Austrian Girls Talk About Volunteering

Since September 2018, two young Austrian women—Hanna and Sofia—have been volunteering in the “Let’s Rock!” volunteer project at the Children’s and Young People’s Music Club (BJMK) in Jelgava. After finishing secondary school in Austria, they decided to see the world and themselves through the prism of European volunteering (within the “Erasmus+” programme). Their six-month participation in the project is now coming to an end, and on 21 March at 7.00 p.m. the girls invite everyone to a closing event, which will take place at BJMK, at 68 Dobeles Street: there will be music, information about Austria, games and tea.

The experience of volunteering is an incomparable adventure, and, wishing to look back on what they have accomplished and encourage other young people to seek a similar experience, the girls share their impressions.

Hanna and Sofia write: “When we finished school in Austria in June 2018, we decided to become volunteers at the Children’s and Young People’s Music Club in Jelgava.  During this time, we have had many different tasks and opportunities to acquire new skills. Alongside such jobs as organising and digitising sheet-music resources, moving and setting up instruments and sound equipment, we have also faced several challenges. For example, we learned to solder wires, painted a wall for the first time in our lives, created and edited video and audio recordings, learned how to assemble a drum kit, organised leisure evenings for children and young people at BJMK, learned how to make popcorn and even tried tuning a piano—we can say that we ventured into completely unknown “waters”. We are truly happy to be working at BJMK, where we have been able to take on such a wide variety of tasks. These challenges gave us the opportunity to broaden our outlook and grow beyond our previous limits.

Another opportunity we enjoyed while in Latvia was certainly getting to know new places in Europe.  This was possible both thanks to the project funding and to additional support from our parents—by planning our finances, we managed to cover both our everyday expenses and short trips. We enjoyed the feeling of being European citizens, one of whose definite advantages is the opportunity to travel freely throughout Europe.

We felt our belonging to Europe even more strongly because we had the opportunity to meet many other European volunteers who are currently participating in volunteer projects throughout Latvia within the “Erasmus+” programme or the European Solidarity Corps.  We were able to exchange ideas, share experiences, gain insight into other cultures and simply spend our free time wonderfully, travelling around Latvia and meeting new people from all over Europe. Talking to other volunteers, we realised how diverse European volunteering can be.

Another major benefit is the improvement of our English-language skills through using English both in our everyday work and when communicating with volunteers from other European countries. It is interesting that, when communicating abroad, you realise how important facial expressions and sign language are.

Living outside Austria gave us an excellent opportunity to look at the life we had led in our homeland up to that point: you not only realise how much you love your family and friends and how much you need them, but also come to understand that you had taken many things too much for granted. When we return, we want to change our attitude and be better able to appreciate what we have been given in Austria.

European volunteering gives you the time and space to reflect on your life as a whole: your goals, beliefs and values; time to think about answers to the big questions that have accumulated over the long term (even if there is no single, definite answer, the process is still valuable). 

 Another very important thing that we truly felt for the first time while in Latvia is certainly self-love, self-confidence and self-esteem. Whatever happens around you, whatever doubts or problems you have to face, you are you; you are wonderful and excellent, and nothing can change that.  In our lives, we want to do and gain as much as possible and learn not to worry about insignificant things.  Of course, not absolutely everything in our lives depends solely on us, but it is certainly our choice whether we choose to be happy most of the time. Always be the best version of yourself and look on the bright side of life!

We found the words of our project support person, Indra Kāle, valuable. She once wrote, as a volunteer herself, about her own volunteering project: “A person may regret what they did or said during their European volunteering experience, and they may also regret what they did not do or say, but they will never regret the opportunity to participate in a European volunteering project.”

From the organisation’s perspective, we can say that the Austrian girls truly managed to maintain a positive attitude throughout the project, and this is something we can learn from them. We believe that the insights and reflections of these young Austrian women at the end of their European volunteering project may be useful to a Latvian young person who is also searching for their path.

 It should be added that, in future, volunteering projects will take place within the European Solidarity Corps programme, and BJMK can both host volunteers and prepare young people for volunteering projects elsewhere in Europe. A new opportunity will be available for young people aged 18 to 30 to participate in such projects in their own country as well.