How to work for people with the people. A brief experiential journey via ESC
Ahojte! I am Yesim from Turkey and in this article, I am going to talk about my ESC
experience with Youth for Equality, in Trnava/Slovakia. It was a short but fulfilling
journey with ups and downs. I would like to start with my expectations and thoughts
before I start the project. I knew about ESC but never had a chance to try it. Until I met
Youth for Equality.
In the beginning I had hesitation because I did not know what to expect. I have been on
Erasmus+ projects before, but ESC was something new for me. The topic we focused
on was healthy life, so called City Health Week. I was excited and motivated to do it.
Because first of all, I wanted to improve my organizational skills. And doing it with other
nationalities. Working with people is hard itself, and when you are with other cultures it
is even more difficult. This project was for 3 weeks, so, long enough to start seeing
other’s personalities or traces of their cultures. I was scared not to be able to manage it
or get exhausted by it or not to have patience. And I attended this project as local
participant since I live in Slovakia. And it is important for me because Slovakia has a
special place in my heart and I felt the need to represent it well.
The importance of this project lies in offering the people of Trnava a new perspective on
health, encouraging them to engage in such activities, and introducing the local
population to different cultures. Besides the workshops, we organized public events
such as cycling and beach volleyball. With these events, we aimed to be more involved
with the public and take small but effective steps towards a healthier life. One of the
workshops we did was a waste sorting activity with children who came to our stand at
the Uciaca sa Trnava event. Here, we played a game with children, mostly aged 10-17,
about which waste goes where. In this way, the children learned about waste bins
interactively. From my own perspective, I learned how to communicate with this age
group, especially in Slovak, which is not my native language. We had a great time
working together with my teammates. At the main event, City Health Week, I was part of
the physical activity team, doing physical activities like push-ups and squats with the
young people who came. I learned a lot at this event. For example, how important
flexibility is. We need to be more flexible, especially when working with people,
because every person is so different. I learned how important it is to adapt things to the
situation without deviating from the main idea. And that improved my mood during the
activities.
But in the end, we concluded the project with wonderful memories and very valuable experiences. I had the opportunity to speak one-on-one with some local young people, and it’s a wonderful feeling to realize that we’re making a positive impact on their lives. I learned how to manage group activities and how to approach people. Besides being an educational and instructive event, I think ESC is also very fun and helps build relationships. In that sense, it has added a lot to my life. And of course, I want to experience this again. I think young people shouldn’t be afraid to try this either. I highly recommend it. The feeling of stepping outside your comfort zone and doing something new is worth trying. You will discover new qualities you didn’t know you possessed, and in this process, you will learn something new from every person who enters your life. You can use these to improve yourself in your personal life.
