From July 29th to 30th was organized a seminar called “The Origins of Mercy” that revolved around helping elderly people. This was a great opportunity for volunteers from different cities to exchange their experiences and learn new skills, tips and tricks from their peers that will come in handy in their future voluntary projects.

The program of the seminar itself was filled with different activities:

— Meeting with new volunteers from 4 different cities (Chisinau, Balti, Ribnita, Tiraspol);

— - Meet-ups with specialists that are focused on psychology an dementia, as well as meeting with social workers of Hesed that work with elderly on daily basis;

— - Creative master-class to develop improvisation skills and many other sessions to exchange the experience and get the process of teambuilding going.

We are thankful to all the speakers, who were ready to share their experience as well as some words of wisdom with volunteers: O. Rogulski, O. Evdokimova, L. Semina-Ghitu. Together we discussed the problems and overall process of aging, shared thoughts and opinions, paint a general picture of what volunteer should be like dealing with elderly people, as well as how do elderly usually behave. During the last day of the seminar, we have composed a list of rules on how to communicate with elders and brainstormed new ideas for project and events under the flag of “The Origins of Mercy”.

We wholeheartedly believe that these three days have united the 50 volunteers participated in the seminar. Not only that, we tried to inspire them and provide the energy for the new beginnings! We wish them all the best!

Special gratitude goes to the coordinators of this seminar from every city and a friendly group of people who are ready to popularize the art of volunteering in their respective cities!