News

The summer is over, the heat is slowly fading away and it’s time to say goodbye to our 12 foreign volunteers who came for this season. Working with you guys was a great experience, and we are proud of you, as each and every one of you improved, acquired new skills and became more well-rounded people. However, you didn’t just make such a positive, deep impression on us. We are sure that more than 150 children, whose summer you made more colorful will remember you with fondness. Although, due to the language barrier, you didn’t always understand how interested the little ones were in you, the Hungarian speakers were asked countless times when you would come again, if they would see you in the future.



Marina was the first who packed her suitcase and memories and left our small town. She was soon followed by Inigo, then the French team, and finally everyone else… It’s strange to think how much people can change in such a short amount of time, how much experience they can gain. Sóskút, Betfalva, Kőrispatak, Szentábrahám, Székelyvarság, the one-week trip between the camps… it’s as if we had just planned what you would do here today. 



At the same time, not only from our part, but also on behalf of the small Hungarian community, we would like to thank you for your work, the fact that you took on the world and embarked on this adventure in your free time. You brought freshness here, and thanks to you, the children here could taste Western cultures, admire your dances, and taste your national dishes. These experiences broadened their horizons, tore them out of their usual world. 



We would like you to know that although this program has ended, we are always preparing new ones, and we look forward to welcoming you back for them. In the meantime, we hope that you will remain with positive opinions about us and the community here, all the memories you made in Transylvania.

News

Our little team visited the picturesque town of Amarante, Portugal, in order to attend a unique and captivating youth exchange, that brought together participants from five different countries, each with their own stories to tell. The participants had a chance to delve into the world of Digital Storytelling, a journey that intertwined creativity, camaraderie, and cultural exploration.

The first day was all about the location and the participants. The warmth of Portugal marked the beginning of a new adventure. The day was dedicated to ice-breaking activities, helping the development of connections, and getting to know both the fellow participants and the enchanting surroundings.

As the sun rose for the second day, the names games continued just for a little longer. After the participants learnt all the names it was time to move on. The basic storytelling concepts were introduced, setting the stage for the rest of our journey ahead.

A bit of adventure took place on the third day. Participants went on a kayaking experience, navigating through the calming river of Amarante. This was a must to try since the town’s kayaking team is very well known and highly respected. After our physical endeavor, it was time to move to a more theoretical field. The afternoon started with a storytelling workshop, where participants learned the intricacies of crafting complex narratives.

The fourth day started with the embrace of the waves of the ocean. And while it became obvious that not all of us were born to be surf champions, we had fun and that’s what counts. The afternoon was dedicated to cultural activities in Porto, deepening their connection with the Portuguese culture and eating some Francesina.

Transitioning into the digital realm, the fifth day was all about storytelling in digital form. Participants learnt about the basics of editing, collected visual and auditory materials, and learned how to create an amazing trailer that represents the participants and their dreams. This was one of the key moments in the creation of the short videos.

The penultimate day was dedicated to working on the videos. Some were still collecting materials to work with, others had already started the editing, few were working with the sounds and music. With newly developed skills participants slowly started to piece together their short trailers that offered glimpses into their futures, their dreams, and desires. This process was a testament to their growth, not only as storytellers but as individuals who had found their voice.

The last day, as always, brought a mixed bag of emotions to the activities. The youth exchange had managed to transform a group of strangers into a team and managed to help build friendships (and in some cases even more than friendship…). The participants finished up their digital creations and reflected on the skills acquired and the beautiful memories that they made. Goodbyes were exchanged, and the air was filled with nostalgia even know the participants only met one week ago.

News

The ESC Short Term Summer Fun Team organized a 4-day camp in Varság, from the 28th until the 31st of August 2023. 12 educators and 24 children were present. Here’s a recap of all the fun we had!

On Monday we got to know each other and played games to remember our names. Monday was a very hot day, so in the afternoon we just had to go to the river. Once there, we played with water and water guns.



