Volunteering in the Czech Republic

My name is Luisa and I have been volunteering in a primary school and kindergarten for disabled children in Český Těšín. This year of volunteering was such a great experience for me because it allows me to grow as a person and to try new things in a safe environment. It was a year of trying, failing, learning and joy!

I had the chance to acquire knowledge of the disabilities and how to deal with them in a really practical way but I also gained a lot of social competences and I learned how to communicate in a way without speaking a specific language. Sometimes, it was quite challenging to adapt to new situations. I still remember vividly my first lesson in the school, the first time going with them on a walk or the first misunderstandings due to our language barrier. But now I´m happy to say that I could learn from all the difficult situations in the beginning because it made me even stronger through my service.

Moreover, one of my favourite memories, regarding to the challenging situations in the beginning, are the ones where the students tried to teach me their routines and showed me their everyday life. It was really nice how they tried to involve me in their everyday life at the school and how they tried to make me comfortable. Furthermore, I learned a lot from the children about care and the respect, which they had for each other, just as the curiosity for new cultures. The students and my co-workers were really curious whenever I was speaking about my home country, Germany or whenever I brought a friend with another nationality to my work placement. So, concluding I´m really grateful to learn from my co-workers and students about being open to new situations, cultures and people, in every different way.

However, not just my work placement enriched me with their knowledge and experiences but also the other volunteers and my flatmates. It was just amazing to me to learn so much about their cultures and home countries and also to exchange our experiences from our work- placements.

Because of the other Volunteers, who became close friends to me really quickly, I had the opportunity to visit their placements as well and to spend a whole day with them. So, I also had some insight in the work with disabled adults, elderly people, street work and the work with teenagers. Sometimes our experiences couldn´t be more different but mostly we still had all the same feelings, even though our work was so different.

I think I can speak for all of us when I say that this year had some really big up´s and down´s but we all had so many great opportunities and chances to learn, make experiences, try ourselves in new kinds of work, which might be totally different from what we know from our home country, and finally to step out of our comfort zones.

Concluding, I would like to state that this voluntary service gave me the chance to learn so much about me and life in general, that no university or school could ever teach me! It was a great experience and I would recommend it to everyone. Finally, I would like to thank Slezská Diakonie for this amazing experience because without the support from everyone around me, it would not be possible.