DRONI Newsletter March 2014

8/12/2019 DRONI Newsletter March 2014

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New DRONI volunteers

Ioanna is from Athens, Greece where shestudied Journalism. In the meanme she

did her Erasmus exchange program in

Munich on Social Sciences and Linguiscs.

Following up from this, she did her

Masters Degree on European Urban

Culture (POLIS), a program taking place in

four dierent countries (Belgium,

Netherlands, UK and Estonia) with main

focus on cultural innovaon, creave

industries, urban planning and space

reclamaon. Aer having worked in

European NGOs in Brussels for 2 years, for

the following months she will besupporng DRONI with IDP children

acvies as well as photojournalist work

around the region.

Alice is from Lyon, France where she

studied Arts and Design during the last ve

years in high school and then in college.

She also had a look on literature,

philosophy and performing arts. At the

same me, shewas working for four years

in a youth center during children's

holidays, at the beginning as an animator

and aer as an assistant director. That is

why she really enjoysworking in the team!

Ifshe ishere is to nd a way to gather her

dierent interests thanks to DRONI's

projects which she thinks are really good!

March, 2014

DRONI NewsDroni rules, not the kings!

Hot news: Ioanna and Alice welcome to

Tbilisi

New Czech volunteers for the

Human Library

Goodbye Anna Brych

Dont sit at home - become a

volunteer !!!

In this number:

New DRONI volunteers

1Brych is leaving 2

Circus workshop at TbilisiSea School 2

Imaginary travels in Zugdidi 3

EVS on-arrival training atBakuriani 4

Move to healthier

Tomorrows 4

Youth Associaon Droni would like to welcome its new EVS volunteers Ioanna and Alice

and wish them good luck for their long- term EVS in Droni as well as a great stay in

Georgia!

Ioanna Alice


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Brych is leaving

I feel very lucky that I ended up in DRONI, Tbilisi despite I had

rstly applied for one in Lanchkhu.When I rst came here everything seemed to be so exoc and

unusual; surroundings, architecture, pasta-shaped alphabet,

bazaar and people in the streets. It took me two months tolearn how to cross the street without fear; it seems I will

never get used to using car horns without any clear reason.

My work in DRONI had its ups and downs, but for sure I can

say that it worth to be a volunteer and I think everyone should

try it. Being in DRONI I had an opportunity to try so many new

things, I couldnt imagine before. Performances, ash mobs,

handicras, arts and so on.During my stay in Georgia Ive met various people from

dierent backgrounds, and personally I think this is one of the

greatest valuesof EVS programs. Each of them has a unique

story to tell, experiences and plans for the future. I met local

people, travellers, expats, nomads and arsts from all over the

world. I made many new friends; Im sure some of them willstay forever. Also, for the rst me in my life I had enough

me to travel, during last year Ive been to ten countries! And

it doesnt maer that when being a volunteer you are usually

broke, itjust makesyou more creaveand invenve!

Im going to miss Georgia so much, especially khachapuri,

nature, Staon Square bazaar, fancy supras and my beloved

dogs from the dog shelter by the Lisi Lake. But I know that

there are many new experiences ahead. Im ready to discover

new countries, learn new things and fulll my dream about

my mini hostel!Thank you all for being kind, helpful and forgivingduring my

stay in Georgia!

Naxvamdis Sakartvelo and see you soon!Anna Brych

Its me to say goodbye.

So here I am, already preparing my one-way trip from

Sakartvelo. I remember that one of my 2013 New Yearsgoals(except of tradional quit smoking and lose weight) was to

make this year the best ofmy enre life. Today I can honestly

say Ive made it!It was a year full ofchanges and challenges. Once I heard of EVS

for the rst me 2 years ago, I knew its something Id really like

to try. The vision of spending a whole year abroad volunteering

and trying new things seemed amazing aer years spent in the

oce with tons of invoices and customer requests.And all costs covered by the EU!As I have always been interested in vising post-soviet

countries and as Ive heard many posive opinions about this

parcular one, Georgia became the right place to apply for myproject.

On February10, Alice and Ioannahad theirrst visit to Tbilisi

Sea School for IDP students of all ages. Bruno and Juli,

2wheels4change-sustainable music and theatre for all on bikes

round the globe project parcipants from Spain and Germany

together with DRONIs internaonal and local volunteers

organized a circus workshop for the children.

Juggling, acrobacs and group games reinforced childrens

parcipaon and made the event successful. Upcoming visits

to other IDP selement schools in and around Tbilisi are

coming soon!

Circus workshopat Tbilisi Sea School


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Imaginary travels to Zugdidi

Boris (from Bulgaria) and Marta (from Spain) are

experimental travellers on theirway to India by land with

very lile money and a lot of me. They got to Zugdidi

thanks to some degree of curiosity, Youth AssociaonDRONI, and the kind drivers that carried them all the way

from Tbilisi in autostop. The purpose of their visit to this

part of Georgia was to play travellers with the students

of St. Georges Gymnasium, and so theydid. In three days

theyran three sessions with 10th, 9th and 7th graders, each

of them a story on their own, a travel to real or imaginary

desnaons.

