“TOKA” BROUGHT OUT THE BEST OF ME
Ilustration: Studio Permanent
Adolescence, the period of life filled with energy, ideas and confusion. The struggle of finding your role in the community, ambitions which sometimes seem impossible and never-ending questions are a part of the physical, emotional and cognitive metamorphosis of each adolescent. My journey through this delicate age was almost the same too. High levels of energy, which I found difficult to spend, ideas locked in a drawer, due to the impossibility of their implementation, and the most limited social circle, were some of the “challenges” most preoccupying for me. In the primary school where I was studying at the time, the only class that required more energy was the Physical Education and Sports class. Other lessons required lower energy and attention to what the teacher was explaining. For me, such a routine at school was not enough to “burn” the high energy levels, so I was always looking for adventures that would serve me in my growth.
After a while of exploring the possibilities, I was introduced to the extracurricular activities. I started to participate in some school clubs, especially the art club, where I spent more than six hours after finishing the lesson. The fruitful experience in the art club taught me not to say no to extracurricular activities that were offered to me and fortunately in the eighth grade, I said yes to an opportunity that I didn’t know I was saying yes to thousands of other opportunities. It was a call from the NGO TOKA to participate in the “Demos-ti” project. Without having any information about the organization, the project or what the word “Demos-ti” meant, I decided to participate with full enthusiasm. First, the announcement with the leaders of the project activities was a special experience, they were very close and informal, they explained the activities with humor and with methods that we had not heard before. In “Demos-ti”, I had the opportunity to learn what democracy is, what community is and what human rights are. Although I had heard all these before, in TOKA I learned through activities that make learning much easier and fun. After several unforgettable hours, in the organization where I encountered activities that managed to balance my energy levels, activities that stimulated my critical thinking and interwoven pleasure and learning, I did not want this project to be my last. So three years later, as soon as I found out that the TOKA Organization was running some clubs called Super-Volunteer Clubs, I joined without thinking twice. The Super-Volunteers Club was a club that consisted of about 20 of my peers and two leaders. For me it was a surprise to meet so many peers who had common goals with me. In the Super-Volunteer Club, I learned what educational volunteering is, what the community is, and how I could serve the community. My ideas that were once in the drawer, now I had the opportunity to reveal them in front of the club and contribute to a volunteer project for the community. During my time as a Super-Volunteer, I learned that every volunteer hour in TOKA counts and is finally certified, which pushed me even more to continue the work.
After a long time as a club volunteer, inspired by the skills of my leaders, I was always accompanied by the desire to be the leader of a club. In addition to volunteer hours, TOKA also records the consistency, interest and development of volunteers and over time gives them other roles and attributes. From being a volunteer, I had the opportunity to be the leader of a Super-Citizens club, and after the end of the leadership of my first club, I was given the opportunity to become a club mentor, and this summer TOKA opened another door for me to be part of the staff. of summer camps. In addition to the skills that TOKA has helped me develop, it has given me the opportunity to represent our organization and our country in different European countries.
All this experience, satisfaction and personal growth made me feel more valuable, more empathetic and resourceful. TOKA befriended me, raised me and continues to raise me, in a few words TOKA brought out the best in me!
About the author: Donarta Uka, 19 years old, is a Mentor of the Educational Volunteering Clubs in the organization TOKA.
This grant is supported by Austrian Development Agency
