What a nice thing it was to prolong the summer by going to Italy in the middle of November to participate in “Upgrade My NGO”. Not only because it was much warmer in Italy than in Estonia, but also because this training course felt like being at home with all those amazing people.
By those people I mean the #shokkinfamily. I think it is really true when we talk about the “shokkin feeling”, which makes this family members be active, cheerful, helpful, kind, smart, outgoing, candid, determined …. It is hard to describe shokkin people – they are like sparkles. If you haven’t met those yet, put off all your things and do it now! I am extremely happy having met them, and now can happily announce that I am one of them.<3
Of course, we had days full of learning, analyzing, planning and more and more. At the end of the day, the challenge of this training course waas not small: 11 organizations coming together and analyzing their structure, strategies, values, mission and striving to improve the way they support youth involvement. WOW! However, the atmosphere there was so great that finishing work at 8 pm didn’t seem like something very tiring. Wich is more, after having a great dinner (don’t forget that we are in Italy, of course, we had pasta) we would meet again to just play mafia, dance, sing, eat lemons and just enjoy our lives together.
Meeting people who are involved in similar NGOs in other countries and seeing the work they have done this year was a nice boost for me personally to start wanting to do more things. During that training course, I was inspired not only as a member of a youth organization, but also like a simple human being thirsty to explore and learn new things.
I believe we all left the training with the luggage not only full of Italian food, but also of fresh ideas, new contacts for future cooperation, innovative methods in youth work, vitamin D and the feeling of calm in our hearts that the world is full of amazing people and some of them are our friends. And I am very grateful to all of this in my life.