I spent my one-year arrangement as a volunteer in an institution for women in acute situations, where I was active directly in the admission team. There is a variety of reasons for anyone to take this step. I had several, and every one of them is equally important. Making a retrospective to the past year in Cologne, I can say that it was very profitable. Every given task was a challenge for me, and a new experience, an experience of a lifetime.

In the department where I worked, I was met by a friendly team of social workers, who at any time were willing to help me with some difficulty that I had to confront in my everyday tasks. Through this way of communication with my team, I think that I developed myself on personal level, and also my social competence rose to a higher level. The wide range of tasks, that I received daily, did every day exciting and never boring, and through the contact with the women that lived in our institution, I was able to listen to different life stories that can be read only in books. Every time that I helped some woman in any way, my day was more fulfilled and made bigger sense. On the other hand, as part of this team, I had a chance to learn a lot about social work as a profession, and to enrich my knowledge with much more information about the social system in Germany.

The international voluntary work has another side – private life and leisure. Through diverse seminars, I made contact with other international volunteers who shared their experience. At the end of my volunteering, I left Cologne much richer and with lovely thoughts in my head, which only confirmed that this was the best decision in my life until now. This year as a volunteer will always remain in good memory, and will certainly open new horizons.

Best regards,
Katarina Radicevic