Anthony’s testimony, European volunteer of the ESC, involved on the project « Earth and us » in Osijek, Croatia

My name is Anthony, I’m 27. After stopping my master, and an enriching and successful « Service Civique » (French volunteering), I decided to continue in this adventure by trying a European Solidarity Corps volunteering, the former European volunteering service. My wish to take part of a challenge but also to a true human experience was pushing me to leave for a long time .

After looking for the different opportunies during a month, I finally found a project adapted to my needs : Earth and us, a 6 month-volunteering for the promotion of the sustainable developement in Osijek. Let’s go to Croatia !

Meeting Maha, my roomate and coworker there, but also Maja, Mirjana and the whole team of the Proni center who support the project was a quasi-instantaneous motivation source, I was really excited to work with them !

Of course, not everything was a « pleasure cruise » because the language barrier, the different tools, methods and working time were really difficult, but I accepted it and, after a bit of time (3 weeks working exclusively in English!), I was finally up to the challenge.

That’s how I started to work with Mahaon the different negociated activities for the Earth and Us project : The letters of solidarity dedicated to the old people of Osijek after the pandemia, the cleaning action of the garbagges near to the city, the cooking of Spanish and vegan tapas, forest games, Climate Fresk (educational game on the climate change), and workshops to create different scarves by ourselves .

What was interesting in our mission, is also that we didn’t only do sustainable development, we were also  in charge of promoting mobility (foreign exchanges) by giving some explanations in classrooms, organizing a treasure hunt, and also uploading some articles and promotional videos on the website. Finally, I accepted the proposition which became the most amazing experience I’ve ever had : teaching my mother tongue to Croatian participants.

Teaching French

Ah, teaching French ! Yes, it was difficult in the beginning, and it took time, but it was a real satisfaction : when the pupils come every week to learn new notions with a simple volunteer like you, it’s a really pleasant feedback on the work you give. For me personnally, it made me smile every day !

The months passed , the missions went on, and thanks to Maha and to the center I fastly started to have a nice group of friends, in the circle of the volunteers, especially those who helped us in carrying out our missions. Even if the job of a volunteer is important, the social life is not forgotten : between trip in the country, abroad, the night parties with friends, there was no more place for everything else ! I decided to travel to Zagreb, the Croatian capital city, to Zadar, on the coast, and in Slovenia. I also had the chance to celebrate Christmas and the new year’s eve in Croatia with my friends from the volunteering. Loads of wonderful trips with a special taste that I would probably never forget.

To the friends I made during my ESC

Last thing that I left for the end : the friends. How to not think of them, when inside and outside of the workshops, we shared such a huge amount of things ? How to not thank them for all the support they give us, for the special moments and all of these other precious times they accepted to live with us ? So I say it again : thanks to Andrej, to Vjeko, to Marija, to Tomislava, To the both Matija, to Tena, to Liz, to Yaiza, to Edison, to Dywan, Léa, Quentin, Ignasi, to Marina, to Ivan, to Juraj, to Tina, to Elisabeth, and some more that I probably forgot ;

Thanks to Lolita, the cat we hosted.

Thanks to the Proni center team,

Thanks to Concordia,

Thanks to all,

Anthony