Tuesday’s morning break was special. We made fruit sticks! Banana, blueberry, grapes and tangerine, what a colorful mix.
This encourages children’s fine motricity skills and boosts their sense of touch using the different textures.

In the evening, there was a huge storm and we had a power outtage. That meant no more electricity nor light but also no
more running water, so we collected buckets of rain water to wash the dishes and flush the toilet. What an adventure! We sat outside to watch the lightning strikes. And it didn’t stop us from planning the next camp day!



Wednesday started under pouring rain. The volunteers were wondering how many children would come. Well, turns
out all 24 showed up, motivated as always, despite the unfriendly weather! So we did morning activities inside, such as crafting animals using toilet paper rolls. In the afternoon, once the sun was back, we switched to outside, to have more space to run around.


During Thursdays’ energizer in groups of 2 we learnt simple steps, practiced without the music and then turned the music on to try out our new skill. After lunch we did animal face paintings and then used our new faces for emotional theater.

After that, it was already time to say goodbye! As always, a lot of hugs and mixed feelings. As educators we were happy
that the kids had fun but as humans we were also sad to leave knowing we would never see them again.

Kids of Vargyas, we wish you all the best!

This project was also our last as a team and we will all go back to our countries next week.
Bye Romania, thank you ATA and the Hungarian community for the warm welcome you gave us!

News

Monday, Our first day of the amazing adventure camp, started by getting the kids to know each other. After that, we divided them into two groups. One group started with the games (Team 1), which was a baseball-like game while the other group did a whole workshop on how to read a map and how to make an improvised compass (Team 2). After that, we switched groups (Team 1 did the map reading and Team 2 the baseball game). We did that every other day of the camp, so that all of us could have fun in smaller groups that are more manageable, playing and making the amazing workshops.



On Tuesday, after the energizers, we played a few rounds of Police VS Thieves and Capture the Flag. After the break, we prepared some origami: birds, frogs, planes, handfans… and a theater improvisation game in group of 4 of 5 with different situations such as meeting a bear in the forest!



On Wednesday we played a very exciting game called Gymkhana. This game had eight stations, where the kids in groups had to complete several tasks, like bowling cans, passing a balloon without using their hands, or building a card castle. And while that was happening we started making little markers/flags for our big game of the next day.



Thursday was so exiting, we started the day with energizer activities and a super obstacle race where the kids had to use their agility to finish first.
After that we did a treasure hunt, in which teams of different color were looking for their little flags that were hidden through the whole school. We finished the day with some more relaxing games and a paint craft inspired from pointillism,done with cotton buds.



It’s been a super fun camp, but we still had one final day to spend together, so we prepared a surprise: after playing under the sun we wanted to refresh ourselves so we made a Water fight with water balloons, water guns, buckets and everything to refresh ourselves, after that we made a special craft, a kite to fly through the sky or to decorate and hang in our rooms!!

Its been a super fun camp with lots of different experiences to remember and even thought it is ending, we are going to have a super cool shirts with lots of things written by all of us so that we all can remember this great camp

News

Arts and craft fun time in Kőrispatak! The Short term volunteers stayed in the famous straw-hat crafting village of Kőrispatak for 3 days, and organized together with the local priestess, Somodi Anita, a camp and traditional craft activities for the kids from 6 to 12 years old.
The volunteers were very enthusiastic to offer kids another way to spend their holiday and connect with each other.

On Tuesday they welcomed the children and played games to remember each other’s names.



After that, craft time! We had 2 pieces of wood. Using 2 layers of white paint, we made sure it would look good and then applied table napkins, after which we put glue on top of it, to make the blank spaces transparent. Once it’s dry it looks like a painting!


On Wednesday we did a fun Spanish dance! A new instruction is added at each sentence and at the end we all looked silly but it was a lot of fun
The weather was amazing!



On Thursday, in the priestess garden, we did fun games and then crafted angels out of straw. That was quite easy as we had done braids with straws the day before.



