Green Fingers

Hi!

I’m Attila from Hungary. Volunteering was at the back of my mind for a long time as something that skilled, selfless people do with a lot of free time on their hands. Totally not for ordinary people.

However approaching the end of my college years I found myself with an increased desire to do something that is usually not part of our everyday life. That’s when I found ESC and OAZA, offering a short term volunteering option in Zagreb. Their theme of sustainable lifestyle, environmental friendliness and bringing different cultures closer to each other was something that I was interested in anyway, so it sounded like a perfect experience to have before „officially” entering the working life.

During these 6 weeks our community of 10 volunteers helped maintaining school gardens, organised workshops and even held a cultural night. The organisation of OAZA helped us feel at home in a foreign city. We got to experience croatian culture, went birdwatching and even hiking!

It’s also safe to say that they did a great job in picking diverse participants, since we were not just coming from different countries, but were at different stages of our lives, had varying ages and backgrounds. Despite our differences my time with the other participants was very pleasant, and I feel like there’s something inherently common in those who choose to participate in something like this.

 While most of us were not proficient in gardening, our main role, it never was an issue since we all got to learn the basics.

Spending our free time exploring Zagreb, it’s surroundings, the Croatian coastline and even a small part of Slovenia was also a huge part of the experience!

All in all I’d encourage everyone to try someting similar at least once in their lifetime! Cheers!