De Federatie is lead en supporting organization voor het Europese vrijwilligersprogramma ESC (European Solidarity Corps). Via onze partnerorganisatie Freunde der Erziehungskunst (https://www.freunde-waldorf.de) ontvangen we (momenteel voornamelijk Duitse) vrijwilligers die een jaar lang in één van onze steinerscholen schoolondersteunend werk komen verrichten. Voor de vrijwilligers is dit een kans om in België de Europese cultuur en meertaligheid op te doen; voor de scholen is dit een kans om nieuwe, jeugdige inspiratie op te doen, en dan nog wel vanuit het buitenland.

De Federatie is hierin go-between, bemiddelt, adviseert en ondersteunt en beheert tevens de hiermee verbonden subsidies.

De Federatie kan ook bemiddelen voor twaalfdeklassers uit Vlaanderen die graag na het middelbaar voor een vrijwilligersproject naar het buitenland zouden gaan. Neem hiervoor contact op via europeanprojects@steinerscholen.be.

De Federatie Steinerscholen organiseert sinds een aantal jaren met Europese subsidies vrijwilligerswerk in steinerscholen. Wanneer een steinerschool een ‘quality label’ behaalt, komt ze in aanmerking voor het ontvangen en tewerkstellen van vrijwilligers. Door onze samenwerking met de Freunde der Erziehungskunst om geschikte vrijwilligers te vinden, zijn voorlopig al onze vrijwilligers van Duitse oorsprong. Enya Cornelis begeleidt zowel de scholen als de vrijwilligers. Onlangs organiseerde zij een uitstap met Jule Marie, Heléna-Marie en Leander, die dit jaar in de steinerscholen van Leuven, Lier en Gent werken. De drie jongelui schreven daarover onderstaande bijdrage.

The dream of every student – a change of environment after a dozen years spent in school. Time to travel, make new friends and discover everything the world has to offer. Some were making the step to go live abroad for a year to escape the cage of routine at home, some to get to know ourselves and figure out what we want to do with our lives. But there is one thing – besides our lovely friendship – that the three of us share: we wanted to give something back and grow personally.

So here we are now, the three volunteers at the Middelbare Steinerscholen in Leuven, Lier and Gent. After graduating from German high schools, we decided to take the leap into the wide, wide world… and ended up in Belgium. Upon a stressful arrival, whether it was with delayed trains or cancelled flights, it took us quite some time to get used to the rainy and in general rather depressing Belgian weather. Now we mostly stopped complaining and started to appreciate every sunray, especially because we could really not find any way around having to cycle each day.

Another impactful change in our lives was our living situation in a host family. Staying with people you don’t know at all can be very strange in the beginning but once you get to know each other, a wholesome relationship can develop and enrich your experience with an insight into the real Belgian lifestyle. By stepping out of our comfort zone in that way, we realised how easy it is to get used to a new environment by simply letting it happen.

Same is to be said for the daily work at school. After some weeks of orientation, finding our way around and trying to memorise everyone’s names, we had the school life’s patterns figured out and designed our schedules accordingly. Now we are, besides assisting in lessons, doing some paperwork and occasionally struggling to find a fitting task, especially enjoying the more unique moments with the students and colleagues. For instance, we went on outdoor weeks, visited the Parliament and VRT studio in Brussel and are using our supervision in the schoolyard more and more to catch up with students and improve our Dutch skills that way.

However, we are not only growing and evolving in the project’s context but also privately, for example by trying out new hobbies. Especially sportive activities caught our interest quickly, so we started to go to the gym, play frisbee, join a dance club or simply meet up in Mortsel to go swimming every Wednesday (followed up by eating pizza – drie keer Funghi alsjeblieft). Every other free minute, we are using to discover Belgium. From Wallonie to Oostende and Antwerpen to Eupen – we have seen almost everything. So we expanded our travel area and went to The Netherlands, Barcelona and even Thailand.

Enya Cornelis, our dear coordinator, planned some trips through Belgium for us, too, and helped us not only to get to know the country but also ourselves through intense reflection work.

Now, seven months of our volunteer service are already over and only a short period of time rests to enjoy the work at school, travelling Europe and spending Wednesdays and weekends together. We know that sooner or later, this year is gonna end but that we will keep the things we have learned, people we met and memories we made always with us.

Scholen die geïnteresseerd zijn en ook graag een vrijwilliger engageren: neem contact op met europeanprojects@steinerscholen.be.

(Dit artikel verscheen  in Waldorf Echo nr. 24 van mei 2024)