We finished the day by playing active games such as Capture the flag and the Rock paper scissors race. Everybody ran, defending the flag of their respective teams and looking for the one of the other team. Both team blue and team pink demonstrated great team work!



Then came the moment to say goodbye, with a lot of great memories and some sadness too. We did a big circle and screaaamed all together to acknowledge all of the emotions we felt during the camp.

Thank you to Communitas for making this camp possible, to the priestess, everyone who welcomed us and all the kids who shared these nice moments with us.

News

This week we had an amazing day camp with the theme: EXPERIENCE, so to pull off a memorable camp we encouraged the kids to prepare a play to perform for the end of the week.

Along with that we had some other activities and exciting games in store, such as a sportive version of rock-paper-scissors , where they had to jump into chalk rings and be faster that the other team.  On the first days we did some theater related activities, like pantomime, to bring their best acting skills on.

Early in the morning we began always with some energizers and there was never lack of singing and dancing. Then to prepare for the play the children formed four groups, where they could choose a theme: comedy, action or drama, and they came up with ideas with the help of the local and international volunteers.

On Wednesday we had a really interesting workshop about sound with our French volunteer, Mathieu. Using different materials he showed the kids how they could imitate sounds (like animal or action). Then they crafted some materials they will use in the play and they were really creative!

News

As the children arrived at Sóskút for the Multikulti camp, they embarked on a journey that would take them to explore Germany, Spain, France and Hungary with the help of the 12 international volunteers. Through music, sports, crafts and games the young participants learned about each culture.

But first things first we had to get to know each other, so we presented ourselves through a spider web and sang our camp song: Bam bam bam, we’re in the summer camp!

In the afternoon we made our way to the forest for the game: Catch the flag, divided in two teams the kids had to run strategically to get the flag faster than the others.

On Wednesday we began with the cultural activities with the Spanish Team (Ahinoa, Íñigo, Inés, Marina and Maël). To energize in the morning the kids played the chairs game with Spanish music, then we painted the Spanish flag and placed some pictures around it.

The competiveness and team work was tested with some sports outside. But after a while we needed a rest and to cool down before lunch so we crafted some hand fans.

In the afternoon Laszló and Hedi made us travel all the way to Hungary with a presentation and a fun quiz to test the knowledge of the little ones, were they had to difference pictures of Hungary, France, Spain and Germany. Later it was time to get creative again making personalized bracelets.

On Thursday morning Cara and Malena introduced the German culture playing some really fun energizers were the kids even learnt some words in this difficult language. Before lunch the children crafted some really beautiful masks for Carnival, like one of the most known festivity in Köln.

In the afternoon the children experienced the best of the french culture through really active and fun games that Nolween, Mathieu and Julien prepared: Baguette Croissant, Banane & Pomme and an obstacle race. The kids showed their best creative side drawing in the french style of “Puntillisme”.

To finish off the camp in the best way the children could show off their talents with a performance that they prepared. The girls made an impressive gymnastic choreography and the boys a football show to the beat of “Ramenez la coupe à la maison”.

In the last morning before going home the kids enjoyed the breakfast together and wrote each other messages in a T-Shirt to keep an unforgettable memory of this camp.

 

News

It is summer time! That means we have to welcome the high temperatures, the fruits, holidays, summer camps… and also the short-term volunteers. Yes! 12 new volunteers arrived at Cristuru Secuiesc during the last few days to begin a new exciting project.

The team is formed by young people of 4 different nationalities, Marina, Íñigo, Inés, Ainhoa and Mael come from Spain; Cara and Malena come from Germany; Mathieu, Nolwen and Julien come from France and last but not least, László and Hédi come from Hungary. The twelve of them will be living for the next two months and a half in this town participating in an ESC project.

The main purpose of them being here will be the organization, preparation and coordination of the different summer camps organized by ATA association that will take place in Cristuru and the villages around, there will be a total of 5 camps. In order to prepare them for the upcoming work during their two first weeks they will participate in different team building activities so a good work environment, group cohesion and coordination is developed between them. During this time they will also receive different talks about different topics that can be really useful and applied during the summer camps, these topics include: event management, non-formal education, emotional management and communication with kids and  video editing and social media.

