European Voluntary Service
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The word “volunteer” is derived from Latin “voluntas” and is the synonym for free will, or personal choice. Ever since the beginning of the movement, volunteers have been driven by the wish to contribute positively to today’s societies, working towards peaceful living conditions through a common effort.
Peace and international understanding, friendship and co-operation form the part of the overall aims of voluntary service. These are pursued through a common commitment based on a free personal decision and through the coming together of individuals and groups of different backgrounds.
Europe offers great number of mobility and learning possibilities for young people as well as for adults. European Union offers tools and resources for international cooperation in different domains and emphasis development of the active partnership and participation in the civic society. Supporting youth actions, association allow them to express their own opinions, to exchange and defend their ideas and values.
Through the “Youth in Action” program supports any initiative of non-formal education for young people through an international voluntary service, involving directly and actively young people in social activities.
The objective of the European Voluntary Service consists of three fundamental principles:
to OFFER to young people an experience of non-formal learning, by facilitating their social integration and their active participation in improving their employability and giving them the opportunity to show solidarity;
to CONTRIBUTE to the development of local communities;
to ENCOURAGE the establishment of new partnerships and the exchange of experiences and good practices between partners.
EVS is a great non-formal education experience, it is a chance to learn how to deal in foreign countries, to cope with an unknown environment, to study other languages, to discover together with other volunteers different cultures. To give and to get, and this during the whole time of an EVS project, and once it is finished, it time to multiply the effect.
