From 20th of June to 4th of May 2024, young volunteers from across Europe gathered in Kryoneri Korinthias, Greece, for the Act Green 1 team volunteering project, coordinated by FILOXENIA, Intercultural-Environmental Organization and supported by the European Solidarity Corps (ESC). Here's what they said about their voluntary experience:
Article written by the Spanish participants
"During this past two weeks we have taken part in a volunteering project with Filoxena through the European Solidarity Corps. It has been developed in a rural town in Greece (Kryoneri).
The topic of this project was taking care and understanding the importance of nature. This is the reason why we have done these activities: maintaining, cleaning and creating footpaths, also eating organic food, cultivated in the same town. As well as the local youngsters took us for a hike through the footpaths we were cleaning, so that we could see the impact we were making with our actions in town.
A part from working, we have had the opportunity to get to know people from other cultures. With them you share this experience and you even get the chance to make plans with them, like for example going to visit a city in your free days. All of this was possible since apart from not working during the weekends we got one free day for each two weeks of work. And the organization tries to help out by adding all these days together to allow us to make plans like going somewhere far.
To sum up, it has been a great experience that has allowed us to get to know amazing people from all over Europe. It has also help us connect with nature and see how our actions affect the planet and the people who leave in it."
Article written by the Italian participants (Brocchini Virginia, Martini Francesco and Tolot Rebecca)
"We are three young Italians of 24, 20 and 18 years old, who have decided to take part in this project and have applied for it. It all started with our arrival in a small village in the middle of the Peloponnese. A nice man named Panagiotis, the first of many others that we would have encountered, took us to Kryoneri, where would have found place our accommodation for the following two weeks.
During the project we initially dealt with learning how to use the tools, how to adapt to the weather and to eat different kind of foods from those we are used to in Italy.
In this period, we have seen and learned how to interact with locals, we have met young people and celebrated a weeding and a birthday party. Hospitality is the main trait of the local people we have met; their kindness and their thoughtful acts distinguish them and make them wonderful humans.
We travelled around Athens, Patras, Corinth and Kiato. We saw many beaches but also visited some ruins. Overall, the aim of the project was to make us feel closer to the surrounding nature, allowing us to get comfortable with ancient tools that have been used by the locals for hundreds of years, we took care of the footpaths opening new routes for the shepherds and for everyone who wants to explore and hike in the magic landscapes of Kryoneri.
The social part had also a key role, thanks to this project we were able to meet young people like us coming from different countries and so we got to know their cultures and traditions and deepen our understanding of others."
Article written by an Estonian participant (Helena Tsivkin)
"In July, I spent two weeks volunteering in a small Greek mountain village on the Peloponnese peninsula. The goal of the project I chose was, in cooperation with local youth, to maintain and build footpaths in the forest, which local residents use both for hiking and for moving between cities. The work itself was not physically difficult, and there was always someone to ask for help and advice.
Two weeks seems like a short time, but it contained a lot of fun things, hiking, events, Greek language lessons, swimming, good food and also work. Working days were mostly 4 hours long and took place in the first half of the day, so after lunch we were often either free or attending Greek classes. We spent our free days and evenings mostly by the sea or took the train to a bigger city. The evenings we spent in the village were always full of surprises. We were invited to both local birthday parties and a wedding party. Every day was full of activities, there was never a dull moment, and in between we found time to become very good friends with each other."
Article written by a Czech participant (Natalia)
"Our two weeks in Greece, in a smaller friendly village named Kryoneri, composed mostly of farmer's gardens and plantation, has been such a greatly spent weeks for us. Our main goal of this project was highly connected to nature, its maintance and restoration, specifically caring for local footpaths. Despite working in the challenging weather, through teamwork of all the participans of this project we managed to fulfill our work on footpaths and even in the garden around our hostel. Besides our work and our program composed of group games, greek language lessons, intercultural night or even longer hike through the footpaths to historically important cave and beautiful areal of one of the oldest churches in this part of Greece, we had our own freetime. - we were going for a swim in the sea, meeting local people, trying local food and drinks, walking around the village and exploring the nature and having our siesta! We enjoyed it here very much, have made new friends, and got the taste of Greece from the first hand!"
This project was supported by the European Solidarity Corps of the European Union through the National Agency “INEDIVIM”
