#DigitalStoriesBerlin EVSperience - Letter to a new EVS Volunteer

Hello everyone, my name is Tina, I come from Pelješac peninsula Croatia and I’m actively engaged in digital storytelling and innovative education. My motivation to try ESC experience of volunteering in another country was encouraged by the enthusiasm after I carried out the project “Rethink the future – Reinvent the city” where I have worked as an innovative educator. Motivated by the personal experience of the work with youngsters, I wanted to improve my skills, get knowledge in the digital field and to experience life in a multicultural area that praises diversity. In the agreement with LAG Vallis Colapis that was my sending and coordinating organization, we found an ideal organization that suited all our requirements. With joint forces, we started creating a project by the name “Digital Stories Berlin – EVSperience diversity”. Participating in this project I wanted to share digital storytelling with youngsters and that through new experience I wanted to improve my knowledge and skills. In August 2018 we had our first APV meeting in Berlin with the organization Mediagrammi e.V. where we agreed to program in detail, schedule and rules of one-year volunteering that confirmed with a signed contract. It was very important that there were no unclarified things because it was a very serious project with planned activities in the duration of one year. That was my first visit to Berlin where I witnessed a glimpse of the picture that promises a great future.

In Berlin, I have volunteered in the organisation Mediagrammi e.V. in the period between September 20th 2018 to September 20th 2019. Mediagrammi e.V. is an organization that works on promoting digital art cultures for Berlin and Europe. At the beginning of the project, it was necessary to register your stay in amenable municipality, to open bank account, buy new phone number, settle in new apartment, register for a course of German language in school, open Youthpass account, register for Cigna-health insurance that will guide you with your European health card through your journey. Everything will be explained to you in detail in the informative handbook that will your organization provides just for you, just before your ESC journey. 

 When we were developing this project I was prepared for all the tasks and activities that I was going to do in Berlin. My activities included: administrative activities in maintaining our work, work on social networks, organisation of workshops of digital storytelling for youngsters, organisation of training of digital storytelling for adults, attending course of German language in school and learning the language through systematic support of OLS, attending meetings of counseling and support about financing the projects in Berlin that deals with cultural education, attending training that enables you to write a project of EU funds, activities dealing with developing of digital skills like designing promo materials and handbooks to editing videos, filming and editing. Inside the project, you will have on-arrival and mid-term training that is held in the country of your project, where you will meet all the other volunteers that do their service in the same period and you will get all the additional information that will help you with working on the project.

Besides all mentioned activities, inside ESC you’ll have the opportunity to develop your personal mini-project with which you will refer on the experience of volunteering. I have developed my mini-project in the artistic role of a digital storyteller. For those who don’t know much about digital storytelling, I will give a short explanation. Digital storytelling is a procedure of using digital tools to tell your personal story. A digital story is composed of a combination of audio materials (your voice) and music in the background, photo or video content. The most important element of the digital story is your own personal story and the way you make it close to the audience. You write down the story and then record it with a record player, visual background for your stories you find in your photo albums or you create new video and photo contents. If you want to have music in the background, this is also an option. Additionally all the named materials you edit in one piece with mobile application or program designed for editing video and photo contents.

My ESC mini-project was called “In Be(tween)aches of Berlin because all of my digital stories I recorded on Berlin beaches to make the connection between my home on the sea and this one in Berlin. All of the stories question spaces of belonging in between two languages, two countries, two decisions. This mini-project offered me the opportunity to express my work on this project in a creative way. I have developed 6 digital stories that follow my 12 months of life in Berlin and all the emotional states that follow you in that period. Titles of the stories are 1. Abandonment, 2. Excitement, 3. Fear, 4. Nostalgia, 5. Desire 6. Belonging.

In the agreement with my supervisor we decided, after project activities, to send short narrated movies/digital stories on the various film festivals that will secure visibility of the European Volunteer Service and Erasmus+ programme. All the information about our project can be seen on the web page http://www.digitalstoriesberlin.tumblr.com/. 

As the experience of volunteering so is the process of telling a personal story always a two-sided process that in its core has transformation – of the one who tells the story and the one who listens to the story. I wanted to share with youngsters the technique of digital storytelling, deeply believing that in the process of telling and sharing personal stories, they will share not just personal experience but the emotion also and that in that process they will succeed in changing themselves. In the same way, I have felt the change through the experience of volunteering, giving the knowledge, creativity, and goodwill from myself to others I got more in return. When you decide to experience volunteering in another country, especially if it’s long-term, there will always be a mix of fear and excitement, but for sure I can say that this is one of the most positive experiences I have ever lived. My message to youngsters is that they know in the beginning that this is one noble and courageous decision that carries inside itself an experience of the transformative character, the results of which you will feel throughout your whole life. On your way back you will be full of new impressions, ideas, knowledge, and emotions. That will help you to concretely direct all your plans in the future and that you be less insecure about the choice of college or occupation. Your everyday life can look the same after you’re back – but you will be changed in a way that you can generate new changes in your environment and be an inspiration to everyone around you.