My name is Monika and I am from Hungary. I did my ESC project in Tallinna Laste Turvakeskus, in Männi Turvakodu. The shelter hosts children and youth who have been left without parental care or have behavioural problems. As the children can be from different age groups, I initially struggled to come up with an activity that would be fun for everyone.
After some consideration I decided to organise a ‘Hungarian Evening’ that included different types of activities. My main aim was to include everyone, and also wanted to offer the children and colleagues the possibility to learn something about Hungary, and of course to have fun! Together with the children we prepared three meals – two of those had to be sweet of course.
After the meal, we watched two episodes of the Hungarian Folk Tales. These tales stem from original folktale collections and are filled with Hungarian folk art and music. My colleagues very kindly offered to translate the tales into Estonian and Russian and they were very well-liked by everyone.
With my initiative project I also wanted to give something to the team at Männi Turvakodu as a thank you for being so supportive throughout my service. I decided to start a ‘Volunteer Memory Book’ in which I attempted to encapsulate my volunteer experience with notes and photos. This will remain with the shelter for future volunteers to give them an insight of the cheery life at Männi when they start, and to contribute with their own memories after they finish their service!
Here are some photos of the ‘volunteer memory book’ making progress:
Monika made her service within the project European Solidarity in Action, funded by Archimedes Foundation Youth Agency with support from the European Commission Solidarity Corps programme.
