The silk way of my volunteering

Ciao a tutti.

I am Lidia from Georgia, 24 years old. I was an Erasmus+ volunteer in Italy, in Palermo, in the organisation called "InformaGiovani" and it lasted 1 year.
​I am a filmmaker. My passion is to write scripts for movies, to direct, to edit videos and as a hobby I’ve got a photography.

The main reason why I decided to volunteering in "InformaGiovani" is that  I could have the opportunity to follow my passion. What was I doing as a volunteer? – I was editing videos, taking pictures, supporting in adminstrative tasks, and also made researchments about different topics. What concretely I’ve learned is writing project draft, basic information about needed documents for organisation while having some activities or trainings. As I did video editing more than before I gained better skills in that.
For example, I made a promotional video for 9th of November (antifascism day) where I wrote a project, shoot the video and edited. It was challenging for me as I worked on it with my colleague. Generally I prefer to work alone and I’ve never done such task with someone else. But we did it. I could cooperate with her. I’ve learned that the way of communication is the key of cooperation. And also I mastered project-writing skills.
​I was editing a video for workcamps as well. We were in Prizzi in order to check the location. I took photos and videos so I was working on them.

I’ve created videos about "ESC and my experience" to inform youngsters about opportunity offered by European Solidarity Corps and short video making tutorial. By creating them I gained more information, learned working on new editing program, how to put subtitle in youtube.

I also have to mention archieving documents, putting them in order. For someone it can be boring but for me it was interesting. When I was a child my dream was to work with documents, so it’s like my dream came true :D 

ITALIAN PASTA – well-known in all over the world. Of course, we also eat Macaroni in Georgia but I didn’t know that it doesn’t go with maionese. Before I couldn’t imagine pasta without this souce but now I became like Italians and forbade my parents to use maionese in pasta. :p
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I had spare time to discover more and more new things, to do something what I like. So I worked on my short length movies with friends I’ve gained here, in Palermo, took some nice pictures, hiked, travelled. I visited some other cities of Italy. For me unforgettable was Etna.

Mondello, Palermo.

Catania.

Etna.

I can’t continue writing without mentioning my exhibition. I’ve started to show my photos in public, for the first time in my life and it was big step for me. But then Mr.‘’Corona Virus’’ came and  destroyed my ‘’exhibitions’’.

My cultural shock was little school boys with earings. I’ve never met young boys with such style but I like it =)) People are so nice and friendly here, in Palermo. They are always ready to help you even if most of them don’t speak in English. 
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There is always a question ‘’why to do volunteering’’ – But trust me, it’s hard to express by words, you should live it in order to understand it. Volunteering in European Solidarty Corps gives lots of opportuneties.

Lidia