Volunteering in Europe: Impressions of former volunteers from the Caucasus
Former EVS volunteers from Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia were brought together in Rustavi, Georgia between 18 and 20 October, for an event organized within the EU-programme European Voluntary Service (EVS) with support from SALTO EECA. The aim of the event was to evaluate and reflect upon EVS-experiences of former EVS-volunteers, and was dedicated to promote the EVS-programme among Georgian youth.
One of the participants was Gulnar Mammadova, who recently returned to Azerbaijan after having worked as an EVS-volunteer at the Åland Islands Peace Institute for one year. Below she has shared some experiences from the meeting.
“Although the experience of the participants differed regarding the duration of EVS-projects (which varied from one month till one year), and the working fields (such as working with kids, orphans, disabilities, immigrants, youth and etc.) ex-volunteers shared similar impressions, hardships and lessons learned.
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Åland Mediation Officer on study visit to mainland Finland
On October 9 to 12 mediation officer Ida Persson visited mediation offices in Turku and Ekenäs to become acquainted with mediation activities in mainland Finland. Ida met with Pia Slögs who is responsible for the Uusimaa mediation office and with Daniela Sundell, who is a mediation advisor in Turku, at the Southwest Finland mediation agency. Ida gained insights into how mediation activities are conducted at two large mediation agencies and she also gained an understanding of their work practices and approaches. In Finland, mediation agencies in recent years have been merged and there are now 18 major agencies, compared to previous 25. All mediation agencies in their turn have branches in major cities. It is also possible to arrange mediation meetings in smaller towns without its own mediation agency. The Southwest Finland mediation office in Turku has4 four full-time employees, one leading mediation advisor and three mediation advisors. The Åland mediation Office has one half-time employee. On the mainland the volontary mediators mediate many cases per year on a regular basis, one mediator may have 10 to 15 cases per year, compared to about 3-5 cases on Åland.