VOLONTEERS HELP elderly WITH OLIVE groves.
On October 3, 2017, another volunteer action was held within the project “Investing in young people – The GLUE project”. We wanted to help elderly people from the local community. How fortunately we do not have any major social problems in the local community, the first idea was that our young volunteers pick up the olives for people who, because of their age, are no longer able to do so. But the date was too early, and the olives were still not mature enough to pick. So we came up with an alternative – trimming olive trees and cutting woods for the heating in upcoming winter period in a small olive grove. We chose to help an old lady – Marija Turčinov, who is about to be 92 years old, and has spent her working life as a hard-earner, supporting herself with the farming work.
When the action started we should have had good encouragement for our volunteers: – “No, its not too many, you can leave only five or six of the 20 branches. Every branch needs place to grow. Olive treetop needs to be so sparse that the bird can fly through it”, as old Croatian proverb says. Volunteers worked in their national teams so now we have six olives that we can freely call in the future: Bulgarian, Macedonian, Croatian, Portuguese, Romanian and Turkish Olive. We also cut the old trunks of the olive trees that we chopped for the firewood for auntie Marija in the upcoming winter. The old lady Marija was happy to be hanging out and talk to young people, and testify that young people today also want to help the elderly and are not afraid of work in the fields.
About the GLUE project:
BENEFICIARIES: 42 unemployed young people from Croatia, Macedonia, Romania, Turkey, Portugal and Bulgaria;
PARTNERS: Association of Argonauta – Croatia Experimentáculo Associação Cultural – Portugal Konya Metropolitan Municipality Kilicarslan Youth Center – Turkey Zdruzenie KREATOR Kumanovo – Macedonia Fundatia EYP Romania – Romania Budnost 2000 – Bulgaria
DONORS: The European Commission through the Erasmus plus program implemented by the Croatian Agency for Mobility and EU Programs.
DURATION: July 1, 2017 – February 28, 2017.
VALUE: 25,240.00 eur
