Helping is Addictive

In Ukraine, I worked as an IT teacher at a secondary school, so once the school year ended, I had a long summer break ahead of me. I was looking for ideas on how to spend that time in a meaningful way. One day, I came across a short-term volunteering opportunity on Facebook organized by the Poznań-based association Stowarzyszenie Jeden Świat. I applied and was accepted. However, when I left for Poland, I had no idea that it would become my second home, and that a workcamp would mark the beginning of a much longer volunteering journey.

My first trip was an amazing experience, and it made me want more. Together with volunteers from different parts of the world, I spent two weeks at the Monar center in Gaudynki. Right after I returned, the association offered me a place in another workcamp - and I did not hesitate for a second. A week later, I was already on my way to Podlodówek near Lublin, where I volunteered for ten days at the Educational Center of Permaculture Gardens. The day after coming back from Podlodówek, I left again - this time for two weeks at the Monar center in Wyszków, near Warsaw. It turned out that through Stowarzyszenie Jeden Świat I could also take part in a year-long volunteering project under the European Solidarity Corps. I thought such an opportunity might never come again, so I decided to take it.

I met so many interesting and inspiring people. The oldest volunteer was fifty-seven years old and had already completed more than thirty workcamps! These kinds of projects are a fantastic opportunity for genuine intercultural exchange. I worked alongside volunteers from Korea, Vietnam, Pakistan, Mexico, Turkey, Armenia, Hungary, Belgium, Spain, and many other countries. I had probably never had so many fascinating conversations or learned so much about the world as I did during those workcamps. In many places, I felt like I was being treated as a member of the family. Sometimes language was a barrier, because some of the Monar residents did not speak English. Still, it was never an obstacle we could not overcome. We always found a way to communicate - even through gestures if necessary. Even if volunteers and local people were initially distant or distrustful toward one another, by the end of the workcamp everyone would hug each other and cry while saying goodbye.

Maria’s story comes from an interview published in the book Międzynarodowy Wolontariat Młodzieży. You can read the full version of the text here.

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