We hope you are just as happy with this news as we are, and will continue to follow our work during this period.

News

Okay, do you know what we heard about you? That you really love to travel and get to know new cultures. That you are motivated, ambitious and want to add your footprint to a far-away community. If our info is correct and all this is true, come to the land of vampires, castles and mountains, join our 10 months long volunteering opportunity in TRANSYLVANIA.

Who are we, and why should you choose Cristuru Secuiesc as you ESC volunteering place?

Our organization, the Youth Association from Transylvania was founded in 2011, and throughout our long journey we hosted more than 300 mobilities and participated in international projects countless times. The objective of the association is to enable youth from the Romanian region of Transylvania to take part as hosts and sending organization and be involved in European projects. Currently there are eight of us working in the office, you can see our wonderful faces here:

As you can see, we are missing two very important people, but with a good reason! Réka is currently awaiting the arrival of a new life in their family. In case you decided to embark on this journey with us though, she will be a frequent face you see and who supports you. On the other hand, Attila and his wife just welcomed their little bundle of joy, hence his absence on this photo. But we can assure you he is a great person, with excessive knowledge and experience. 

Okay, so what will your responsibilities be here? You will be joining an 8-person international team from all around Europe. We await the arrival of 4 inclusion support volunteers and 4 NGO support people.

Inclusion support volunteer: Your task will be to organize daily non-formal workshops for children & youth to teach English, while at the same time will pass along environmental awareness & up-cycling, recycling knowledge. You will be working in 2 kindergartens, 1 local and 2 rural primary schools. The ages of the kids vary, but we are open to realize your own initiations and workshops, helping you organize concrete activities regarding your passions. You will also volunteer in Háromgalamb disabled centre, teaching these wonderful humans practical skills, like gardening and cooking, while supporting

A couple of sentences from Nerea Ruiz Garcia, our last inclusion support volunteer, who spent 10 months here: “Being an inclusion support volunteer has expanded my horizons more than I would have ever imagined. I’ve been given the chance to work with people from different cultural and economic backgrounds, which has helped me become more aware of much work still needs to be done in the world. However, now that the end of my project is closer, I can definitely say that I think I have learned more from them than what they will have probably learnt from me. People in this community are full of values and kindsness, and places like this are where you can truly find knowledge and achieve self-discovery.”

The kindergarten and school where you will be working at:

NGO support person: you will support our numerous local activities and improve our online communication and marketing, by increasing our social media presence. Since we frequently organize international mobilities, you will also help our staff in these.

Here is what Quentin Reinette says about his experience with us as an NGO support person: “As an NGO support volunteer, my work revolves around helping the association organise events, writing articles about Transylvania, and working at the library. We also work with the town gardener and a herbalist weekly. I enjoy working here, we do lots of different things and get to meet people.”

Sounds too good to be true? Wait until you see where you will be hosted! We have a big office in the centre of our town, that is called the Yellow House by the locals because of its bright yellow walls. Now, the staff is working on the first floor of this iconic building, hosting mobilities and organizing events, while you and the 7 other volunteers will be living on the second and third floor of the house.

The house is fully furnished with:
-a spacious kitchen that has 2 fridges, stove, microwave, dishes, glasses, furniture, etc.
-3 bathrooms that have toilets, showers, washing machine and other cleaning appliances
-5 large bedrooms that have furniture and beds in each.
-the house also has electricity, gas, hot and cold water, internet connection with a Wi-Fi connection

If you feel ready to embark on this journey with us, send you CV and motivation letter to office.ata@gmail.com, and fill out the online application form found in the infopack, or by clicking on this link: https://forms.gle/CEJnod9yndfK89iB6

If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact us via email, Facebook, Instagram. 

 

 

News

This year’s Summer Camp of the Youth Association from Transylvania started on the 3rd of July. Just like in previous years, there was a lot of interest and not without reason. The five days were very eventful, and our 36 participants were very sad to note the end of the camp on Friday.

