`You came here for six months doing voluntary work without being paid. Are you crazy?" Such was the response of one teenager to a participant on EVS in Wales who was one of many volunteers to have produced reports on their experiences on the pilot EVS programme. These reports have proved invaluable to those developing the full programme.
The volunteer who elicited that rather sceptical response was Richard Angenieux, who was sent by a French voluntary organisation to Wales where he was received by the United Nations Association - International Youth Service (UNA-IYS, Wales). Richard mainly worked on a city farm in Cardiff for a six-month period last year. He worked with young people with behavioural difficulties and other volunteers and was busy repairing, maintaining and improving the farm, the footpaths, the buildings, the animal sheds and fences. He also went to a local school once a week where he talked to the 11- to 14-year-olds about France and its culture and language.
Richard was extremely enthusiastic about his time on the programme, describing it as "wonderful . . . because of what I've learned during the last six months: working with young people with social and behavioural difficulties, meeting extraordinary persons, discovering and travelling in Wales, learning about another culture, tasting the traditional Welsh food, sharing my culture with young people who respected me and with whom I built an extraordinarily strong relationship in six months. One important thing is my increase in confidence. I could write 10 pages like this but it wouldn't be sufficient to describe my experience".
A British volunteer who travelled in the opposite direction was Andrew Chainey, who went to a rural area of the south of France last year where he worked on various environmental tasks. Andrew wished to learn a European language while doing voluntary work in another country. He also wanted, on his return, to "encourage more people from my home area, the South Wales valleys, to become better European citizens and interested in volunteering both at home and abroad. The aim of his project was to improve footpaths in the region by clearing vegetation and drystone walling. On finishing the project he welcomed the fact that he had been able to learn French and that he had made many new friends from very different backgrounds which had given him an insight into a true European community. Andrew did, however, have some criticisms of the standard of the work that was being done, but in general he believed that EVS provided "an ideal opportunity to make the young people of Europe understand each other better and promote intercultural co-operation".
EVS has extended beyond Europe to countries such as South Africa. A group of European volunteers to that country were involved in a project to renovate a school and build a workshop for the women of the village. They did not simply leave behind the concrete reminders of their presence, but also inspired the local community to continue the work and they made a big impact on the attitudes of the people they worked with, such as the young South African who said: "I hadn't thought I could even live three weeks with white people". It was certainly a twoway process and one European volunteer remarked: "It turned my head upside down. I learned a lot about myself. I found myself in South Africa being a lot of use there".
The volunteers found that EVS gave "a chance for people without much experience in a specific field to go out and gain some experience". They could break out of the vicious cycle of needing work experience to get a job but not being able to gain any". One young Dutch volunteer summed up the general feeling of the group when he declared that "everyone should have such an opportunity".
Much has been learned from such reports and, despite teething problems, EVS has been welcomed by MEPs, the Commission, the Council, participating organisations and, most importantly, by the volunteers themselves. The evidence to date suggests that EVS is moving in the right direction.