EVS 2011

Estrella Alvarez Casado from Spain and Charlotte Stegen from Germany joined BRYR on EVS placement in Sept 2010. Below are articles from both of them on their experiences as volunteers in BRYR and Ballymun

Charlotte Stegen's Experience

“Dia duit! Conás atá tu? Charlotte is ainm dom. Tá mé oibrí deonach.”

That is Gaelic and means: “Hello! How are you? My name is Charlotte and I´m a volunteer.”

For 131 days or 3137 hours or 188241 minutes I have been an EVS Volunteer (European Voluntary Service) in one of the largest youth work organizations in Ireland – Ballymun Regional Youth Resource (BRYR).

You wonder what the European Voluntary Service is? It is a program of the EU, “Youth in Action”, and it gives young people aged between 18 and 30 the chance to work as a volunteer in another European country. I think that this is one of the best experiences to get to know another country and its culture, and to leave your homecity for 6 or 12 months.

I took this change and left my homecity, my friends and my family in Germany. And I am happy about it. One of my biggest wishes came true: I would spend 6 months in an English speaking country – the Emerald Isle Ireland.

I arrived on the 13th of September in Dublin. Michelle, the volunteer support worker of my organization picked me up at the airport. I can say that I really appreciate how much time Michelle spent showing us around and answering all my questions! She drove me around and bought me a lot of things you need when you arrive at a new place. It was a very good time, I definitely felt welcome!

In the first week, we visited a lot of apartments and flat shares for my work mate Estrella and me. In the end of the first week I found my flat share: I took over the room of my EVS forerunner Manel. It is the perfect flat because it is close to the City Center of Dublin and the flat mates are lovely.

In the next weeks I had enough time to get to know the social worker, a lot of groups in the youth centre and the structure of BRYR. Ballymun, a suburb of Dublin, is well known for all the typical Ballymun flats which became a symbol of poverty, drugs and other social problems in Ireland. BRYR wants to help the young people from this area to have a successful and happy time in growing up and maturing to adulthood. The organization believes that every person deserves the chance to have positive experiences. What I find impressive is that the people in BRYR are aware of the importance of the area in which people grow up, so they give them an opportunity to take part in the development of their community and to become more independent and creative.

Part of my work in BRYR was taking part in the “Junior Cadets”, these are two youth groups in which the young people have the chance to play pool, use the internet café, do art or play different kinds of ball games. What I really liked was creating art with the kids of the art club on Monday: In Germany, we have special calendars for the time of advent, so I really had fun making these calendars with the art group.

Being an EVS volunteer means that you have to participate in three trainings with other volunteers from different countries, which is a good opportunity to get to know other people and to talk about EVS experiences. I made a lot of friends and found it very good to have people I could meet in my free time. So I did not have to discover this beautiful country on my own but always had an interesting person to come with me.

When I look at my first three months as a European volunteer, I can say that this time is the best time of my life. I even think that one of my dreams came true: I became part of the just stunning Irish culture by living here, visiting some of the Pubs, listening to Folk music, drinking Guinness (of course!) and also trying to understand the crazy Irish-English. One of the best things I experienced was that my English became better and better, so I can proudly say that my main goal was achieved! There are many pages on the internet where you can find people interested in language exchange here in Dublin that is I got to know Gillian. She is an Irish girl who wanted to learn my language how just as I wanted to improve my English. In the end, we became very good friends and always met to teach each other English and German. We still go out and will have a cup of hot chocolate or hot port.

Now that I have had a lot of experiences here in Ireland and in BRYR, I would really like to recommend the European Voluntary Service! Of course it can be quite an effort to find a host organization because so many people want to be part of the program, but if you find a project, it is definitely easy to organize the rest! You just need motivation and the flexibility to really get into another culture this time. So just try it and look forward to this great experience!

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Estrella Alvarez Casado's Experience *See Estrella's brilliant multimedia video about her time with BRYR at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4__XWa5R40o

Since past October I had been waiting for approval of an organization that wanted me to work with its team. After a lot of reading and writing there was one that made me pay special attention. It had a Communication and IT area and since I studied computer science, I was so interested in it. I applied. Weeks passed. Months passed. Suddenly, an unexpected day, when I was about to make coffee for the family, a woman called home. I remember the moment like it was yesterday. My daddy took the phone and after a few “holas*” he told me “it must be for you…” After a while talking I realized that the woman on the phone was calling from BRYR, the youth work organization which I had that special interest in.

Finally, after that call, I knew I was gonna work with them, but what I didn’t know by that moment was that that woman on the phone would become my mentor: Michelle.