Huh, where do we start… Our camp this year was built around fairy tales, every day we puppeteered and acted out nostalgic stories, and noted the lessons learnt from them through games and interactive tasks. On Monday, the day was spent getting to know each other, as not only were there new faces among the children, but the little ones didn’t know our 7 local and 8 international volunteers either. After the namecards were up, we divided the small ones into six teams. Each team was assigned a leader from among foreign and local volunteers, so the children could learn English throughout the week and overcome the language barrier together. The first task of the six teams was creating a unique logo and flag.

Since we puppeteered the stories every day, the children could also try themselves out in this ancient craft on the first day. The little ones completed pre-prepared sampled stories, and created their own puppets while deciding on their traits, characteristics. Main rehearsal – and LET THE PUPPET SHOW BEGIN! The six teams presented six short stories to their peers. Then we ended the day with our dance together.

On the second day, the little tried on the shoes of chefs, and under the guidance of Serife, our volunteer from Turkey, they prepared delicious chocolate biscuits in the morning. Small and large hands took their share of the work, beating eggs, pouring flour and kneading dough. In the end, delicacies that Gordon Ramsey himself would be envious of were prepared. But of course, no sweets before lunch! While the biscuits were getting golden in the oven, everyone moved to the Gyárfás garden, where we dedicated the day to sports. There was football, frisbee, and hide and seek, and by the time we retired to the Yellow House, nothing could have been better than our freshly baked cookies made by ourselves.

Of course, we didn’t linger on the third day either. We started this day at the Molnár István Museum, where the children could learn about the story of Ali Baba and the 40 thieves in the performance of Javi and Dani. For those who have already forgotten the iconic sentence, the tale of Open Sesame, the Persian protagonist had to utter these words in order for the treasure-filled cave to open. Well, as a result of this, our little participants also went on a treasure hunt in our city. As an association, we consider it important that the children of Székelykeresztúr get to know its famous places. For this reason, we set up the stations of the treasure hunt on these, as our list included the library, the station, the museum, the sports field, the Gyárfás garden, and the fountain. By completing the tasks in these places, the kiddos could put together the sentence that opened the gate to the golden cave. We can announce that all the little people successfully completed the challenge and each of them returned home with three golds at the end of the day.

We spent the fourth day with world-famous fashion. For those who have not yet received the information: Székelykeresztúr has today’s trendiest designers and seamstresses. We wanted to guide the children to the path of recycling, so they had to create clothes, jewellery, and accessories from paper. Although this may seem like a big challenge at first, as soon as they see the results, they realize how creative the children of our city really are. And who were the models? They all came from abroad! We ended the day with a fashion show, where we asked the opinions of the small designers and voted for the coolest outfit. We want to congratulate the Green Leaves team on their victory!

The fifth and last day was both the most diverse and the saddest at the same time. Sad, because on this day we had to say goodbye to each other, as we are closing this year’s ATA camp. At the same time, we were also preparing for an extraordinary challenge, as we set up an obstacle course on Sóskút. Our fighters had to dodge lasers, solve puzzles, and at the end, we rewarded them for their efforts. Each little participant received a gym bag packed with chocolates and candies. After that, we returned to the Yellow House with our participants and sang our song one last time, then closed our 2023 Summer Camp. We would like to thank the Harghita County Council for their support, without which this program would not have been possible. At the same time, we sincerely thank our local and international volunteers for their help.

Finally, nothing proves the success of our camp better than the opinions of the children themselves. Emma Mátéffy said this about our program: “I liked it so much that I want to be a volunteer when I grow up!” I think there is no better recognition than to encourage the little ones to do good themselves and dare to add to the community.

Marielle, our volunteer and organizer from Sweden, added the following regarding the week: “I’m proud and happy with the results of the summer camp week, because the children seemed to enjoy the activities just as much as I did! During the week, I made memories that I will keep with me for the rest of my life”.