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European Youth Join Russian Week of Volunteerism
Written by Dmitry Samko, secretary general, UPF-Moscow
Sunday, April 26, 2015
Moscow, Russia—Young people from Austria and Germany joined Russian Youth Ambassadors for Peace in volunteer projects during the annual Spring Week of Goodness.
From April 18 to 26, 2015, people all over Russia left their homes to clean up their neighborhoods and do other volunteer projects in a tradition that is connected to Global Youth Service Day.
At the invitation of UPF-Russia, several young Austrians and Germans paid a visit to Moscow, acting on their desire to cooperate with Russian youth and support socially significant events that lead to closer relations and the elimination of barriers.
Benedict (Germany), Vera (Germany), Gregory (Austria), Joan (Austria) and Hide (Austria) participated in volunteer projects at the Kosinski Sea Yacht Club, where children engage in water sports. They scraped the bottoms of boats, cleaned the area and helped in other ways, communicating through the language of heart and goodness.
After their labors, the visitors were treated to lunch and to a ride on a boat. Alexander, a 12-year-old member of the yacht club with five years’ experience in boatbuilding, took the foreign guests on board his snow-white boat to sail on the waters.
UPF would like to express its appreciation to Mikhail Shadrin, commander of the Maritime Club, captain of the first rank and yacht captain, for the wonderful experience.
The Youth Ambassadors for Peace organized a special meeting on "The Role of Volunteerism and Youth Initiatives in the Formation of Social Cohesion" at which opportunities and prospects for individual peacemaking initiatives were discussed.
The guests from Europe spoke of their experience in organizing volunteer projects in Austria and Germany aimed at resolving acute social problems. All the participants had the opportunity to ask many questions and receive valuable advice.
Joan organized a ball game in which every player could say a few words about themselves, list the things that they would like to improve in their native country, as well as things that caused them to feel pride in their nation.
This simple but very interesting game showed how similar all people are. Only together, only united, will we be able to solve the world’s problems as each contributes their talents and abilities for the common cause.
As guests visited the main places of interest in Moscow, with sincere enthusiasm they exclaimed that the Russian soul is the same as the territory of Russia: beautiful, vast, and with lots of potential.
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