Allen's story

Hi guys, my name is Allen!! And I have joined Young Social Innovators Training 2 in Zadar, Croatia during 1 -9 June 2019 with VSA Thailand. First of all, I would like to thank you VSA Thailand (Volunteer Spirit Association) and P’Gate who offered me a good opportunity like this. This project cannot be done well without their supports. I used to attend projects coordinated by VSA for several times and every projects that I attended, VSA did impress me.  VSA always took a good care of all participants, prepare us many things before the project start until the end of project. And project in Croatia, VSA really took a good care of us as well.

To be honest, 9 days in Croatia is one of the best experience in my life. I have learned many things from this unforgettable seminar.

Start with Seminar room setting arranged in round shape which made me feel like everyone is equal thus participants had courage to speak out what they think. Only a Facilitator that stand in the centre. The Facilitator presented with slide presentation and provided us tools for discussion in the group work along those days. I really like this kind of learning. Since we all could read content from the slide set, the true essence was brain storming from different perspectives and application to the real situation. This concept is really work well! The way of learning by doing/ thinking/ discussing together is so powerful, it makes learning progress, easy to grasp the key message, and able to apply which is much better than lecture. I could say that this experience is really useful for me in widen my world view. And it’s not boring at all. Everyone goes there having fun, got a new friends, get a useful knowledge and enjoy the workshops.

I also understood more about social issues and situation of other countries, for example, on June 4th our Group work, we got the topic of UN Sustainable Development Goals, and the facilitator asked each person wrote down specific issues of each country on post-it notes. After individual finished writing those issues, she asked us to put our post-it on the wall, then grouping into category of SDGs. I found out with surprising that most of participants from Asia and South America were wrote about Quality Education, Africans wrote about Zero Hunger and Discrimination, whereas Europeans wrote about Decent Work & Economic Growth and Climate Action. There were something in common among countries from the same region where social structure, interest, and issues reflect from the participants.

I liked the way Facilitator arranged to the group works, then do a brainstorming activity. It’s diverse group of nationality, experiences, knowledge, and ideas which we all had different ideas to share and this way of working together did generate new or emerging ideas and still based on the theory we learned. Group dynamics is good since the group mixed are from different nationality. With diverse thinking and dialogue, everyone can learn not only the content but also perspectives of each other.  Emerging ideas come up from the group dynamics and equality of sharing which is really impressive and nurture learning. I saw this activity were very useful and valuable. I felt fun in both sharing and expanding my world view from listening to other sharing and experiences. Innovation is from this kind of thinking together and comes up with emerging idea which is applicable to the society since people who faced with the problem knew it and wanted to improve the situation.  I understood local issues from other countries which I have never aware of before.  Once we knew the real causes of the issue, the tendency to solve it in an innovative way is possible.

Besides the impressive Group work, on June 3rd the big group were divided into smaller group for field trip visiting a NGOs and Social Enterprise organizations in Zadar, then presented back to the whole group on what we have learned. My group visited Europe Direct which is a European information network designated by the European Commission.  We learned how the Europe Direct work in connecting with other EU organization. 

I also shared about, how VSA develops and supporting community in Thailand. For example, VSA host the volunteers from around the world, volunteers come to teach the kids in rural school. Also farming project and environment preservation in the local area.

This seminar is very useful for my learning. Not only learning that I’ve gained but also a good friendships and experiences that I brought back home.  I has friends from many countries and they’re very nice, also a Croatian friends and local people as well. We’re very close to each other due to our activities. During the free-time, we visited the city. I visited the city with friends from various nationalities, I also learned their language and their local culture, tried a street food, went to the Nightclub with local friends in Zadar, attended the church event, and swam in the Mediterranean Sea with these friends.  I experimented many things I have never tried before and all are memorable experiences.  I really love this project because this project open up opportunity for young generation to learn to be a citizen of the world and support all endeavor to make this world to be a better place. The more people with the like mind could help support Thai society moving towards Sustainability and well-being. I also learn how important of Social enterprise, and why we should make it happen in our society.  I do value this project and hope that I could attend this kind of project again in the near future or at least I could be part of the team to support the project. Finally, Thanks VSA in offering this good opportunity to me.