I arrived on September the 9th to my destiny for the next twelve months. During the journey I couldn’t stop thinking about the language. I’ve been studying english almost my whole life, but I’m from Spain and there you never practice. In the other hand, I’m so get used to the American accent, so I was a little bit scared.

Once in Dublin Airport, Michelle was supposed to be there. When I came out of the baggage claim I quickly saw a paper saying “Estrella Alvarez” and I knew it was her. I’ll never forget that “Hello! Nice to meet you! How was your flight?” because my first thought in that moment was “OMG! I could understand her! I love her!” and that became true, cause she has been a greatest mentor ever since.

Fig 1. The Reco building and Computers, Music and Arts areas

Next day everything was perfect, the sun was shining, the sky was so blue, and it was even warm! And besides, my lovely boyfriend was with me, so what else could I ask for? That morning I was taken to my work place, BRYR, a youth work organisation that works for the welfare and development of 10-21 year-olds in Ballymun, a suburb of Dublin. The cool building BRYR works in is called The Reco and it has a lot of different areas where young people can decide what they want to do every moment, such as Arts, music club, go to computers or join some clubs.

They say the smile of a kid is a present. They are not wrong. But when the kid that smiles at you is so special like every Reco kid, is not only a gift, but also the feeling that you achieved a goal, and you can feel so proud of yourself. Why am I telling this? Because kids in the Reco are not regular ones. Their complicated and most of the times difficult lives should have made them, at least, troublemakers or hopeless cases. But instead, they are so unbelievably amazing that every day they are the ones that teach you the same lesson: you can be whatever you wanna be because here I am smiling at you when my mum is an alcoholic person, or my brother do drugs, or I’m adopted because my sixteen year old mother gave me when I was born.

Reco kids help you really appreciate your life. They get you to see it so easy and to forget all your tiny problems when you are sharing your time with them. They are capable of hiding all their troubles with a huge smile and so special that gets you to see them like regular kids.

Thanks to BRYR for giving me this opportunity now I can keep in my mind amazing memories such beautiful places, new great experiences, several trainings and courses and different work groups.

Fig 2. Childcare Awareness Course (1st picture), First Aid Course (2nd picture), EVS Training (Background picture)

The fact of being an EVS means that you have to do trainings with other volunteers, which is a very good way to get to know people from other countries that are living in yours at the same time. But with BRYR I had also the opportunity to make different courses such as Child Care or even First Aid, both very useful even in my daily life. You never know when you are gonna need them!

The majority of my work groups in the Reco are related to multimedia or arts, which I like a lot. But there’s one that’s different from the others. In this group I’m learning how to play Brazilian Samba which is something totally new for me. As you can see, BRYR also gives you the opportunity to do things you never did before.

Fig 3. Making animation with picture in Digital Storytelling group, playing samba in Brazilian Samba Group, clay model made in Art Club.

Go abroad is always an experience. You never know what is gonna happen and that’s what makes the trip so special. When you visit another country everything changes: the people, the food, the stores, the clubs, and one of the reasons why we travel… the weather! I had seen it snows before, but I had never lived in a place where it snows. I had never seen pure ice in the streets. I had never had to walk trough the ice to get the bus stop to go to work. But in Dublin, you can experiment all this. And about that I have to say two things: first of all, snow is so beautiful when you see it trough your window being warm at home or when you make your own snowman in your courtyard, and second of all, snow is the most annoying thing when you try to live your daily life, you can’t walk by the street, you can easily fall and broke your leg, your heaters have to be working all day in order to keep the house warm… but anyways, the experience worth it!

Fig 4. Ballymun when it was snowing, my home at night and the view from my window by day.

Now I can say not only that I’m living in Dublin but also that I’m living Dublin. Live Dublin is going for a walk through Saint Stephen’s Green Park and feed the ducks and swans, is going to Temple Bar and take drinks and dance, is visiting the Dublin Castle, the Spire and cross Liffey River trough O’Connell Bridge, is making a pose and take a picture next to Molly Malone Statue… and of course, is going shopping in Tesco, Dunnes and Penneys! Anyways, you can live Dublin in some many ways, but the best is always with
friends, another thing you can make in here. Irish people are nice and warm. And all I know always say you a “hello” with smiles in their faces.

Fig 5. Saint Stephen’s Green Park (2 top pictures), River Liffey (2 bottom pictures)

For all I’ve said and for all that’s coming next year is why I am so glad to be here with BRYR doing my bit. Because what I’m doing here is really tiny compared to all I’m getting, not only for the experience but also for my personal development. So, the only word that cross my mind when I think about these past three months in BRYR is THANKS.

* holas = hello a number of times