My experience in a youth centre in Palermo

30/11/2022

My name is Ole and I'm 20 years old, I’m from Berlin, Germany. I've been doing a volunteering project in Palermo since the end of May in the youth centre San Giovanni Apostolo as an European Solidarity Corps volunteer. I had had many impressions and experiences over the last few months. In this blog I would like to report about it.

Everything started with a fascinating view of the island of Sicily from the plane. I was very excited to discover this island.

Now I will tell you something about my time in the youth center. I've built a good community with the other workers/volunteers over time, but there have always been some language barriers. Nevertheless, thanks to a certain basic knowledge that I learned in a language course at a university and thanks to a translation app, I was able to overcome these barriers well.

At first I had to get used to the lively local kids and see where I could take my role. I managed to do this after a while. The process for the children was structured as follows: at the beginning the homework was done. I was able to help with math and English.

Afterwards there were activities such as football or table tennis. Here, for example, I made sure that the children treat each other with respect. I can say that I have also seen that, for example, no child is excluded.

There were always special activities such as preparing Arancina. That gave me great pleasure. There was also a clown performance once. The excursions that were organized were also worth mentioning.

It is also worth mentioning that I had a good relationship with my coordinator and mentor who always supported me. I remember a trip to Gela I helped prepare for a camp. That was a beautiful day.