ARCHELON continues the long lasting cooperation with EVS and hosts two more volunteers at the Sea Turtle Rescue Center (3rd Marina of Glyfada). The last few months we have with us two exceptional men, one from Finland and one from Germany. We are really happy to have them with us and once more we would like to thank them for all their effort and time along with their commitment to the protection of the seat turtles.
Below you can find what the young two men feel about their EVS experience up to now.

Philip Sjöwall, Finnish, 19 years old

I choose to participate in EVS because I didnʼt feel like to continue studying right after high school. Volunteering seemed more fun and giving than just stay home and work for a year and a friend told me that there was an organization that could send you to different projects all over Europe for almost free.

I was mostly interested in working with and helping animals but they were quite rare and the ones I applied to were already full. Then my sending organization told me that an organization they had already send people to that worked with sea turtles had a free spot and asked if I wanted it and I thought why the heck not. I had never been in touch with sea turtle before but that wasnʼt a problem at all and I got a hang of the work quickly.

The experience this far has been nothing but awesome! The work is hard at times but you never wake up in the morning with the feeling that you donʼt want to start working. All the people involving in the project are really nice and you meet a lot of new friends all the time. Itʼs been a great time in general!

Michalis Gatidis, Greek-German, 19 years old

My name is Michalis Gatidis, Iʼm 19 years old and half-German half-Greek.
I finished my A-levels (ger.: “Abitur”) in May and wanted to fill my time till my university studies with something interesting and exciting. There were many possibilities! I discovered that we have many different kids of Voluntary Services in Germany but why staying in Germany? I would have enough time to do something like that in my home country... I wanted to experience something different and as a half-Greek, it was as a matter of course for me to do my Voluntary Service in Greece. Regarding the different possibilities of arranging my plan, I decided to do a European Voluntary Service. In this case, my stay would be arranged by a German “sending”-organization and the Greek “hosting”-organization.
But which project should I apply for? Back in Germany, I would study Chemical Engineering but that was not what I wanted to work with during my EVS! After talking with friends and my friendsʼ friends, I heard of different animal welfare organizations including ARCHELON. I applied and Theoni, the volunteer officer and EVS-coordinator told me about the different projects of Archelon: the Rescue Center in Athens and the beach projects at Crete, Peloponnese and Zakynthos. My voluntary service should be about 6 months long. To me, it seemed the best to separate my time in three months on Zakynthos (1st August – 15th October) and three others at the rescue center (15th October – 31st January).

No sooner planed than done and suddenly I was sitting in a plane to the Greek airport and just as sudden in a bus to the port of Kyllini for the ferry to Zakynthos.
The ARCHELON-basecamp on Zakynthos is actually a big area with olive trees. During the existing of ARCHELON on the island, a roofing, a food storage house and a brick house for the showers and the toilets were built.

At my arrival, we were about 60 volunteers and about 15 at the end of the project, so there were many great people to meet and to have fun with! Beside the work at the beaches and the hotels, we also had a great time, we spent in Kalamaki, Laganas or at the basecamp with different parties and celebrations.

Same, in a smaller case, at the Rescue Center. Of course, the work we did was different! We didnʼt work with the nests at the beach and didnʼt have presentations, but we work directly with the turtles, clean them and give them injections. We also give guided tours to tourists in the Rescue Center.

Luckily I was able to split my voluntary service, so I can experience both and I recommend it to everyone who thinks about becoming an ARCHELON -volunteer!

If you want to contact me: michalis.g@online.de

    

"This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [announcement] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission is not responsible for any use of the information contained therein.”