Tuesday 23 December 2014
Monday 15 December 2014
Apply Now!
We are now receiving applications to our 2015-16 European Voluntary Service programme.
We have two EVS roles – one with our Away From Violence programme and the other with our WIMPS.
The placement period is 12 months and will start on 1 September 2015 finishing on 31 August 2016.
Follow the link to apply!
Tuesday 9 December 2014
Tips & Tricks for EVS applicants
There are already projects looking for new
EVS volunteers from next autumn on and Public Achievement is also planning to
open the volunteer recruitment process soon, so we thought it might be a good
idea to give you some advice for your EVS application, if you’re interested in
working as an EVS volunteer. We’ve already wrote something about the program
and the process itself on the WIMPS website but apart from that there are some other things that might be good to know.
1. Start as early as possible
with looking for a project! It might take some time
until you’re successful with you’re applications and a lot of organisations
start their recruitment several months before the start of the EVS project
itself, because there are certain deadlines they have to meet. Of course there
are also last minute calls for volunteers but then you can’t be too picky
anymore, so if you know that you want to do EVS – just start!
2. Focus on the project, not
on the country! Of course everybody has preferences
and interests for certain countries but you should keep in mind that the
project is what you’ll be doing most of your time and if it’s not interesting
at all for you this will influence your EVS experience in a bad way. So try to
be open and apply for projects you like in several countries, you can find nice
people everywhere!
3. Write a specific
motivation letter! There’s no point in writing a
general motivation letter and sending it to every organisation you can find –
people there will notice it and in most cases it doesn’t make a good
impression. Of course it’s more work to adapt every motivation letter to every
project but there are always paragraphs (e.g. about your skills and experience)
you can use for every single one and in the end the organisation wants to be
sure that you really want to work for them, so take some time for it, it’s
worth it!
If
you decided to make a great email campaign anyway, put all your addresses into
the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) instead of the CC field, so that organisations
won’t get an email with lots of other addresses to which you wrote “I
particularly like your project. This is what I always wanted to do in my life”.
4. Take some time for your
letter of motivation and include your experience,
skills, motivation, hopes, goals and what you can contribute to the project. Use the Europass form for your CV.
When
all CVs are similar it’s easier to look through them and find all items. Moreover you can make
it online and keep it on your account whenever you need it.
5. Don’t
be shy to ask what your Skype
interview will be about.
Sometimes
it is hard to understand how it is to be on the other side – to speak a foreign
language and have only a 15-minute chance to look smart and pleasant. It is
hard to remember all necessary vocabulary very quickly and about everything
they can ask you. And stay positive if you’re not successful at first, you’ll
get more and more practice with every application.
Monday 1 December 2014
Winter is coming...
Christmas is coming... But is it important for me?
No, I feel nothing when you are talking about 25th of December and it’s
not a tragedy for me to stay in Belfast on this day because we celebrate
Christmas in Russia on the 7th of January. However, it is not so popular anyway.
But I like this Christmas spirit in Europe and it’s a pleasure for me to
participate in baking cookies, decorating everything, visiting the Christmas
market and so on.
The most amazing part of preparing for Christmas is “collective labour”
which motivates you to gather with friends/family a long time before the holiday itself.
Although there are a lot of American Christmas films I
didn’t know about the tradition to hang up Christmas calendars. Isabel and
PA’s intern from Spain Jennifer taught me how to make one.
Isabel also told me a lot about Christmas time in Germany. I was happy
to help her and three other Germans with cookies but I think they will never
stop producing new ones. That day we had had already 6 different kinds of them and
the guys were going to make more and more. As I realised the Germans make and
eat these cookies the whole December and mums and grandmums bake and bake every
day. Usually there are 20 or even more kinds of cookies during Christmas time.
Isn’t it crazy?
At least we made PA’s office a little bit nicer and ready for Christmas. So
if you are a volunteer you definitely have some time and are able to do
something sweet for everyone. Don’t hesitate because your colleagues are
probably in a rush before holiday.
Ira
I didn’t know that it would be so surprising for everyone that Germans
seem to be really serious about their Christmas cookies. For me it was always
nice to make them during Christmas time, especially as a child you’re really
excited about decorating them and without Christmas cookies it’s just no real
Christmas time. That’s why it was important for me to have this tradition
during my time in Belfast as well and I really liked sharing it with some
people here, who didn’t know about it before. I think that’s an important and
nice part of EVS – reflecting on your own culture and traditions, valuing them
and sharing them with others - but of course learning about new traditions as
well. So I’m really curious what I will learn about Russian traditions (e.g. on
New Year’s Eve) and the traditions of all the other people I’ll meet during my
time as an EVS volunteer.
In case you also want to try those famous cookies now I have two recipes
for you, which most people here seemed to enjoy a lot.
Vanillekipferl
What you need:
250g Flour
210g Butter
100g grounded Almonds
80g Sugar
2 teaspoons of Vanilla
extract
+ icing sugar for decorating
What you have to do:
Mix all five ingredients,
cover it with kitchenfoil and put it into the fridge for 30 minutes. Make a
role out of it (diameter: approx. 4cm) and cut it into slices that are 1-2cm
thick. Shape these slices like crescents and put them onto a baking tray which
is covered with baking paper but make sure that they are not too close to each
other. Put them into the oven (circulating air, 175°C)
and bake them for 20 minutes, until they start to be slightly golden-brown.
After that let them cool a little bit (for approx. 3 minutes) so that they
aren’t too hot or too cold and cover them with icing sugar.
Orange-Chocolate Cookies (Orangen-Schoko Plätzchen)
What you need
For the cookies:
200g Flour
60g Cornflour
1 teaspoon Baking
powder
100g Sugar
1 teaspoon Vanilla
Extract
Grated zest of 1 (natural) Orange
125g Butter
100g Dark Chocolate
Icing sugar
Orange Juice
How to make them:
Mix flour, cornflour
and baking powder and add sugar, vanilla, orange, egg and butter. Mix this, cut
the chocolate into small pieces and knead it together. Then roll the dough,
cover it and put it into the fridge until it is firm. (approx. 1-2h)
After that roll the
dough out (not too thin!) and cut out cookies, e.g. with a small glass, a knife
or special cookie shapes. Put them onto a baking tray and put it into the
heated oven (180°C) for
approx. 10 minutes until they are slightly golden-brown. Let the cookies cool a
little bit and add some icing, if you want to.
Enjoy!
Fröhliche Weihnachten! (Merry
Christmas!)
Isabel
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