I read once at school a poet, I think it was Dante, writing about non-material goods as opposed to material ones, in particular about the almost magical fact that the more you share them with others, the more you will finally possess. Now, every time I think about volunteering, that particular passage comes to my mind: the more energy, work, enthusiasm, passion you put into it, the more you will receive back.

During the years, first as a voluntary teacher in my home country and now as a participant to the EVS program in Greece, volunteering has offered me a lot of possibilities that a “normal” work couldn’t have given me: I could –and still can - meet new people, some of them similar to me, some others interestingly different, all of whom have left me something of themselves. It enabled me to travel and to come to know new cultures, to share ideas, to make new experiences –most of which I would never have believed possible. I learnt a lot of things that my studies –as much as I loved them – couldn’t teach me and that will probably come in useful in the future, also professionally.

As a part of a team, I can “build” something and see that somehow it reflects all the people that work on it. Last but definitely not least, I feel useful, that is I can arrive at the end of the day and tell to myself that I DID something, however little it may be: it might seem something very small and unimportant, but as life is not exactly easy, this certainty is really a huge thing –at least that is how I see it.

Marta Giannico
EVS Volunteer-NGO CIVISplus