Who are you? Where are you from? Where are you going?

These are the quesons theyget asked all the me on the

road, so they sent them back to the students and made

some room for them to juggle with their desnaons. They

drove them all around, from Zugdidi to Chukotka, from

Europe westwards across the Atlanc, and even further to

the East of China, around the world a few mes and to

outer space. Theyspinnedthe globe and travelled wherever

they wanted. But how? Somemes by car, or bus, or by

train across Siberia. On a witchs broom to celebrate

Halloween in Chicago, and by swimming the ocean to SouthAfrica to take a giant surf board built for 13 of them .

For two days children made their own travel mapswith the older young people in the school, who

shared with themtheir dreams to visit Europe (Paris,

London, Madrid or any place in Italy are in the top 10

desnaons), their hopes to cross oceans, and their

wishes to enjoy happy holidays in faraway places

(from Brazil to China stopping in Cuba, any place is

good!). They got ps for funding their wanderings

(have you thought of buying, using and selling second

hand German cars?), ideas for free travels in Africa,

adventures by sea and alternaves to ying by plane

(what about taking a ladder to the moon, and bungee

jumping back to Earth?)And on the third day, everything changed. Two days

of mapping were too much for their driing minds,

and Boris and Marta decided to try something new

with the 7th graders to build a perfect desnaon, aplace in nature or a wonderful city, where all their

travel wishes come true.

And so theydid: the city crew made up a place where

the landmarks of Paris and London are joined by a

river where you can sail to the Sun, a city with more

owers than people, and bikes instead of cars. In the

meanme, the nature guys went wild, making paper

go 3D and erupng into lonely volcanoes reached

only by ra, trees of all sorts and tree houses on top,

beauful mountains and a sunset on their desk. And

then the bell rang, and they did not get to know

where on Earth these places are...but theywill keep

on searching for them and send you a postcard when

wereach these desnaons.


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Youth Association

DRONI

Gambahidze str. 3/6

0179 Tbilisi

Georgia

Tel.: +99532306703

Fax: +995322920999

Facebook: https://

www.facebook.com/

droniorg

www.droniweb.org

Edited by:

Ioanna [email protected]

+995 568 17 49 94

From February 16 to February 20, Ioanna and Alice, the new EVS

volunteers at DRONI, spentve days in the EVS on-arrival training

at Bakuriani. The training, organised by SALTO Eastern Europe and

Caucasus with the support of the trainers Giorgi Kakulia and Anna

Yeghoian, gathered 23 EVS volunteers from Armenia, Azerbaijan

and Georgia.

The main objecve of this training was to introduce the volunteers

to the culture and local reality of the host countries and provide

them with the support and skills needed for improving their EVS

experience.

Through a lot of dierent acvies (games, discussions, interviews

of local people, presentaons of cultural dierences/EVS aims/non

-formal learning etc.), volunteers had the opportunity to work

individually and collecvely on quesons related to their projects,

get inspired and exchange ideas.

A special focus was given on discussing cultural life dierences and

personal challenges during the EVS projects. Volunteers also had

the opportunity to parcipate in workshops and therefore improve

their communicaon skills while building a network. Last but not

least, the city of Bakuriani was not only an opportunity for self-

discovery but also a chance to get to know Georgian culture, food

and local life.

Move to healthier Tomorrows

The seven- day internaonal seminar entled

Move to healthier Tomorrows took place from

the January 22 to January29 in Nitra, Slovakia. The

project was organized by Slovakian non-

governmental organizaon SIEDAS within YiA

programand brought together 34 parcipants from

countries like Slovakia, Italy, Romania, Albania,

Slovenia, Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and

Belarus. The aim of the project was to create an

environment where parcipants from dierent

countries can share, compare and discuss their

knowledge, experience and best pracces within

topic healthy lifestyles and empowering youth

facing unhealthy lifestyle trends causes various

EVS on-arrival training at Bakuriani

consequences which does not allow them to

live full-blown life.

The main acvies were to develop skills and

knowledge regarding healthy lifestyle; one of

the most important parts of the seminar was

presentaons made by parcipants, who are

students at Medicine facules. They shared

some useful informaon on how tomaintaina

healthy life. Parcipants discussed the most

problemac topics and shared informaon

about the situaon concerning healthy life and

realityof youngsters in our countries. They alsoshared their experiences and discussed about

common issuesand methods of dealing with

this signicant problem.

During the seminar parcipantsalso had some

physical acvies, such as sightseeing of Nitra,

mountainclimbing etc. In addion to this, they

had an interesng meeng with a gym trainer

who helped them train themselves while

parcipang in dierent sport acvies. Other

interesng meengs include the one with tea

experts in a tradional tea house combined

with an interesng discussion about tea and its

posive eect on humans health.

DRONI Newsletter March 2014

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