transnational volunteers to take part and share their experience. During the four days, I volunteered at the event as a photographer, and on the first afternoon me and Ioana together with local volunteers from Stopinje mesta planned a walk through the city with landmarks that would be interesting for the participants (the walk was unfortunately cut very short because of bad weather, turning into a lively evening with getting-to-know conversations over coffee). Ioana also participated in a debate with people holding different positions in the volunteering field of work, which took place at the Maribor municipality, and other EVS volunteers from Maribor were invited as well to become a part of the audience during the event.
To reflect on the experience, I didn’t think it would shift my view of the volunteering experience, but it did – I realized my part in the „system“ that was bigger than I imagined, and seeing various people working in different positions in many organizations made me think how much goes into organizing and executing all the contracts and paperwork that turns into opportunities and actual output from the volunteers themselves. There were some good ideas on the table and after taking part, I now think about volunteering as a whole a bit differently and more complexely.
Michal
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