October 26, 2012

What is EVS:

EVS stands for European Volunteer Service and is a program for young people from 18 to 30 years to get in contact with different European cultures. It is supported by the European Union and should help Europe growing together.
EVS is also a great chance for you to develop your own personality, your skills and a lot more meanwhile you are supporting your organisation with your project. It is a great possibility to profit from other persons experiences and to let them profit from yours... . There are many projects in each country in a lot of cities. The themes of the projects are very widely spread so there should be an interesting project for everyone. Possible themes could be sports, art, environmental protection, disability, religion and fight against racism. To get a more detailed impression you should check out the database of all projects at the following link: http://ec.europa.eu/youth/evs/aod/hei_en.cfm.
The length of the projects is different. It reaches from 2 up to 12 months. To take part in EVS you don’t need to have a high qualification. It is not important what kind of education you got and you don’t have to speak the language of your host country because you will get lessons there to learn it. Maybe the most important things you have to bring are to show interest in different styles of living, to enjoy meeting new people and to be generally open-minded.
A great thing about EVS is that except for maximum 10 % of the travelling costs you don’t have to pay for it. So it’s also possible to take part in it without spending tons of money like you have to for many exchange programs and related stuff.

Countries you can do EVS in are:
Albania, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Macedonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine and United Kingdom.