Bericht von Stefan Milosavjevic, unserem Freiwilligen aus Serbien (engl.)
My volunteering program started in November last year at Passage 13 in Halle. The first months were spent adjusting to new social and work environment and meeting new people. Colleagues in the organization and other volunteers helped me in facilitating this process. However, the biggest problem that everyone faces is language - it limits the possibility of a normal social interaction. Nevertheless, after a few months, I learned a basic knowledge of German and that helps me communicate and interact with the young people I work with.
Passage 13 is a relatively new organization operating in Neustadt. The organization has a large space that allows young people to socialize and educate themselves. Passage 13 brings together different social groups (youth, women, and other groups). The team working there helped me integrate into the new circumstances and gave me full support along the way. After two months, I organized a reading club at Passage 13 in collaboration with the University of Halle, which aimed to bring together young people and the general public to read and reflect together on social, political, and other topics. In the realization of this project, I had the full support of my team with which I work. The reading club will be a place where people will gather every two months and agree on future activities.
Seit mittlerweile über drei Wochen halten wir auf dem Markt von Halle täglich eine Mahnwache für den Frieden in der Ukraine ab. Und auch wenn ab nächster Woche nur noch zweimal die Woche hier sein werden, möchten wir weiter machen. Warum? Diese Frage wurde uns nicht selten gestellt.
“Every person can make a difference and every person should try”, said John F. Kennedy a long time ago but nowadays it seems so accurate. When even we are in 21 century, we still face a lot of wars, crimes, hunger, and inequality... We still face judgment based on skin color, race, nationality, or religion. And me all my life, starting as a student, as a volunteer, teacher, and journalist I have tried to fight against these. Last week I hold a small presentation about Albania, my country of origin in the kindergarten where I currently work as a volunteer KindsElternCentrum Lieskau. It was a way to let kids know a bit more about me, my beautiful country, our culture, and language but most of all to show them that there are other countries and cultures. I wanted to show these kids that being different is not bad, in fact is great because we can learn so much from eath-other.
5th of March 2020, a calm day before the storm. After a positive interview I am accepted to the program. Little did I know that in one week everything would change and I would have to wait 1 year and a half to get to Halle after all the travel and visa delays.
After finishing my master studies I decided to do a volunteering service. So I found this open call for international volunteers from COD Jajce and applied. My volunteering service started in March 2021. In Halle, I was assigned to SCHIRM and Burgerhaus AltErnative. This programme gives you the opportunity to work with different people and to help them, and by far that is one of the best things about this programme.