EVS in Bulgaria!!!

Stella writes about her EVS experience in Bulgaria!

Last October, I participated in the short EVS group project titled “The youth of Sliven today, future of Europe tomorrow”. Fourteen volunteers from five countries (Italy, Spain, Greece, Turkey and Cyprus) lived and worked together for one month in Sliven, a large town in central Bulgaria. 

During this EVS project we participated in activities related to the preparation and conduct of the youth creativity festival “The youth of Sliven today, the future of Europe tomorrow II”. Our duties included the promotion, preparation and implementation of specific activities, summarizing the results, providing feedback to participants and helping promote the results of the project. The aim of the festival was the promotion of Bulgarian culture, young people’s talents and special abilities and the city of Sliven. 

During this project I met a lot of amazing people who inspired me to do new things. With some of them we are good friends now. Thanks to this project, I learnt how to express my point of view, to defend my ideas, but also to adapt to the needs of the others. I appreciated Bulgarian tradition, culture dancers, and especially the Bulgarian people, overcoming stereotypes that I had in the past. 

Thanks to this international experience, I have more awareness in my abilities and I can use them for others experiences abroad. Living one month in Bulgaria, I learnt some basic understanding and phrases in Bulgarian and I managed to improve my English because I had to communicate with the other volunteers, my supervisors and the locals.

I would strongly recommend EVS to others, because it is a really positive experience that increases your human and professional abilities, and enhances our common European identity.

Stella