European Voluntary Service in Cyprus
Read the first article of Armando in Cyprus who gave the possibility to euxtra to follow him during his whole stay and his European Voluntary Service!
I started my EVS in October 10 of 2011, starting a new life is always exiting, and one year abroad can give you as much experiences as you can imagine. Everything is new and all the doors are open, you have this feeling is very hard to describe, only when you live it can exactly now how is it, but lets say is something between
and
It is really nice and everybody should experience this once in life! One of the best parts of the EVS is that is an holistic experience, it means that all aspects of your life are in play here, no matter what was your motivation to do an EVS, you can not exclude the other parts of your life of it.
An EVS can be many things for a person, a big parenthesis in its life, the opportunity to help with your time to a good cause, a way to escape from your country, family and former life, take the time to dedicate your effort to develop a personal project in the context of a non profit organization, almost free holidays for 6 months or 1 year, a way to learn new languages, get professional experience in specific field, live in the country of your dreams, and so on, I’ve meet many EVS volunteers each one of them with a totally different motivation, I have the perception that some motivations are not the best to take such a decision but in any case the end the result is that you learn a lot…
In my case many factors coincide to take this decision, in the last years thanks to my sending organization COCAT in Barcelona, Spain, I was related very close with the international voluntary service movement, promoting EVS, short term voluntary services, work camps, youth initiatives… On the other hand with 28 years my opportunity to make an EVS was about to end. It also helped the economical condition in Spain, and being impossible to find a proper job instead of waste a year of my life doing nothing I decided to invest this time in my personal growing having this great experience.
After searching a lot and sending more than 50 applications to different organizations finally one organization contacted me, unexpectedly no one of the organizations I sent my applications, it came out that they saw my profile in www.youthnetworks.eu and they liked my profile and they invited me to make my EVS here, I saw their profile and what were they doing, also I checked the county and the city and I thought It was a good chance to dedicate time in one of the things I am really enthusiastic about: promoting intercultural learning, international voluntary service, active citizenship and global education, and at the same time living in a very nice country, with great weather, great food, learning a totally different language (Greek) …
Until now in my first three months as an EVS in Cyprus it had happened virtually everything one can imagine… at the beginning I thought everything was going to be perfect and easy, but with the time the dream transform into reality at the same time very bad things and great experiences happened, plenty of success and disappointments, in part because your actual life stills running, -it does not stops waiting for you in your country-, and in part because EVS is a very intense experience full of events, EVS is just as life but facing life is what makes you grow as a person, trying to learn of everything, becoming more flexible and adaptable to the environment, and I am very curious about what is going to come, so far my life had change in many unexpected ways and many doors are opening… hopefully I will take the right opportunities and make the best of this year…
Information about European mobility, grants, scholarships or seminars and competitions
European Voluntary Service in Basida (Madrid), Spain
Vacancy for a male EVS Volunteer from Cyprus in Italy
European Voluntary Service in Tarragona, Spain
Emilie explains her European Voluntary Service in Barcelona (Spain)
European Voluntary Service (EVS) in Gaziantep, Turkey: French and Romanian experience (Video)
