Stories by Participants: In the Kingdom of Volunteering
by Maria Tsakiri
Every project has different experiences to offer. In this case, we as participants had the chance to learn more about the “mentoring” topic and its diverse parts. We formed different teams to work on the areas of our interest and at the end the aim was to make a presentation or a workshop for the main event.
Admittedly, it was quite a demanding task to manage a workshop just in two days. On the other hand, our theme which was about “Mentor’s wellbeing” appeared to be so interesting, that all three members of the team enjoyed and trusted the process.
As a topic the wellbeing of mentors, is generally perceived as the elephant in the room. The importance of feelings is valuable to every member of the team, no matter when it comes to volunteers, coordinators or mentors. As a result, we decided to make an interactive workshop with the mentors of our seminar, where their feelings in addition with the reasons that caused them, will be put on the tree of emotions we created. The so called “Men-tree of emotions”.
The whole experience was intense and full of surprises. Undeniably, it was a journey I could never guess I would take. Not individually the physical one to Cyprus but the combination of it with a mental journey to self knowledge. That would be an appropriate way to describe this mobility…
As a result, when it comes to the emotions, they vary. The ones on top are fulfillment and gratitude for what I learned and now, after my return I feel challenged. I really need to figure out the next steps to another journey, equally important and in the same level of creativity.
– Maria Tsakiri
