Categories
general

Privjet, Natascha!

We welcome our new volunteer.

 

Can you tell us something about yourself and your background?

I am from Russia, but the previous two years I used to live in Georgia, a very beautiful country. I have a few hobbies, which I very, very like. I do DJing  (Mixing Music) and I very like tea ceremonies, so I make tea with special cups, in a special environment. I also love dancing and reading, watching series and learn languages. I speak Russian and English for now and learning Spanish and Deutsch.

How did you decide to become a volunteer at e.p.a.?

I know e.p.a. for about thirteen years. That is how I decided to apply for Volunteering because this European Programme, the Europeans Solidarity Corps program (ESC) allows people to participate aged 18 to 30 years, and I am now 30 years old. So this is my last opportunity to be an ESC volunteer, that is why I decided to have this experience in my life and applied for this Volunteering job with a very, very lovely organisation which I very, very enjoy to be a part of.

Can you say more about how you did to get to know e.p.a.?

Yes, it was 13 years ago. I was about 17 years and I participated in my first e.p.a. youth exchange.  They organise a lot of exchanges between young peoples from different countries. And I was a participant in an exchange in Liverpool in 2012, it was my first exchange and after that, during six years, I participated in more exchanges. It was a very, very funny and moving time for me. I learned English during these exchanges, and I learned about Human Rights, what are Children’s Rights and I never heard about it before. I learned a lot about people’s cultures, people from different countries, got new friends, so it was a very, very moving experience for me.

What is your previous volunteering and work experience or have you any?

I started like management of culture and social work. What e.p.a. is doing is kind of part of my profession. My previous work experience was with a lot of events with students, a lot of events with young people and the Management of all this events. Also, I did commercial events in St. Petersburg and big Festivals. I also worked there like a researcher. I did Interviews with costumers of Businesses. I did a lot of management work before.

The most interesting for me were big events like festivals in St. Petersburg because I did a lot of small tasks during a long period and then, you can see how in one or two days everything comes together. A lot of people come to your event and enjoy the time there. For example, it was one city festival with arts. People did arts there, so the people who came there, could draw something or do something and after all we had a very beautiful wall with arts. And a lot of people can met there, made friendship there, so it was the most interesting event for me, and also the most interesting experience in my work. I was community manager in an organisation which does professional events with product managers in IT. That was a unique experience for me too, to organise communication between members of these community and to move the community up. So, maybe I can manage something with e.p.a. by moving up our community in social media. I hope that is one of the things what I will do on my volunteering job here.

Can you tell us a bit about your first month as a volunteer?

Oh, the first month was very easy for me, so I did not do a lot of tasks, but I already feel that I can be useful here. I helped to find accommodation for the next exchange in Hamburg, I will help with Social Media to write posts in Instagram, to see the replies of participants in Instagram, to see how they liked it and it’s very, very nice.

What are your plans for the upcoming months?

Upcoming months will get a lot of work with organising next exchanges. We will have exchange in Portugal and in Hamburg, so I hope I will do a big part of helping with these exchanges these months.

This Interview was done by Caro Olk (12 years old), who did a short-term placement at e.p.a.

 

related to