Hello, My name is Alperen Aslan, I’m 19 years old and from Ankara, Turkey. I want to share my experience with you about the Volunteering project I been in Kokkola, Finland via European Solidarity Corps. I had an experience with Erasmus+ projects and traveling another country for 7-10 days but this was my first volunteering experience, living in a different country and different place with new friends from various countries. I found the chance to apply because of System & Generation and that is why I’m so grateful for this opportunity. In first I was terrified because this was going to be a completely different experience for me, but I’m so glad because of my application and the Villa Elba’s(Finnish Organization) acceptance of my application.
Our main tasks as volunteers for this project are; to help the staff of Villa Elba with Christmas preparations and organize Elf Path happenings for families and kindergartens and other visitors of the Youth Centre, We are sharing roles for organizing Elf Path for local kindergartens in the forest near Villa Elba, our main task is to guide children, families and other visitors in the Elf path. We have to act as an elf and do different kinds of activities with the visitors around the Elf Path.
This experience will be unforgettable for me because I bonded with new friends, I adapted myself to live in this place, and the most important one for me, I collected a lot of memories. When you experience these kinds of good things in life you want to last forever and I’m so happy for myself because I decided to get out of my comfort zone and I came to this project. Again, I would like to thank the head of System & Generation, Mr. Gürkan for this amazing experience.
