“Now is the time to try new things!” – Kalina from “Alzheimer’s Bulgaria”

Today Kalina tells her story – a young woman with various activities and interests! How she chooses her volunteer cause and what successes she has achieved, read in her interview 🙂

Hello! How are you?

Hello! I feel good, motivated, and looking forward to my future.

Introduce yourself in a few words!

My name is Kalina Ekova. I am from Sofia and I am 21 years old. I am a student of political science and I work as an instructor in vertical acrobatics (pole dance). I am a curious person, I like to do and study many things at once and I am always looking for new ways to develop.

Have you been a volunteer before?

In 6th – 7th grade I was a volunteer at the Bulgarian Red Cross for a short time. I like to take voluntary initiatives when I believe in the cause.

доброволци среща

Tell us about the place where you are a volunteer!

This year I was a volunteer at the Alzheimer Bulgaria Association. It is an organization that deals with advocacy, prevention, awareness-raising, and improving the lives of people with dementia and their loved ones. In the association, everyone does what they like and what they can be useful with, and together we support each other and move forward to realize our cause.

What motivates you to apply for this project?

At that time I was looking for an internship related to my specialty. I stumbled upon an ad from the association in which they were looking for volunteers to work on social projects, writing, translation, and I thought I was suitable for this type of activity and that they would contribute to my development.

Tell us about your experience as a volunteer! What were your main tasks?

During the year I was a volunteer, I participated in various activities and I had the opportunity to choose the field of activity that I like the most. I started with the presence in seminars, meetings, initiatives of the association, and gradually took an increasingly active part in them – in recent months I participated in a press conference, represented the association at a meeting with members of the parliament, etc. I also did translations from English to Bulgarian and vice versa. I got involved in the writing of projects, and we got the possibility to create a solidarity project with the ESC. Currently, my main activities include writing articles and uploading them to the association’s website.

Were there any challenges you faced during the project?

Maybe in the beginning, I was a little confused because I didn’t know what the project was, what was expected of me, and what was the purpose of the tasks assigned to me. However, over time, getting to know the cause of the association, and the association itself, I realized why it is necessary to carry out such activities (for example, how important it is to raise awareness or discuss the problems of people with dementia, etc.) and began to be more creative and initiative.

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Do you have a favorite moment of your volunteering?

I had quite interesting and happy moments during the volunteering. For example, when I came up with the idea for the solidarity project and presented it to the rest of the association, they also got excited and helped me clear up the idea so that it was feasible, connected me with the right people, and gave me the green light to act.

The volunteer training I attended was really interesting and I had a lot of fun. We met different people from all over the world, who told us about their life in Bulgaria, shared their ideas and interests, we learned more about their countries, etc. So far I still have contact with them.

Has the pandemic affected your work?

Because of the pandemic, we did our work mostly online, but that was a relief for me. As a person who is always looking for new activities, combining volunteering with everything else in my life turned out to be much easier when some of the things became online. Fortunately, much of our work is done on a computer anyway, so there was no obstacles to being helpful and productive. There were no problems with communication either because we quickly found alternative methods to connect with each other.

онлайн среща доброволци алцхаймер

What would you say to young people to motivate them to volunteer?

I would advise them to not hesitate because volunteering includes many activities that could help every young person to better understand what they want to do. It gives us the opportunity to meet many different people with different goals and ideas, which could also help us better understand what we want from life. And now is the time to experiment and try new things!

What awaits you after the end of the project? What are your plans for the future?

I will continue my work in the association, and right now on the agenda is the solidarity project that we won. In the meantime, I continue to study and train. And we’ll see what comes to mind next.

 

 

 

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