I’m Csenge and recently I’ve spent two months in Southeast Finland in a village called Anjala, in Ankkapurha Youth Center. 

My job was to help out at the youth center. This meant helping the facilitators with the workshops the place has to offer for the kids and adults visiting it. Apart from this we did some cleaning around the area and helped out in the kitchen. 

The two months I spent in Anjala went by so fast. If I’m trying to summarize my experience here, the first things that come to my mind are slowing down and appreciating nature. 

Coming from a busy city, where I had never stopped, I loved forming a new routine, and new habits here. Also working at the Youth Center was never boring but allowed me to have a lot of free time as well.

During this time I could also participate in a 2 week group volunteering project with some other volunteers. We rebuilt some walls of the labyrinth and organized some events: an event for young people in the area and a family spring event at the youth center. 

In my free time, I had to opportunity to travel. I could explore some of Finland, like Porvoo, the Repovesi National Park, and Vappu in Tampere.  As well as visiting Tallinn and Riga. I’m so grateful for this opportunity and will cherish the time I spent in Finland.

Hosting organisation:

Youth centre Anjala is one of the nine national youth centres in Finland providing services primarily for children, youth, teachers, trainers and youth workers. The national youth centres have a non-profit civil responsibility to support good life for children and youth. We provide camp schools and other camps for children and youth, adventure days for all age groups and many other tailored events from request. We have a long experience on working with children and youth and on international youth work.

All programmes conducted in the Youth Centres follow the method of non-informal education, which supports the Finnish curriculum and children’s active learning with careful planning and execution of activities outside the school environment.  The surrounding forest and river, as well as the historical manor milieu have guided the planning of our activity programs.

https://www.ankkapurha.fi/en/

https://youth.europa.eu/solidarity/opportunity/38585_en