14/03/2022

Volunteering at IFOAM Organics Europe: Team work and discovering Belgium

Hello, my name is Rico and in September I started working at IFOAM Organics Europe as one of the ESC volunteers. For 11 months, I’m supporting the Projects & Fundraising team.

After almost seven months in Brussels, it feels like I have been living here forever. I am well attuned to my work and currently trying to acquire German sponsors. I am also working on a report for the EU Commission’s LIFE-grant, which provides financial support to IFOAM Organics Europe and hence, requests an annual accountability report. The report is almost finished and must be handed in very soon. It is a lot of work and will consist of around 100 pages. So, it was very helpful that all colleagues have contributed to it! Next to that, I also started to work on a personal project during the ESC year. As I have a lot of fun presenting and designing, I will redesign many materials that we use in our team to send out to potential sponsors.

In my free time, me and the other volunteers try to see as much of Belgium as possible. The other day we went to the EU Parliament and got a guided tour. It was super interesting and impressive to see the plenary hall in real life. However, we still haven’t gone to Belgium’s coastal towns, and still haven’t seen much of the Walloon part of the country. Unfortunately, the weather was not so pleasing in the past months either. The typical Belgian rain, cold and wind was not really inviting to go outside. But when the sun peeked through the clouds no one could hold us back. Last weekend we made it to the famous Waterloo and even went to Liège. There you can find one of Belgium’s longest staircases and of course the famous Liège waffles. But there are still many more places to visit in Belgium and now that the spring is just around the corner, I am sure we will become more active again.

The volunteering project is funded by the European Solidarity Corps programme of the European Union. The sole responsibility of the content lies with the author and communication reflects only the author’s view. The National Agency and the European Commission are not responsible for any use that may be made of the information provided.

 
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