Lidia Jakus

Igor Guizzardi, commissioner for politics, and Lidia Jakus, member of WG for Enlargement, visited the minority organization SiiN in Tallinn, Estonia (Russian Minority). The short Study Visit is a part of the application process and lasted from the 11th (Tuesday) till the 13th (Thursday) of August.

We continue to acquaint you with the foreign volunteers passing voluntary service in Estonia. This time we represent you Nuriа Itúrbide from Spain. Now Nuria lives in Tapa, in 2.5 km from a place of the work.

In the end of the last year, the campaign "Y vote 2009, the European Youth Choice", organizing by the NGO AEGEE (Association des Etats Généraoux des Estudiants de l´Europe / European Students Forum) began, with the aim to encourage the active participation of the Youth in Europe. For that, AEGEE prepared 12 conferences.

Do you want to know more about the project? In the next lines you can find the experience of the first one, which took place in Groningen, The Netherlands, in December 2008. In this summary you can have an idea about how it was. Enjoy it!

Next stop, Tartu. That is what Olatz Arruti could think when she was selected to participate in her current EVS project. This 26 years old basque volunteer is in one year long project, as Joao Caridade, the other Tartu´s volunteer we interviewed.

Her arrival was in Feburary, and after 9 months, we want to know about her experiences during this time.

Tallinn breathes EVS life. This city is hosting an interesting quantity of EVS volunteers, ending or beginning their projects, but never stopping.

Irene Nuñez, a 24 years old spanish volunteer, is a good example. She finished her studies, with experiences abroad included, and arrived to Tallinn in September 2008. Her project is 10 months long, till July 2009.

She has a lot of matters to speak about after 3 months here. Let´s enjoy them!

At the invitation of the Latvian “Special Assignments Ministry for Social Integration” the president of the Federal Union of European Nationalities, Hans Heinrich Hansen, participated in a minority conference in Riga on 5 December 2008. Hansen acknowledged the progress the Latvian government has made in minority policy. But at the same time he pointed out that it is necessary to find solutions in dialogue together with the minorities. “We all here in the room know about the difficult situation, also in your country. There are problems with integration, with citizenship, cultural development and political participation that need to be solved and improved”, according to Hansen.

Not all the volunteers develop their projects in cities and towns as Tallinn, Tartu, Vöru...

From the little village of Märjaama we bring the words of Katalin Csontos, a 22 years old hungarian volunteer. She began her EVS in Septmeber, it will be 11 months project, so still is in the beginning of the experience. Let´s see how her new life is.

From the south of Estonia we bring today the experience of Magdalena Balzarek. This 20 years old german volunteer develops her project in Vöru, and for being the first long experience out of her country she chose the longest option: 1 year project, which will end in February 2009.

After 10 months of project, we want to know how she is managing and her view of all the adventures she had, and for sure, she will still have till the end of the project.

As you know, Youth Union SiiN is hosting two EVS volunteers, Tatiana and Luis, thanks to the European Community Programme "Youth in Action". But we can know more about volunteers in different organizations and towns in Estonia.

We want to introduce João Caridade, 23, a portuguese volunteer developing his project in Tartu. In his case, a long term (one year) project, which began nearly one year ago, in February of 2008. Here we have his impressions about this experience by now.

Maybe you know what is an International Youth Exchange, just you have a little idea about, or you have not ever heard about it.

In any case, you can find in the next lines a summarize of one, in which ten youngsters from Youth Union SiiN participated during the last March in Leiria and Praia da Areia Branca, Portugal.

It´s name: "My Europe, your Europe!"

The Estonian National Youth Council has visited Youth Union Siin to discuss about plans for the future.

Luis Alonso, 22 , is an EVS volunteer in Tallinn since March 2008. He is working in a project called "UPDATE", and hosted by the NGO "Youth Union SiiN", during the whole year. As him, tens and tens of volunteers choose Estonia to develop their projects. Here we have a little interview with him some days after his arrival.