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“The highest reward for a person’s work is not what he receives for it, but whom he becomes due to it” said John Ruskin. Under this topic 15 young people, inhabitants of the Transnistrian region attended the training “Volunteering within my community”, organized by the “Promo-Lex” Association in the period February 7-8, 2009.
The event was held at the leisure center “La popas“ Cocieri village, district Dubasari. Participants at the training were pupils from local schools of the Transnistrian region holding a civic attitude, opting for change in their community.

Young people already involved as volunteers in the Local Youth Councils, initiative groups or NGOs, received a clear and accessible approach of the concept of volunteering.
Participants were from the following local towns; Dubasari, Ribnita and Grigoriopol and the village Dorotcaia.

The training aimed to stimulate young people’s involvement in community life through volunteering, and promoting such activities in their community. Moreover, thankfully to the cognitive – practice method used in organization of the training, the youth had developed communication skills, creative thought in implementing new ideas and concrete activities.

Participants understood not only general ideas on volunteering (principles, issues, rights and obligations of the volunteer), but learned during practical exercises what are the benefits of voluntary activity. Working in groups, discussion / debate of the topics that presented interest for them was an important step for the development of such skills as the arguing and presentation of their ideas to a new audience.

The young people realized the need of their involvement in volunteer activities, and most importantly is that they decided to initiate campaigns and actions on improving the situation within their own communities (E.g. campaigns for the libraries in their town or renovation of some classes within their educational institutions).

Participants had the opportunity to meet foreign volunteer and share with them their volunteer experiences, questions and active participation in discussions in the “improvised” talk show with guests of the show – international volunteers Oonagh O’Connor, ( “Promo – LEX” Association volunteer through EVS) and Bernd Fink (ARTEVELDE Hogeschool Gent, Belgium).
Through this training young participants developed leadership qualities and started to consolidate them into a network of young leaders with civil attitude. In this context, their motivation to volunteer is strongly determined by their desire to bring change in their community, so that they will start a constructive dialogue with all relevant actors (teachers, local government representatives, parents).

Training “Volunteering in my community” was organized within the project “Strengthening youth initiative groups from the Transnistrian region”, implemented with financial support from the Royal Netherlands Embassy in Kiev, through Program MatraKAP.

Olga Gordila,
Project Coordinator, Promo-LEX Association