My name is Lara Zreina, I am from Jordan but currently studying Filmmaking in Hungary. Since I started volunteering in 2019, I started feeling like it’s an important part of my life. Volunteering has always helped me with self-growth as it introduces me to new people, different perspectives and new experiences that I wouldn’t find anywhere else and I am very grateful for that. When I was studying in Hungary though, I came across Egyesek, a sending organization that helped me volunteer in Europe through workcamps.
For my first workcamp, I decided to participate in Laguépie, France organized by a French organization called SOLIDARITES JEUNESSES MCP. The name of the workcamp is “France Behind the scenes “and our main role was to build wooden Bars for a festival in that town. The program itself is funded by the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) as many of the other projects usually in European Union countries. Depending on certain days, if we are not working on Building the bars, we were either maintaining the main camp or cooking in the kitchen team.
And as for my second workcamp, I participated in a program ran by Grenzelos in Vienna, Austria and the name of the program was “Meet the Royal Gardens” and the aim was to look after the garden in the schonbrunn palace. The program was also funded by the European Solidarity Corps. In the second camp after we were done with work and returned to the accommodation we would usually either cook or clean.
During both camps, there was a lot of support and attention from the camp leaders for our struggles. If we had dietary restrictions or allergies it was always taken care of. If we felt sick and felt like we couldn’t work during that day we could easily take a rest and we were provided with correct attention and care. So overall I didn’t have many challenges during my time in these camps.
My experience was very insightful in both workcamps. Since we had to do some carpentry work in the first one, I learned it as a skill that I wouldn’t learn anywhere else. I also discovered that I really enjoy baking and cooking for others when I was in the kitchen team. My experience from the small community in France was overall was very positive, the team had really good friendly chemistry between each other, we had a lot of fun activities like visiting different towns and markets, kayaking and picnics. It was also a good opportunity to interact with French Locals in the town where we stayed.
In my second work camp I learned a lot about gardening as well as time management as we had less time after work for activities but we were still able to explore Vienna and go to museums, parks and historical sites. I was able to form closer connections with the rest of the volunteers as we were only a group of 10 people.
All in all, I heavily encourage anyone who is thinking about volunteering in either experiences. I felt like I saw and learned so much whilst giving back to the community and meeting new people. I’m always thinking about the beautiful moments of finishing work then going to swim in the river afterwards in France or hanging out in Vienna with the rest of my team after work, it’s my favorite memory for this summer. The sense of close-knit community and team work made this camp a spectacular opportunity.
