Our Volunteers' stories

Narva,  05. 08. 2009

Story about seminar « Education as a Tool towards Social Integration» available only in Russian on www.vitateam.ee/ru/volunteering/new-73.html.

My name is Jekaterina Novoseltseva and I’m 20. In the VITATEAM NGO I’m a new team member. I started working there as a volunteer on a local level and helped VITA in various fields.

 My story started when I got in contact with Jekaterina Gvirdzisvili. First I just wanted to find out a bit more about a voluntary programme in Europe. The information I got interested me but something was keeping me from  acting. I wanted to deal with children, who have problems with health (physical or mental), or those, who are homeless. Since I haven’t dealt with this topic before, I decided to explore it in my home town. My hobby is dancing and Kate offered me to give dancing lessons in an NGO LAD. In this NGO the children are disabled. So I would get to combine my hobby of dancing and working with disabled children. It took me a long time to decide to accept this offer. In a half a month I accepted the offer and  started my activities with the children. My first visits seamed to be awkward and I felt confused and sometimes even out of place. At my first 2 classes I was constrained and there was a kind of barrier from my side. But later with the lapse of time I got used to and my opinion about the children changed. I took them the same as everybody else. Now I work there and it’s a big pleasure and don’t regret that I came there. The kindness, openness, sincerity and friendliness I see there can be hardly found in other people. The experience I'm getting there is a very valuable one. I even think that I have changed myself and have become more open and patient.

 If you feel you want to help anybody, then it’s worth trying? Certainly, there are people, that need specificly your help and support. But remember that the help should be sincere.

 I would also like to talk about my activities in VITATEAM. Lately I started giving Russian language lessons to a Slovenian volunteer. For me it’s very good beneficial. I can practice my English language skills and earn some money at the same time.
Very soon a summer youth camp for 12-13 years old children will start. I’ll work there as a teacher, which will be a valuable experience for my future .
Since I work in VITA I went to an informative training called „Human rights” in Viljandi. The training was free of charge and lasted 3 days. Even though I was the only Russian participant there, I didn’t feel abandoned. I would rather say that I joined the group very smoothly and practiced my Estonian language.

 Generally I would say that my life became more interesting after I came to VITATEAM. I have also defined the direction of my future career. If you have a desire to show your initiative and have something to offer, then why not start straight away? VITATEAM can help!