You close your eyes, you let yourself go and BAM: 8 months of your adult life have passed and you don't remember how you got here, but you do remember that once upon a time there was a girl fresh out of high school who dreamed of living abroad as a local and doing something good for the world. Well, let me tell you right away that your dreams won't always come true the way you want them to, but they are still your dreams and in the end you can say that you have achieved them, despite the chaos, risks and difficulties that come with them.

Let's dive into my experience of the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) in Palermo, Sicily.

So, who am I? My name is Kristiyana, I am 26 years old and I come from a seemingly non-chaotic country like Bulgaria. How did I get into volunteering? Well, it's quite a long story. The short version is that I waited until I graduated from college and then had to wait a little longer for the Covid-19 pandemic to end so I could finally volunteer with theESC.

I learned about the Corps' long-term volunteering on my own, but it all started with a friend telling me about short-term projects when I was just 17. So, flash forward to March 2024. I knew what I wanted to do: participate in organizing projects and possibly work in an office during the times when there were no projects going on. Plus, I hoped I could do it in a big city. And that's exactly what I did!

I volunteered for theAssociazione InformaGiovani, where I was responsible for helping my office colleagues with youth exchanges, volunteer camps, summer projects and more, but also doing a LOT of administrative work when needed. I didn’t mind the administrative tasks, to be honest, but I was hoping for more opportunities to lead a group or just be at the center of a project. But this role has a lot of challenges, as I could see from my super busy colleagues. When you are involved in project facilitation, you put in a lot of effort. Often your personal life is put on “hold,” and sometimes it also means having to travel to far away, sometimes remote, destinations from Palermo, and not always having your own personal space and comfort. And sadly, as someone who is 26 and not 19 anymore, I can say that for me this was a problem, and I think everyone around me noticed.

  

Despite this, I had the opportunity to be a small group leader in a volunteer camp and I can say without a doubt that it was the best experience of my entire journey. ESC in Palermo. Being around young, enthusiastic, hardworking people 24/24 who make you laugh while you are struggling to get an entire school ready to reopen for the new school year is something I would recommend to all young people. Of course, as I said, it was very tiring, but nothing, in my mind, can replace these precious memories of building your own little community while doing something for the good of society.

I also had the opportunity to contribute to the well-being of some fellow European Solidarity Corps volunteers and to open the minds of some Palermitans by making them aware of the positive and negative experiences of living in Palermo as foreigners. My personal project, entitled “Human Library: Expats in Palermo” involved the use of the non-formal education method of storytelling, in which some volunteers from the ESC, who participated, had to share their stories with a part of the Palermo community. I can say that it was a successful project, as the volunteers went deep into their lives in Palermo, being vulnerable, but comfortable in talking to others, and at the end of the sessions everyone felt more enlightened, free and listened to. For me it was a huge pleasure to see so much empathy from people and to know that I managed to improve the well-being of someone, even if it was just a few people. I have always wanted to have a personal project in which to create a safe space for sharing and absolute openness, and this experience was a good new beginning for me.

I hope I have done something to make young people more informed and curious about CES volunteering, because for me being a volunteer has completely changed my life, and that is not a cheesy statement. You never know how much your life can change in just 8 months, who you meet and what you meet during the trip.
My time in Palermo was extremely hard, as all my colleagues and friends know, but it is something that made me grow much more, made me appreciate everything I had and put me in contact with a whole new world of people who risk everything to do something for the world around them.

Kristiyana Burdeva