EVS On Arrival Expectations, Erasmus+, KA1
March 2017
By Antonio Gomez de Poo
I arrived to Inter Alia in March. First of all, I should admit that I arrived by chance, since I was already about to move to Athens and I just wrote to Inter Alia in order to know their mission better. I was curious from the first look to their website.
For my academic and professional background, the kind of projects that Inter Alia was developing seemed to fit perfectly with my interests. Again, by chance -at least for me!- they were already working on an specific project requiring a Spanish volunteer, so after a little chat with Nikos and Boyka and discovering that their project was surprisingly in line with my own aspirations, I was on board.
Inter Alia is young, but growing very fast. When I first came into the office, it was so crowded that I was feeling almost anxious. Too many people, too many accents. I am used to international working environment, but my previous experience abroad was mostly among Italians. Here we have some too – there’s always an Italian around the corner – but also the Greeks of course, Bulgarian, French, Turkish and so on.
So, the office is by itself a place to share proposals and past experiences, know-how and ideas. Apart from my main project, we all collaborate in other projects as well, which keep us closer and aware of the others’ projects.
My main project is called Along Came a Spider and it consists on an attempt to map different social initiatives that are taking place in Athens as a result of the ongoing crisis. We should start by approaching different organisations in order to identify their needs and challenges, their degree of integration with the community and so on. It is a promising project that seeks to put in contact different initiatives not only for quantitative proliferation, but also for a qualitative gain through sharing good practices.
As a recently arrived volunteer here at Inter Alia, I’m starting to learn how to get the most of my own skills. Firstly, I was expecting to have a full list of perfectly defined tasks, which I do not. You soon realise that part of the volunteers mission is trying to build their own path, proposing events and activities and becoming an active part of the organisation.
That is why I’m facing next months as a great chance for me to gain more practical skills and train myself on a propositive mood and an active attitude towards social work and volunteering. Let’s hope it would be like that. Stay tuned for more information! 😉
To know more about the “Along Came a Spider” – contact Antonio, agdepoo@gmail.com
To know more about EVS opportunities – contact Boyka, boneva@interaliaproject.com
