Welcome Barbara & Eva!

Welcome to our new European Solidarity Corps Volunteers, Barbara and Eva who will be getting involved in a wide range of activities with Volunteer Now….

“My name is Bárbara and I am from Porto, Portugal.  After high school I was lucky to know what I wanted to do and study, and so I got into Chemical Engineering.  Having my masters in Porto allowed me to do Erasmus Studies in the Netherlands, and this gave me a new perspective of life.  I learned new things, and developed a passion for photography that has been growing every day.  After doing my thesis in Germany, I took a breath.  After 6 years of studies, I want more than going to work.  I want to do more, learn from others and allow others to learn from me.  I want to be part of a team, without realizing it; I want to put other skills to use and discover what I can do for others.  I am a EU Solidarity Corps Volunteer.”

“Hi!  My name is Eva.  I come from Latvia, and I am doing a European Solidarity Corps placement with Volunteer Now in Northern Ireland.

Since I was a young teenager, I always had two main hobbies.  One was to learn new languages and travel so I can understand other cultures better.  And the other one was to help people out through voluntary work in different organizations involving mostly children and youth work.  So when I found out about European Solidarity Corps during my last year in university I was very excited to apply because it felt like I would be doing my two favourite things at the same time.

I believe that by me being here and being a small part of Volunteer Now I can contribute my knowledge and experience to get the message out about how important volunteering is and make it more popular which will make local communities even better.  At the same time I believe I will gain new skills in various communication forms and intercultural team work which will always be beneficial to me in the future.”