Rock the Vote, Eurovision & the Mournes

Rock the Vote NI goes south!

On May 16^th, roughly one week before the Irish Referendum on Equal Marriage that you’ve probably heard of, Rock the Vote was launched in Dublin, at the Reco Centre Ballymun.

Dancers, magicians, bands, rappers (including Lethal Dialect) and inspiring speeches were part of the event and the young people who organized it did a great job! Of course we have some videos again that will give you a good impression of how the day went!

The weekend after was full of celebration as well: Ireland became the first country to introduce equal marriage through public vote and the Eurovision Song Contest was on! So what else should we do than celebrating a party?

Of course the ESC is never a real highlight in terms of high quality music but somehow it’s fun to watch it anyway, especially together with a lot of people from different countries.

Emelie (you might know her from this blog because she was doing her EVS with Public Achievement last year) even visited and brought Swedish flags with her – maybe that’s why Sweden was winning in the end?

On Monday there was Spring Bank Holiday and even the weather was good (well, in terms of Northern Irish weather of course, at least it didn’t rain) so we decided to go to the Mourne Mountains, the highest mountains in Northern Ireland which acted as an inspiration for C.S. Lewis (author of Narnia) and a filming spot for Game of Thrones.

We went there by bus but to be honest the planning with Translink services (public transport) can be quite difficult. As it was a public holiday, Sunday timetables were supposed to operate but somehow the Journey Planner on the website didn’t show that. When we finally managed to get the right bus we had to pay £14.50 for a return ticket, even though Newcastle is only about 1h away and you can even go to Dublin for a cheaper price! We were the only people on this bus so who knows - maybe we really payed for the whole journey. 

From Newcastle we took a Rambler bus that should take us up to a place called “Silent Valley” which would be too far away to reach in just one day if you don’t have a car. It’s a really beautiful place with a water reservoir between the mountains and you can even go up to the dam that is holding all the water. It’s incredible how silent it can be if there are no streets with loads of cars nearby. Also it was surprising that there are actually some houses and farms in the mountains. Again you could see the friendliness of Northern Irish people, greeting you on the way or starting random conversations with you. And of course they are amazed each time when you tell that you’re an international volunteer.

The landscape really looks amazing and especially on a sunny day it’s worth a visit!

Meet our friends

David from Exodus, Moni and Stef from Depaul Ireland, Ángel and Anton from Tools for Solidarity told us what their every day at work looks like and how they enjoy their time in Northern Ireland. 

Rock The Vote Events

February and March were very productive - we had three big Rock the Vote events.
Originally from the USA Rock the Vote is a campaign that encourages young people to vote in a way, which is fun, entertaining, and informative.
We helped with organising and it was a pleasure. What can be better than arranging concerts with local talents? Our role was to support the campaign with social media content, PR activities such as inviting politicians for speaking sessions and communicating with bands and musicians. A little summary of the events, which were especially useful in terms of the upcoming Westminster elections this year and NI Assembly elections in 2016:

24 February Rock the Vote at Mandela Hall

This Rock the Vote gig had been arranged in partnership with Queen’s Student’s Union and included several slots between the band sessions to talk with politicians from different parties.
But we had something to struggle with. It was amazing to get such a great local venue for the campaign, however Mandela Hall is for 1200 people and of course, we couldn’t fill it with such a big amount of visitors. Surprisingly, when our guests came, the size of the venue didn’t spoil a friendly ‘home’ atmosphere and the sound for the concert was perfect! Moreover we had enough space for talking sessions and live stream equipment. First we thought that young people will come just to listen to bands and maybe because of free pizza. But you should have seen those political debates during the slots! Visitors asked a lot of questions and tweeted every minute about who said what about different problems in Northern Ireland. So it is a big mistake to think that young people are indifferent nowadays.

