Party like a Macedonian

Let me tell you something about Macedonia. This was my first event as European volunteer- to present my country to other volunteers. We are three Macedonian volunteers working on the same project called OLE, together we prepared the Macedonian night. We had a few ideas how to name the event, we wanted to be something different so we called it '' Party like a Macedonian''.

We prepared invitations for our guests, the volunteers with whom we have been working on projects and representatives from the hosting organization. We begun with the preparations a week before the event. We created posters from the most significant and important places in our country, places that we wanted to recommend to our friends to visit. We tried to present our tradition and habits in a creative way in order to create a positive atmosphere. We spoke about our cities, our tradition and rituals, Macedonian music and folklore. Not only the handmade candle jars, but also the bracelets with the colors of our national flag were made for our guests.

It was really hard to decide which of our traditional food we should prepare. It took as all day to finish the cooking, a few traditional meals that are typical for our country, some salads and desserts also. We worked like a team, and we manage to finish everything on time. The guests seemed to be really satisfied, they congratulated us for the delicious food, interesting stories and the gifts. We were happy to see that everyone that was invited came, also the people from our hosting organization. We felt really proud of our first event thanks to all the positive reactions we got.

Maja Golubova

Buna!

   My name is Maja Golubova and I come from Kochani, Macedonia. I am 25 years old and only a month ago I took the most exciting and challenging trip of my life – exploring who I am.

   My life so far is the same as of any other 25-year-old. Following the rules of the society I graduated from high school of Economics just to find out that I am not much into accounting. The next thing to do, to satisfy my parents and everyone else except me, was to enter a university. This time I`ve decided to be more honest with myself and follow my interests so I chose to study English language. Now, you think that that I`ve finally found my passion, but you are not even close. The university only made things worse. Although I enjoyed studying English, I have been studying it since I was 8, I did not get clear idea how to turn my knowledge into profit because that is what the university diploma`s for, right? I`ve tried to keep up the pace with my age group and found a job as a waitress just to play the “independent” role. But, if you are from Macedonia you know that here the independence costs a lot of “MK Denars”! I quit my job and I was about to give up everything, get a backpack and become a Nomad when a friend of mine came up to me with a suggestion. He said “Why don`t you try volunteering in Romania? I`ve been there, I liked it and it helped me to move on with my life.” And score!!! I needed no more explanations. I asked my boyfriend if he wants to be my companion on this “adventure” and when he said yes I knew that Romania is my next destination. We send our application to VCS, they forwarded it to EVS and after few days we were chosen for our volunteering mission in Arad.

  

After a month spent here in Arad I can say that so far I don`t have any regrets. We were well-received by the hosting organization and accommodated in an apartment with two amazing guys from Spain and Italy. Here we`ve also met many other volunteers from around the World that work on different projects what makes our stay even more exciting. Now let me tell you about our project – OLE. OLE or Outdoor Leisure Education is a project that involves the children with obesity. Our goal is to show these children how to lead healthy live and be physically active. As in any other country in the World the children in Romania are also the greatest clients of fast food stores and the problem became so big that the authorities couldn`t solve it by themselves. In the next 10 months 9 volunteers from Macedonia, Spain and Portugal will give their best to promote healthy eating habits and physically activity as a way of life among youngsters mainly through outdoor activities such as horseback riding, bicycling, hiking and organizing sport tournaments.

  I am really optimistic about the project and I promise I will keep in touch with any updates about it.

   Till then, stay well and do something good for the mankind.

Natasha Stojcheva

Hello!

My name is Natasha, and  I am not 19 (just for the record). I am from Macedonia, currently volunteering in Arad, Romania.

My project will last for 11 months and I am quite sure this will be a huge opportunity for me to learn new skills and strengthen the ones I have.
This project enabled me to learn and improve a few languages, thanks to my Italian and Spanish flatmates, also the  kids and the  people I met in Romania. 
My project is called OLE (Outdoor leisure education) and my obligation is to help the obesity kids by doing physical activities, improving their eating habits and encourage them to lead a healthy life. I am also having the opportunity to work with other volunteers on different projects and events.
So far everything has been great, and I am pretty sure I will miss Arad and all the great peope and friends I met here.

Ivan Iliev

Hello good people!

My name is Ivan Iliev, I am 23 years old and I come from Kochani, Macedonia. I spent the last year of my life trying to figure out what I want from my life and to be honest it exhausted me to maximum. Unlike most of my friends I wasn`t much into university so I`ve decided to sum up my skills and talents and see how can I take an advantage of it. It turned out that my passion for music, cooking, playing with kids and doing sports is suitable for volunteering work. I`ve never been part of any volunteering organization but it was time for me to turn a new page and do something new. While you are reading this I am in Arad, Romania volunteering on an 11-month project named OLE or Outdoor Leisure Education together with two volunteers from Macedonia and six more from Spain and Portugal (that we are still waiting to come).The project will involve the children with obesity problems and our mission will be to teach these kids how to eat healthy food, do some sports and live longer and happier live. I am excited about this project and I hope that my mission here will be successfully accomplished.

For those who are reading this: I suggest you to take part in volunteering around the World because it`s a big experience and once in a lifetime adventure.

Outdoor Leisure Education

Childhood obesity

Childhood obesity has become a huge problem and we should better start paying attention to it. The problem is not just the body weight, as a matter of fact, there are many severe health problems that we are might not aware of. Parents need to be informed what childhood obesity means and how should they treat the problem. Obesity is linked to many serious diseases such as heart problems, cholesterol, high blood pressure, sleeping apnea, and many more. Besides, kids don't want to be mocked for being overweighed, right?

How can we help parents to fight the childhood obesity?

 We know that the main problem is that kids eat more calories that they can burn, but parents cannot just make their kids stop eating, they need to encourage them to lead a healthy life.
It's not just the food that is causing the obesity problem.  Thanks to the modern technology, kids today are not interested in sports, they even forget how to socialize.  That's why parents need to convince their kids of the downsides these technologies have and try to spend more time with them. Support is what kids will need mostly. Parents need to rethink what kind of food they are going to offer to their kids and instead of buying them expensive phones they should start thinking about some outdoor activities that will help their kids be more active. Why not just buy a bicycle rather than the new iPhone?
Parents must inform themselves how serious childhood obesity is before it's too late.