Would you like to be a super-volunteer? Would you like to be a world savior?
…Well, you can’t.
What does it mean to be a volunteer? That is a question each and everyone of us should ask ourselves before taking the next step into this new and X world.
Why and who are you doing it for? Is it a matter of helping others or more about wanting to be a hero/heroine? Depending on the perspective you take and your expectations the experience can go from heaven to hell in a second, and most importantly, you can have a positive or a negative impact on the people you are going to work with.
The second step is, in our opinion, one of the hardest, as well as one of the most controversial ones. Can one person in fact make a real change? Or should it take a group of people to create something bigger than themselves, that can -in point of fact – make a real positive impact?

What is UNITY? So, first things first, we need to clarify what the UNITY Project is about, and what are the reasons and motivations behind our participation in this activity.

UNITY is one of the projects offered by the European Solidarity Corps (ESC). The ESC is a program managed by the European Commission for individuals aged 18 to 30 seeking opportunities to contribute to communities in Europe and beyond. With the ESC, young people can participate in various projects that benefit society, either locally or abroad. These projects offer valuable experiences and the chance to develop skills and competences in fields such as education, environment, culture, and humanitarian aid.
The UNITY project aims to support refugee children/youth affected by the war, with special attention on Ukrainian refugees.

What about the goals of the project? There are 4 main objectives that we want to achieve throughout this month, and to maintain in the future.

Our primary goal is to facilitate the help and support of refugee children and youth who have been affected by the war in Ukraine, ensuring they receive the care, attention and assistance they need in a new, unknown -and sometimes scary- environment.
The project takes place in Romania, more specifically, in 5 Romanian locations: Timișoara, Arad, Bucharest, Craiova and Targo Frumos. In every city there are 12 international volunteers coming from Spain, Italy, Jordan, Romania and Turkey. This is us, the volunteers, a total of 60 people willing to do as best as they can. We all had a 7 – very intense – days training course on arrival, followed by 30 days of volunteering in our given cities. The roles and target groups of the volunteers change depending on the city we are in, and we all have to adapt to the situations we encounter in the communities.

In our case, Bucharest, the great capital of Romania or the so-called “little Paris”, was the designated destination. Here, our duties take place in one of the biggest youth centers of the city: a non-profit, nongovernmental, independent and apolitical association which gives refugee kids – and not only – the possibility to use its spaces to express themselves, to feel at home and, most importantly, safe.

We collaborate with long-term volunteers and workers, so that together we can come up with new ideas, always mindful of what the users of the center need and want. To achieve UNITY’s goals in an efficient and sustainable way in the long-term, active collaboration with the local community is required. Collecting the experience of the youth center’s workers/volunteers in the field, their knowledge, as well as taking into account and listening to what the users of the center need, is what we have been discussing all along. We, as volunteers, represent very little gear in a large machine.
For this reason, – and as part of the goals of the project – raising awareness is crucial, and to implement such objectives we all employ a comprehensive social media strategy to reach a broader audience, spreading the message and garnering support. As for the long-term volunteers, among their “duties” there is the composition of a proper promotion strategy to ensure the enlargement and the growth of the center itself, which, among other things, implies the creation of a communication plan on Instagram to attract more participants, and of a social network with the local partners.

Lastly, we emphasize the importance of a home and a sense of belonging, especially in situations of displacement. To illustrate this, we have reimagined the Giant Doll House method: a social arts project in which children are asked to represent their idea of a home, using recycled materials, to start a conversation about what home means.
However, given the sensitivity of the topic, we decided to ask the users to represent the idea of a “safe space” for them. In this way, we still offer them the possibility to express and share whatever they are comfortable with – as deeply as they want – without pressuring them and letting them be what they are, just kids and young people that want to enjoy their holidays as any other.

We could talk about different setbacks and adversities we have faced, or about the joyful moments we have been lucky enough to live, but let’s leave that for another article. Now you know what being a volunteer entails, you know what the UNITY project aims at and how we do it. It is up to you if you want to embark on a similar journey. We wish you good luck!