Period in Ireland! But what else is going on?

Heyyy guys, it’s Terhi! We are sharing the responsibility for coordination of this project with Anna-Kaisa. It’s nice to have two sets of brains, so we can together think about the funding, plan the trainings and share the tasks.  

Hi guys!

Juuso and Allu are soon leaving to Ireland, actually in few days from now! I can’t wait to see and read what they think about their time on Thurles. But yeah, what else is going on with this project? Anna-Kaisa wrote last week about the role of the coordinator and what is the point of the pre-departure training. When the group (Juuso, Allu, Vesa, Susanna and Anna-Kaisa) was going through all the things regarding the period in Ireland, I was doing interviews! Oh should I explain what interviews?

Summer vacation is coming quick, but in the beginning of September our two youngsters are leaving to Slovenia! Mikko you already met in APV, he is one of the volunteers leaving in September. We are hoping that we can choose the second volunteer before the vacation time, so that the youngsters know their plans before summer and we in our EVS-team can start the preparation work concerning the first period in Slovenia. So that’s why I was doing the interviews and talking to youngsters who are interested in being volunteers in Zavod Manipura. 

There is some tricky things what we need to take into consideration. One of these is that in Finland schools are starting in August and September. Many have applied to school and the selections are made in the beginning of July or later on. This causes the fact that some youngsters don’t know at this point what they are doing in the fall. It’s good that youngsters are applying and wanting to go to school! We just have to make a schedule, who can go now in September and who can go later on this year. 

In the interviews we also talk about why do you want to leave? What are you expecting from this experience? Is it okay to be away for two months? Have you told your family and friends that you are thinking to leave for couple of months? Is there some questions and things you want to know more? We hope that we can send volunteers who will benefit from it and use it for thinking future plans. Maybe the period being a volunteer will raise thoughts regarding the future, interest in vocational school or labour market? I think that these thoughts we will hear later on when the volunteers tell about their experiences!

Terhi, coordinator