HBTQ? – never heard before- professional/personal summary of Łukasz’ EVS

Hej! Hej!, I am Łukasz, human being from Poland, with a name starting with strange letter. No, no it is not “L”, it is “Ł”. Ex-volunteer. My first idea about my summary blogpost was to write only about my professional development during volunteering in Globala Kronoberg, but let’s make it more personal.

I was looking for a project around 6 months. I knew to which countries I wanted to go, and what kind of project I wanted become part of, so I was waiting for a good match. I haven’t applied for many projects, I was quite sure about my expectations. Here it appeared- Globala Kronoberg. Nice project, focused on youth, social media, international cooperation. Sounds very good. Ooo, it is part of some NGOs network- even better- I thought. I applied, I was accepted, I came. 

During this year I have grown a lot as youth worker. I had opportunity to work with youth (and) migrants, make small events. Every visit in school that we had, was a great opportunity to talk with students and got to know little more about education system in Sweden. Also I had opportunity to hold different workshops, even in topics that were new for me, for people with diverse background. I have developed my english skills, I have became more fluent, learned new words, started to pay more attention to grammar (from one side is influence of my co-volunteer Monika, and other – Swedish language lessons). In my opinion all those moments made me a better trainer, facilitator and person.

One slide of my presentation for schools says: Volunteering is a time for trying new things. And still I agree with it totally. I took opportunity to try so many new things, like acroyoga, paddle board, cold baths or tried again things that I didn’t have time for: herbalism, DIY cosmetics. From professional side, I took care of social media of an organisation and of course it was not perfect, but statistics are not lying: Monika- we did a good job! I was also encouraged to try new workshop methods, to ask questions, to try new things at workplace (graphics, video editing etc) , thanks to my supportive team (Tack: Jurek, Kristina, Martin, Mathilda, Monika, Rodrigo, Sara).

Living abroad is giving (I am using present time, because I have decided to live abroad) me a better understanding about myself and my identities. I can reflect about my identity as: Pole, European citizen, LGBT+ person (in Swedish HBTQ), family member, friend, trainer. Usually we complain a lot about what we have… Being born in Poland, in European Union, having master degree (and having opportunity to study), knowing English, being open LGBT+ person, having a time for leisure time, is a privilege and I knew it before, but now I am more sure about it, because I have met people struggling with resident permission, language barriers, misunderstandings, culture shock, unemployment; people being in closet (not open about their sexuality) and afraid to come out; people who experienced war, people who were forced to leave their countries… All of you- thank you, you are fighters!

EVS thank you for all lessons.

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