The beginning of a new race!!! My EVS is over

 Taking the first step and challenging myself going to Sweden was not an easy going thought. Lots of questions, fears and expectations at the same time. 365 days far away from my friends, family… looked difficult, but I said YES and now... it is DONE.

  During the past 12 months so many things have happened, so many things have changed and so much progress has been made in this period of my life. Looking back and I can say that one year ago I wouldn’t have pictured my life as it is now and the person as I am today.  I achieved my personal and professional goals and some goals that I have never thought I will. Nothing compares with the experience itself. Maybe you have noticed that, ever since I took the first steps of my EVS, I have been repeating that EVS is all about new experiences.  It is hard to summarize them in the text, but I will try.

 First, I want to say, that I am so lucky that I had my EVS at Framtidståget. It is the best place to gain your experiences at your personal and professional level. I had a privilege to work with amazing team – “Project Factory” and learn from them. As you know from my previous posts, we were working with different projects. I learned a lot about project management, I had possibility to be a co-trainer and to train my public speech skills. I tried and put my idea into the action; I wrote my own project and got a grant from the NA. It is kind of result for me and I feel so glad because of this. Thanks to the support of my mentor Kristina I had the possibilities to challenge myself, to travel, to explore new cultures, to meet new people and to believe that everything is possible if you put your mind to it.


  My EVS year was not just working at Framtidståget, also I had an internship at the Embassy of Georgia to Sweden. It is a huge experience for me, as for a person who is interested in international relations. Also it gave me a chance to make a network with Georgians in Sweden and sometimes to feel myself as at home.

   Of course my EVS was more than just a hard-working process. One of the best things which I got is nice memories with nice people.  With my new friends I have visited lots of beautiful places in Sweden and in other countries. We had so memorable times together, I am so grateful to have them in my life.  After my EVS I feel, that I became a travel-addicted person, I hope I will keep this addiction. J 

   Yesterday was such an emotional day. We evaluated our EVS, got so nice words from Yousef, Kristina and from other staff. Also, we got the presents and lots of hugs. We had a Goodbye dinner with our project team, which became a bit sad, because we realized that something wonderful was over. But, I believe that the finish line is just a beginning of a whole new race.

Recommend EVS?  Without a blink!

P.S     I want to give you 12 reasons why you should go for EVS:

1. You will get so much professional and personal experiences / Learning process every day.
2. You will be faced lots of challenges. 
3. You will work in the multicultural environment.
4. You will have the most colorful days in your life and will say NO to routine.
5. You will find the time to do some funny staff and to travel.
6. You will have so many interesting things to do in the real life that you will miss out all the stuff what is happening on fb. 
7. You will be able to make new friendships and risque to forget previous ones.
8. Maybe you will find out what is interesting for you and will change the directions of your life.
9. You will find that the dreams come true and start to change them into the plans.
10. You might be forced to quit all your bad habits.
11. You will become independent, organized, structured, and able to survive in a big and expensive city.
12.  You will get in love with helping others.

ForumSYD conference "Anti-discrimination and equality in Eastern Partnership and Russia"

During my EVS I got into close cooperation with official Belarusian community in Sweden "Sveriges Belarusier" and became a representative of that NGO (in addition to Föreningen Framtidståget) at ForumSYD Eastern Partnership Network of Swedish Civil Society NGOs. Since the end of 2015  "Sveriges Belarusier" together with 8 big Swedish NGOs (ForumSYD, RFSL, RFSU, Östgruppen, Kvinna till Kvinna, etc.) have been involved in the preparation of 2-days conference on the topic of anti-discrimination policies in Eastern Partnership and Russia.

The conference took place on the 15-16 February 2016 in Stockholm. The first day was a closed event with presentations of civil activists from partner countries (Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia). Some representatives from local NGOs took part and presented current anti-discrimination law system in Sweden. There were also panel and group discussions to exchange experience and think about future cooperation in the field. The second day was a free open event for everybody at Royal Coin Cabinet - also as a mix of presentations and panel discussions.

This conference covered different forms of discrimination: women, ethnic minorities, LGBT people, elderly people and people with disabilities. For example, "Sveriges Belarusier" invited guests from 2 Belarusian NGO's, Sergey Drozdovsky from "Office of human rights of people with disabilities" and Tatsiana Yakauleva and Dzmitry Valoshka from "Children. Autism. Parents".

Tatsiana and Dzmitry were in Stockholm for the first time and were very excited by the city and people. They stayed in Stockholm a bit longer than the conference to have study visits to NGOs that work with autistic children, and in addition visited us at Föreningen Framtidståget.

“God Jul”

Winter is coming, along with the Christmas holidays. It is my first Christmas out of my home country Georgia and also, it is the first time for me to celebrate it on 25th of December. In Georgia we celebrate the Orthodox one on January 7th.  

Lights and colors, decorations and music, there is a Christmas atmosphere all around the city which made us to make Christmas mood in our office as well. I tried to take responsibility of making this mood. Finding old decorations, buying new ones and decorating the rooms was a very joyful process. We tried to make our office cozier. We put a small Christmas tree, lights, stars, candles. 

Also, Iryna and me had a special mission going to the forest early in the morning in order to look for cones for a wreath. Actually it was not so difficult for us, because around our house in Tumba there is a huge forest. The most interesting part was making the wreath itself. Our mentor Kristina taught us how to make it, it looks very nice. You can see the result.  

Christmas mood in Framtidståget is not just the decorations. On the 8th of December whole Framtidståget’s team was invited to the Engelen Restaurant where we had a “Christmas Table” – “Julbord”.  During the event we tasted delicious dishes and also alcohol free glögg.  It wasn’t easy to taste everything, but we did our best.  The whole evening was very nice, full of nice talks with our coworkers and some jokes.  On the next day at the weekly meeting our boss Yousef made a surprise for us - presented the gift card to “Coop” supermarket.

