My name is Ildikó and I am Hungarian. I am volunteering in south Italy Molfetta and I work with elderly’s in Auser – that is the name of my organization.
Auser primarily is a club for active old people who live in Molfetta and they need some company. Additionally, have a lot of projects. For example they made a summer camp for children, they organize programs for the locals and once a month they distribute food to families who need it. Usually, every day has a program: celebrating name days, getting some snacks, karaoke or having a DIY project.
Usually I work in the afternoon. I play cards, and board games with the members. During work i can practice my Italian so I can give some good company.
I always wanted to volunteer, because I saw my sister do this and I saw what a great opportunity it is. However, I haven’t applied for years, but last year I thought it is the time, so i started to look around and I found this place. This project was the only long term with the soonest start, so I chose Molfetta.
I hope I can learn the language well, but I am here for one and a half months and I already understand a lot and I can understand myself with the locals so I guess I will reach my goal. My other goal is the get some confidence and work on myself.
I am really lucky that I have great flatmates and I really like them. They are amazing and lovely people. We are so different but yet we live together so well. Volunteering is great because we can gain some knowledge, not just about the country we live in but about ourselves. That we can manage new things and new problems. I started to learn the language with one of my coworkers and got a lot of new friends. I started to organize some projects with my organization and soon I hope I can make them real.
Ildi is volunteering at Auser Molfetta Onlus, in Italy within a European Solidarity Corps project coordinated by Associazione InCo.