By Lucía Laborda

The first weekend of July I had the opportunity to participate as a member of the BOFO in the training of volunteers who are going to participate on SCI work camps this summer. It was my first experience as a trainer for the SCI, and I just can say that I’m very grateful, because I enjoyed it very much, in many ways.

Firstly, because the team made me feels super welcome and involved in any part of the process from its preparation to its evaluation. Together, we revisited and modified the proposals from previous years and divided the tasks in the way in which we all felt most comfortable.

Furthermore, the place where we did the training was great: we were on the outskirts of a Llinars del Vallés, in a colony house where we enjoyed beautiful outdoor spaces, a lot of privacy and great food. This allowed us to have diversity of spaces for the different dynamics, and also allowed the participants to be together and keep teambuilding and bounding during their free time.

But, for me, the best thing about the training was the group’s dynamics and learning process. In this case it was a very young target, in which most of the participants were in their twenties. For many of them it was their first experience in volunteer activities, and even abroad, and they did not know what to expect.

Their fresh view, sincere curiosity and even their insecurities and questions provide us the perfect stage to open very interesting dialogues about interculturality, privileges, conflict resolution, climate justice or social change. In my opinion, opportunities like this are very necessary, and not just for participants, but for all the team, facilitators included. New perspectives and concerns always enrich the debate and give us the opportunity to reconsider some topics which are basic for giving a meaning to the actions we do.

Our volunteers proposed super interesting topics that concerned them towards their future cooperative work, such as the business of solidarity, paternalism, how intersectionality works in different cultural contexts, or how to respond to a crisis or conflict situation when volunteering.

Summarizing, I am super grateful to the entire team and the participants for allowing me to be part of this beautiful experience. I came back home with a backpack full of new people, dynamics, shared moments, laughter, and many questions and ideas, which I will love to keep discussing and sharing with the BOFO group in the future. Let’s keep learning and growing together!

Thanks, team!

Si vols formar part de la BOFO (Borsa de Formadores) escriu-nos a participacio@scicat.org.