Enniskillen Hustings event

It was another event where WIMPS crews and all young people from Northern Ireland were invited. In between we also visited several local events with voter’s registration forms to make registration for the elections easier for students, young workers, volunteers etc. This part of work can seem to be boring as what you need to do it is promoting the campaign and explain people why they should vote, but not for foreigners in Northern Ireland!
During those days we could learn about so many different opinions about local politics, society, and issues people are worried about, that it was worth it! Every time we were excited about watching what people were writing on the line ‘Citizenship’ as most of them have both – Irish and British ones.
Many people were very confident how to answer this question but some were really confused. Someone asked us if we voted in our own countries and probably our answers in some ways could convince them to do it. The election system is quite tricky in the UK and if you vote for a specific party it doesn’t mean it will work in its favour in the end. That’s why there is a reason to hesitate about voting. But at least the government encourages everyone to vote for what they want and you have a real voice compared to politic life in some other countries. Such activities we are involved in make it possible to learn a lot about this country and people. That’s what we were happy about.

The last event happened at Stormont in the Senate Chamber as a part of the Commonwealth Day Celebration on the 11th of March and it was entirely beautiful. A local singer and songwriter Katie Richardson accepted our invitation to be a headliner and there were two more nice young bands from Belfast schools. Several speakers – young people who actively participate in political life – gave a speech on what the Commonwealth Day means for them. (here pictures and videos from Stormont).

Photo: Paul Smyth

We recorded some songs with a phone. Enjoy!

Residential

Hi, today we will tell how we were arranging our first residential for girls, which basically means going away for a weekend together with a group of young people. There’s loads to think about beforehand and to organise - we called residential centres, organized transport and activities, wrote parent’s letters and filled in loads and loads of forms about orders, quotations and invoices… we are experts now!

But even the best planned residential can give you some surprises and the chances of parents consent forms getting lost increase with departure time getting closer, that’s scientifically proven!

But in the end we were all sitting in the bus on our way to Newcastle, looking forward to a nice weekend. And it was really successful! We wanted the girls to think about a story matching the project name: Away from Violence, Breaking the Cycle. Beforehand they’ve already decided to make a film about their story and they managed to create a storyboard plus the whole film within 4 hours!

It was great to see how much fun they had and how they were really getting into their roles. As soon as it’s edited you can watch it online, of course.

After this successful day they’ve had some free time to play football and meet other groups who were staying at the residential centre but we were also making some nice pancakes with Nutella and everything.

We managed to get at least a few hours of sleep before we started the next day with going to the town where everyone had some free time. While the girls were exploring the shops and amusements Newcastle has to offer, we tried “Mauds” ice-cream for the first time (really nice!) and found a lot of shells on the beach, furthermore the weather was wonderful throughout the whole weekend!

Back at the residential centre there were two climbing activities planned for us. It was good fun even though Irina and me are both a bit afraid of heights and only tried one of them. But our group was so brave, we were really impressed!

After all those activities and the short night everyone was sleeping in the bus back to Belfast but it seemed as if they’ve really enjoyed it and everything worked out well, that’s the best reward!

we are back

It has been a long time since we published the last post on our blog. 

We have to admit that it is not excusable especially because many people appreciated that we had an EVS blog. So it is time to continue. 

A lot of events have prevented us to write every Monday, however now we have something to tell you about. 

First of all we’ve been busy with selecting new volunteers. 

Public Achievement got about 75 CVs and spent 15 Skype interviews. Can you imagine? It is even tougher than entering University and looks like the most desirable job on Linked In. 


So, EVS is definitely popular and well known. But be sure, PA staff knows that it is a volunteering opportunity for young people from all over the world and not a fair of vacancies. It was so hard to choose, everybody who applied really deserved a chance to do EVS. Sometimes it was even confusing, as some people had described so much experience and knowledge that we were wondering – why do they need EVS? 

Of course we didn’t try to answer this question ourselves. You know better why you need this amazing experience. We were trying to choose people according to their CV, motivation letter, application form, feeling after the Skype interview and the main subject of the project. 

We just would like to say: don’t give up if you are not chosen again and again. It is definitely not your fault. Apply again and again. You will gain skills of being interviewed and you will be accepted for a project, which is personally about you. 

Yes, the selection process is very rigorous but it is only because of the amount of applications from very talented and experienced people. If you are young and not very experienced but your motivation about a particular subject is very high, believe in your success, you can compete with experienced people. EVS is about opportunity and organisations understand that they don’t choose a worker. It is about contribution – cultural, emotional and creative. So, just carry on applying and don’t hesitate to write long motivation letters and answer questions in detail. Although it makes the process longer it can help to know each other better. Remember that not robots will read your application but normal people who are interested in having a nice volunteer in their team.