  At the end of the article I want to tell you about the St. Lucia celebration which is celebrated on the 13th of December. It is the longest night of the year and Lucia is associated with light. On this day, I had a chance to attend the traditional Lucia concert in the church. It was a double pleasure for me, because my mentor Kristina was Lucia and she was singing. The angelic tone of her voice and the gentle glow of candlelight made this day an emotional one. Spreading the warmth  is the message of the day and yes, SHE DID. 

The meeting of AMSED network

  From 19^th to 22th of November association AMSED organized a networking meeting where gathered the partner organizations from UK, Romania, Turkey, Portugal and Lithuania. I had a possibility to represent Föreningen Framtidståget at this meeting. The meeting of AMSED network took place in Strasbourg. The main aims of the meeting were to make cooperation between the represented organizations and to exchange the project ideas.

  On the first day we got to know to each other and made the presentations about our organizations and our works. All participant organizations are working with youth and mainly with Erasmus+ projects. We had lots of common topics to discuss. During the meeting we had some kind of brainstorming about possible cooperation and project ideas. Because of the fact that we were just 6 participants we were working as one group. The main working topic was partnership ideas for 2016. Some of participants presented a project idea, which was already created. Also, we were working with the new ideas; we created 3 topics of project ideas and wrote the drafts.

  The first part of the second day was about tools and actions. We exchanged our experiences and discussed the methods, which would make our work more productive. Also, on the second day we attended the Meeting of Youth and Diversity. The event was organized by AMSED and included different kinds of activities, such as: language workshop, live library, hate speech and dancing workshop.  

  During the visit we had possibilities to see some interesting places in Strasbourg and to have a nice time together. 

Train of the future

  On the 26^th of November Föreningen Framtidståget hosted members of the board Achraf Tribak and Said Bouchiba from the branch organization Train of Future (ATAL) - Larache, Morocco. We discussed the strategic plan for ATAL. It was about the future actions, projects against the environmental problems, working with youth and also, art projects. We had a discussion about some common plans, ideas and also, our project manager Kristina gave to them some advices. The moderator and also the translator of the meeting was Anas. The visit aimed to make a strong cooperation. 

Study and networking trip with ForumSYD

From 15th to 19th December, 2015, I took part in a project trip, organized by ForumSYD. We visited Chisinau (the capital of Moldova) and Kyiv (the capital of Ukraine). The goal of the trip was to broaden cooperation between civil society organizations of the Eastern Partnership. Among the participants were the representatives of several Swedish organizations: ForumSYD, FN-Förbundet (United Nations Association in Sweden), Män för jämställdhet (Men for Gender Equality), PRO Sverige. I was there officially as a representative (and a boardmember) of Sveriges Belarusier (Belarusian community in Sweden), however during each presentation of myself covered also my EVS volunteering.

At the very beginning of the trip I met several representatives of Belarusian diaspora in Moldova, among them - the leader of cultural Belarusian movement Hanna Mazur. Among those, who came to the meeting, where people, who had moved to Moldova 40 or more years ago, and those - who had done it just several years ago.
Together with all participants of the project trip we had numerous visits to other Moldovan NGOs, for example - Moldovan Institute of Human Rights (IDOM), UNDP Moldova, Legal Resources Centre from Moldova (LRCM/CRJM), East Europe Foundation and branches of Swedish organizations Civil Rights Defenders and Individuell Människohjälp. On the second day we took part in a big meeting of different Scandinavian, Western European and local civil society organizations at the Swedish Embassy, where the representative of European Commission described the new program "EU Roadmap for Engagement with Civil Society".

In the morning of the 18th November we arrived in Kyiv and on the same day had visits to organizations Convictus and Studena, who work particularly with gender-based discrimination. The same evening I met the leader of the Belarusian language club, where the majority of the participants (including the leader himself) are Ukrainians - so it was really a good example of how people of the neighbor country behave about my Homeland.

From the 19th till 21st of November Kyiv was a meeting place for an annual Eastern Partnership Civil Society Forum. Most of the participants, including the Belarusian National platform, arrived the day before. So in the afternoon of 19th of November, on the last day of my networking and study trip, I had a great chance to get acquainted with big group of representatives of different Belarusian civil society organizations, including youth NGOs. Obviously, with youth NGO's, who, among all, work with Erasmus+ program, we had a lot of common topics to discuss and even had some kind of short brainstorming about possible cooperation and project ideas.

Study visit to “Kvinnor utan gränser”

   On the 10th of November we had a study visit to a women’s association named “Kvinnor utan gränser” (Women without boarders). We met the chairwoman of the association Salwa Abdallah, who was the guide during the whole visit. We had a possibility to see the center where they are working and to meet other members. They are from different countries with different backgrounds. It was very interesting to speak to them. It was inspirational to see the workshop rooms, too. The center is very well organized, suitable for different kinds of activities.

 The organization helps women and girls to integrate into Swedish society. The members and interns participate in everyday activities and get prepared for the job market. They have handcraft workshops, such as knitting and sewing, as well as baking.The women also sell their products on various fairs. Sometimes they also organize discussions and work for democracy. The association has cooperation with the city municipality and with other organizations.During the meeting our boss Yousef and project manager Kristina discussed some common plans for Kvinnor utan gränser and Framtidståget, too. We also had fika together and had a pleasure to taste the fresh potato pies baked by  the women from the organization.

 It was so interesting to see how people, with different backgrounds try to integrate into the local community and also, to keep their own roots.