Ana, Aude and Hadjer
Hadjer, Aude from France and Ana from Spain joined ESC voluntarism project in Ioannina, at our organisation Youth Center of Epirus. Each of them completed 2 months of service; their main activities were to implement recreational activities for asylum seeker children. However, their service was complicated due to the covid-19 situation that appeared in Ioannina at that time. Below, you can read about their activities and experiences.
Their activity was part of the project "Volunteering at Youth Center of Epirus" which is supported by the European Commission and is under the European Solidarity Corps programme.
Aude, Ana and Hadjer were the first volunteers who joined this project. They arrived in March 2020 and fir the first month they helped Youth Center of Epirus to organize non-formal education
activities with children in ages 5-12 in Agia Eleni, accommodation facility for asylum seekers. The activity was supported by Intersos Hellas, the organisation in charge of the facility and
integration and well-being of all residents.
At first, volunteers received training in non-formal education, safety, security and protection of asylum seeker children so that they could successfully prepare and implement the activities,
with a help from other volunteers. The activities were daily so that children would have a stable activity program at the Child Friendly Space - mostly the activities were artistic and crafts
workshops, yoga, football, table games, various educational and cooperative games.
During the second month, volunteers could no longer attend to the activities due to the covid-19 restrictions and had to spend their time in quarantine. Unfortunately, their service was short
term so there was no time to adjust to any online activities. Nevertheless, they could explore the city when going for walks and share their suggestions for our future work with
children.
This project was co-funded by the European Commission.