O testemunho no. 1 do Mattia (Spin)

Hi! My name is Mattia, I’m Italian and this is my first testimony of my volunteering experience at Associacão Spin! 

The 1 st month has almost passed and so far, so good! Moving to a different country can always be scary at first. Still, everyone at Spin has been super welcoming to me and I can say in full confidence that I’m ready to prove myself and to give my best to help everyone around to do the best possible job! This can be a great chance for me to learn something new and to help other people and I want to give my best: it’s a wonderful opportunity and I don’t want to waste it.

But going back a little bit, moving to Portugal wasn’t exactly planned for me, coming from 10 months in Lithuania for my Erasmus for my master studies, I increasingly felt like I wasn’t done with living abroad and I wanted to have another experience in another country to keep challenging myself. 

I’ve only just recently learned about the ESC volunteering opportunity. The whole process of applying and getting selected for this opportunity was relatively quick, so the time to learn about Lisbon and Portugal, in general, was not that much, but still, in my short time here I already feel that this city has much to offer.

Speaking about my work at Spin, so far, my tasks include helping with translating and delivering information to Italian students who are having an internship here in Lisbon with the Erasmus + program and helping with the various projects regarding the youth exchanges and the workshops that will happen in the coming months. I’m excited to make myself useful and to learn as much as possible in the next year!