My ESC Proyect

My name is Laura, I am a 24 year old spanish girl and I would like to introduce you my experience with the European Solidarity Corps program.

I am currently doing my ESC project in Leipzig, a german city. My project is being developed in the Initiative neighborhood school Leipzig e.V. Hort & Kindergarten. I am working in the Hort, which is an after school care center and consists in a non-formal education program focused in the develop of kid’s skills while having fun.

I am working with kids between 10 and 12 years old, nevertheless when it is needed I also move to other groups, either older or younger.

To be more precised, when kids have a break for having lunch and when they are done with their school lessons, they come to our facilities, which adjoin the school, and we take care of them until they go home or are picked up by their parents.

My first impression when I started working in this kind of field was a bit confusing cause I was used to a formal type of education in which everything was fixed and non-questioned, nevertheless I got used faster than I expected.

In order to give a more explicit explanation, my tasks consists in entertaining kids with games and activities that can stimulate their learning process.

During this months with the kids, I have tried to introduce them as well to the spanish culture through activities such as cooking typical spanish dishes or displaying some traditions to the kids such as the Andalusian “Feria” or the “Semana Santa”.

During the time I’ve been in the Hort, I have been able to do some special activities with the kids such as exploring some natural areas in Leipzig and learning some german traditions like cooking sweet bread in a wood fire or building ecological structures and reforest while planting plants.

This experience is been really rewarding to me and it is helping me to exploit my social skills while learning the german culture and improving my german skills. The opportunity of living in a city like Leipzig, which is a city that shows a lot of diversity, inclusion and society is open-minded, it is very comforting and it is helping to develop myself far and away.

On the other hand, being able to meet a lot of collegues from different countries and living everyday with such different cultures, I do consider that it is an extraordinary opportunity to be more comprehensive, open-minded, cooperative and solidarity, as well as a good chance to learn and share in order to improve as society.