From Warsaw to Jesi

My name is Kamila, I came from Poland and I'm 19 years old. I've started volunteering in Caritas in February.

The story of me coming here is a little bit complicated. I really wanted to do an ESC project since I was... a little bit younger teenager. I was inspired by my sister, who did it after her studies, a few years ago, but since I was probably around 13 years old during that time, I was definitely too young.

During my last year of high school I was really overwhelmed and decided to take a gap year. I didn't want to stay in Poland during that time, and I recalled about ESC programme, so even before the exams I began searching. Initially I wanted to apply for a project in Ireland, but in the meantime my parents convinced me to go to university so I threw that plan away. I was studying for few months, and during that time I was doing some works in community, like Food Not Bombs, but I still wanted to do the ESC project, so I've decided to temporarily drop out of university and do some project.

It was really important for me to do a project that could inspire me and allow me to find a new ideas that I could propose to the local governments/organizations especially if it was related to the people living in poverty or the refugees, which is why I eventually chose to apply for a project in Jesi.

I think the last really important thing that motivated me was that I wanted to be out of my comfort zone - I wanted to try living in a country in which I knew basically no-one, and see how would I handle that, which was kinda funny idea given that I am the second most anxious person that I know.

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Volunteer Oct24. organizing the new house for volunteers!

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Ciao, Hola and Hi! I’m Río Rojas Mayorga and it's been 3 months since I'm an ESC volunteer here in Caritas Jesina. Let me update you briefly about my experience! The arrival and first week in Caritas was a mix of emotions between the excitement to start and the confusion of all the new people and information we were bombarded with. At first we didn't have a schedule and it was a little bit messy but, I'm glad I shared so much time with my project partner; it was nice having someone in the same situation. First month Once the schedule was set, we had to adjust not only to the work but also to the people we shared the time with. As all the services are done with local people, at first it was difficult the communication as I had no words in Italian, but I was gladly surprised to find out my will of talking and sharing was lovely appreciated and corresponded, I found out the language barrier was a challenge but i wasn’t fighting it alone. My birthday arrived eventually an...

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Ciao, Hola and Hi! I’m Río Rojas Mayorga, one of the two volunteers here at Caritas Jesi in October 2024. I’m from Madrid, Spain, and in this first blog, I will share my life before volunteering and how I discovered the ESC. The next one should be about my life here. I would like to start by providing some context about how I got to know the ESC by talking about my life in Majadahonda, Madrid. After the quarantine, my family and I moved from Aluche (in south-central Madrid) to Majadahonda (on the western outskirts) due to financial struggles, which was a significant change for us. The first year felt lonely for my sister and me. During that time, I began studying in the afternoons at the youth centre near my home, where I searched about local volunteering opportunities and eventually discovered international volunteering. However, I was still under 18 and thought I had to prioritise my formal studies. Then, in November 2022, I met someone who transformed my life; it all began with a si...

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