ECOTOP Oradea

Hello to everybody!!!

This year, and for the first time, ECOTOP takes part in the EVS (European Voluntary Service). EVS is a programme that started in 1996. Their aims are to impulse active participation of the youth and to help the social inclusion of marginal groups in order to promote young people active citizenship. All people, between 18 and 30 years old, are welcome to join EVS.

ECOTOP decided to collaborate with an Spanish organization, AIPC-Pandora, to find three volunteers for the EVS project. The objectives of Aipc-Pandora, based in Madrid, are to promote the solidarity culture, support small cooperation projects all around the world and also organize socio-cultural courses.

And here we are....Two of us, Miguel Castro and Miguel del Valle, arrived in Oradea the 7th of October. The other Spanish volunteer, Mss Diana, came two days ago. Miguel Castro (20 years) is studying Forest Engineering in Madrid. Diana (29 years) studied Environmental Science and has already worked in some water projects in Chile. Me, Miguel del Valle (23 years ), finished Economics studies last year. I think that we are a good illustration of Spanish society because Miguel Castro (Miki) is from the center of Spain, MADRID. Diana is from the south, LINARES (JAÉN) and I am from the north, LUGO (GALICIA). You will notice this in our different accents!!

We have already started going to schools to present ECOTOP activities. Two weeks ago we went to know the lovely place of Damis (it was so cold there...:) , but it is  as really nice place. We liked very much Damis. Miki and me also spent one week in PREDEAL, from the 23th to 30th of October. We went there to the "Honorable Training Course" organized by the ANPCDEFP. We met a lot of foreign volunteers that are in other Romanian cities (very nice people from France, Germany, Turkey, Portugal, Danmark, Estonia, Latvia, Poland, Italy, Hungary, Serbia, Austria, The Netherlands and of course, Spain). We were 26 people and we made several kind of  activities; to meet each other, about the EVS (rights and responsabilities about the volunteers) and a lot of team work. It was really interesting the week in PREDEAL.

For the moment not more to say...We hope to learn a lot of things during the next 10 months, to collaborate a lot and to try to give the best of us.