New year, newish blog

Hi, my name is Nahia and I´m going to take over this dusty old blog and try and keep it updated  (keyword: try)!

I´m a 23 year old girl from France and my face has already featured on this blog, along with a very interesting interview of myself by myself; indeed, I took part in Digicamp back in July as a camp leader. You may wonder how a french person who probably doesn´t speak much Finnish ended up working in Kotka: that is thanks to the European Voluntary Service, shortened to EVS, a pretty cool EU program.

The EVS is open to any citizen of a european country (+ a few extra partner countries, such as Lebanon) between 18 and 30 years of age, and allows you to volunteer in the participating country of your choice for up to 12 months. The projects available vary greatly: animal welfare, ecology, working with the elderly or people with disabilities etc. are all possibilities. The most common type of project however, and the same type I´m taking part in, is youth work.

During my time here in Finland, I´ve been given the opportunity to work in many different places: first at Huutjärven koulu in Pyhtää, where I spent several wonderful months assisting an English teacher, running an arts and crafts club, helping with various camps and generally having a great time; and now that I have moved to Kotka for the last few months of my stay, I am going to be working at youth houses Welho, Greippi, Kulma and Mesta, as well as at Karhuvuoren koulu and Langinkosken koulu. Of course, I have also been tasked with running this blog and making it rise from its digital ashes like an internet phoenix, which I will try my best at. So stay tuned for more posts and pictures!


Nahia