Labas, Lietuva! I am Ana from Georgia. I hardly can put into words how excited I am to be here happily volunteering at the youth centre, in Telsiai. This is my very first time in Lietuva and before I came here I have heard a lot about this beautiful country from my Lietuvian friends. I decided to apply for this programme because I have participated in and organized plenty of projects and I do know the real value of voluntary commitment and the role of non-formal education in raising civil awareness. Truth be told, being a part of voluntary work at ATJC is a great opportunity but at the same time, it is a big challenge for me as I have never been part of a long-term foreign voluntary programme. To be honest, everything happened so fast and sometimes we faced obstacles caused by the COVID-19 pandemic but with an instant help from Aleks (Georgian Youth for Europe) and amazing people from Telsiai Youth Center we handled everything quite well. I am so honoured to be part of such a wonderful team as Telsiai Youth Center, everybody welcomed me warmly and since my arrival, I feel like I am among friends and comrades.

Obviously, this kind of voluntary programmes are not only designed for gaining professional skills but to expand one's cultural horizons, meet new people, make new friends and create new connections as well. Unfortunately, it is a hard time for us because of the COVID-19 pandemic. I am not able to work as planned, to meet people in person as we all try to make everything distant and online in order to avoid spreading the virus. Still, day by day we come up with the new ideas on how to digitalize our work and I am happy to say that I've already established friendly relationships with youngsters. In spite of the current hard situation, I strongly believe that we will handle it gracefully as we know it. I do have a faith that soon we will get back

to the normal lifestyle and with renewed fresh energy, we will do greater things. I could not agree more with Nepos that after the darkness comes the light.

Ana Korinteli

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