This week we are going to tell about our role in organising local events. 

See you tomorrow,

Isabel&Irina

Active Citizens Week

The last week was pretty busy that’s why you couldn’t see our weekly post.

We were excited to have guests from different countries at Public Achievement who came for a program called “Active Citizens” which was started by the British Council.

The young people arrived from Palestine, Pakistan, Nigeria, Vietnam and England to explore social, community and charity work in Belfast and to exchange experiences of their own countries. A week before volunteers from PA also visited Pakistan as a part of this program.



Luckily, we could join them, too - not only to help with organizing events but as participants as well.

During three days we visited the Northern Ireland Assembly, some Belfast organizations such as Duncairn Centre for Culture and Arts, Fortwilliam McCrory Centre and the SHINE Autism Group.

We did a Black Taxi Tour through interface areas in Belfast where we learnt a lot about the conflict history of Northern Ireland and especially for the international visitors this was very interesting, because they didn’t know a lot about the conflict and the post-conflict situation in Northern Ireland before they came here. But of course it’s also a cultural exchange, so we had a little Culture Night where we shared typical food and made friendship bracelets and went to “Culturlann” Belfast for having a huge Irish dinner and learning some Irish dancing afterwards.



It was very useful to learn specifically about social work and problems in other countries, compare them to experience of your country and Northern Ireland. For example, Ala from Palestine was very surprised to see that people in Belfast support Palestine with murals and flags, he’d never seen something like this in any other country before and felt very welcomed. Some people had a lot of first impressions – it was the first time for Amina from Nigeria and Rafia from Pakistan to see snow. So we had a really exciting week with all these people.

During the whole week we were also doing lots of EVS Skype interviews to select the new EVS volunteers starting in September 2015. It was a very hard decision because we had a lot of good applicants, but in the end we managed to pick two of them for the placements. Choosing volunteers is definitely nothing easy and takes a lot of time but it is also very interesting and a good experience.

We finished our Friday on the “Ending Hate” training at Crescent Art Centre, provided by the Good Relations Unit of Belfast City Council and South Belfast Roundtable.

In an interactive way we were taught how to deal with racism and hate crimes being witnesses, what minorities in Northern Ireland feel like and main causes of racism.

But that wasn’t the end! On Saturday we filmed a Demonstration against the 'Conscience Clause' in front of Belfast City Hall.
We hope you will see this report soon.

Ira&Isa

EVS Survival Guide

Before going to Belfast we knew nothing about what it looks like, if it is possible to survive with only volunteer pocket money, what we need to take except for 2 suitcases full of clothes, in which rooms and with whom we are going to live etc. We didn’t have any problems to accustom to the new environment but if you don’t expect something you can feel upset being far from home. Different people decide to try volunteering. Some of them are very young and never lived away from their relatives and friends, some of them lead an independent life and had a lot of experience at work and as a result they are used to living in comfort and getting normal salary monthly. But, obviously, even though you didn’t have a big family or a good job you will notice there is a challenge to overcome some obstacles. We would like to tell about our experience and give some advices about living in the UK and Belfast.

Communication

Don’t worry about communication. In Ireland there are the friendliest people in the world. If your English isn’t very good it is not a disaster. Ask people a million times. They like black humour so this is the only thing you need to get used to. Don’t take offence, don’t be too serious. Just learn by heart who you are, where you are from, what your organization does, what you did before. During the next months you will need to tell people this information every day or every weekend.

The Weather 

1. From the first day of the winter buy a fan heater. Although you probably have visited the UK before as a tourist it is not the same to live in a volunteer or a student house. They all are provided with gas or oil heating system but as it is quite expensive to use your housemates wouldn’t be happy to put it on 24/7. And even if the radiators are on it might happen, that the rooms don’t feel as if they get warmed up. That’s why such a heater is really helpful in the morning and before going to bed, even though it also takes a lot of electricity and shouldn’t be used the whole day. So if you are afraid that your room won’t be spacious enough, start worrying that it will be too spacious to be well-heated.
 2. Don’t hesitate to take more warm clothes, especially for home for the same reason (however, in local shops there are the warmest pyjamas in the world and they are quite cheap, so decide what is better for you). Having a hot water bottle and a comfy throw for your bed is also very helpful and makes you want to stay in your bed forever.
3. Don’t panic about the cold. It can break your will. Just complain about it every day to everybody. It makes you feel much better – some people have the same situation, some will invite you to get warm or say that they are sorry to you.
 4. Belfast is a damp city. It is not raining every day like you can read on the Internet; the weather is just changing very quickly, which also means that rain doesn’t have to last very long. We were happy to discover that there are a lot of sunny days with a clear sky. Wake up in the morning and use these days to walk a lot in winter.
 5. Places where you can get warmed for free or cheap: - library - botanic gardens - museums with no admission fees like Ulster museum or MAC - pubs (literally if you don’t want to drink anything no one cares) - your office (just start being a workaholic!) - sometimes cinema - buses - some churches.

Safety

Belfast is a pretty safe city. THERE IS NO WAR in Northern Ireland (tell your parents). Moreover you can walk all districts yourself without guards or even local people.

Medicine 

Something amazing in the UK is, that you can register in a health centre and get all medical services for free (basically, you don’t need to pay, then send your expenses to your insurance company and wait for your money).
Something not so good (but understandable) is, that you need to wait very long for your appointment, but actually you can also use the emergency time slots if you are not feeling well, you should just always phone before you go to the medical practice. Therefore you don’t have to wait very long, there are even signs that say that you should tell the receptionists in case you’re waiting more than 20 minutes already!

Money

Actually, it’s not so hard to live with your EVS money. There are a lot of free or cheap charity events, most galleries and museums have no admission fee so you won’t feel a lack of events in your life. It is more complicated if you want to go shopping very often (not for food and vital things) and if you would like to travel outside of Ireland, but let’s be honest: that’s not what the allowance is meant to cover, so you can have a nice life out of the money you get! Anyway, a piece of advice – check not only Tesco supermarket. It can be time consuming but you will save some pounds for travel tickets or something else: some things accidently can be found in Lidl, pound shops or other places. Basically, you can find everything here for only one pound (depends only on season, sales and amount). This week you can buy apples for one pound and the other week – pears. Just look at sales shelves and choose what is cheaper and try to remember prices for necessary foods in different places.


Transport

You can easily walk to a lot of places and sometimes you can even discover some new, interesting places through this. If you are not used to the left-hand traffic, you should watch out a bit more for the first few weeks until you know from which side a car might come. Anyway, even though there are a lot of traffic lights, it doesn’t mean everyone cares about it, at least not the pedestrians. People here are crossing the streets nearly all the time. A red light only means that a car might come along, but if you don’t see any, why should you wait? And even if a car is coming, they often wait patiently until everyone crossed the street. If you decide to take the bus, get a pink metro pre-paid card that you can top up with journeys to use whenever you get on the bus. This way you are only paying 95p instead of £1.90 per journey. Don’t worry if you’re waiting on the bus stop and the bus isn’t coming – it is normal that buses aren’t always on time and sometimes don’t come at all, but people here know about it, so it shouldn’t be a problem if you’re late because of that If you get off the bus: don’t forget to say “Thank you” or a usual “Cheers” to the bus driver! As we said before: people here are very friendly and polite. If you’re planning to travel outside of Belfast you don’t have to worry about a lack of transport as well: the train system is well established and there are enough Coaches to various places all over the island and a lot of them even drive regularly during the night! For travelling to Belfast it might be easier and cheaper to fly to Dublin and just getting one of the coaches from the Airport to Belfast.

Housemates 

Probably you will share a house with other people, maybe students, PHDs or maybe even other volunteers. However you’ll be excited to meet them but don’t worry if they maybe don’t become your best friends during the year or if they don’t like a clean bathroom as much as you do. (Cleaning rotas might help but of course they don’t always do – take it with humour and see it as a lesson for life, because it certainly won’t be the last time that you’ll live together with others) You won’t have problems to find nice people or new friends during your EVS time, you’ll meet a lot of people through your work, through other volunteers, in your neighbourhood or simply on parties and if you can’t chum up with your housemates just befriend with other people! It is certainly nice to have a living house community but it can be nice to get to know a lot of people from ‘outside’ as well. Take things as they are and make the best out of it!

Irina&Isabel