Me, myself and I: fighting weaknesses

Author: Irina Kiseeva, volunteer Family Planning Association of Moldova (FPAM), Peer educator Youth-Peer Network Moldova

What changes one’s life? A letter, a phone call, an event. For me it was an advertisement. It announced a selection of young people for a training… It seemed very boring and I didn’t read it to the end. Finally I decided to participate because of my spirit of competition and... I passed over the selection level.

The training was held in a summer camp, at Vadul lui Voda, from the 27th of October to the 3rd of November 2006, “far away from daily routine” as a Buddhist may say. Leaving the vicious circle home-school-web & music led to a positive result.

I have changed a lot during those 6 days. But I cannot say if less or much, because I am still being transformed into a good volunteer and at the same time into a sociable person. I became more communicative, with the great help of our both teachers Ms. Viorica Gherman and Ms. Ludmila Schiopu, even though I was not like that before. I do not have any more problems while making presentations in public. Obviously, I got a lot of new information on topics discussed.

The most important thing is that I realized that all that I had known before is simply a drop in the ocean. Usually, in the real life, I am “playing” the role of an “all-knower” or a “smart girl” at least (that is why those around me may sometimes get angry, but I present my preliminary apologize =). This revelation was extremely unpleasant, but very useful for me.

When organizing seminars (given as our homework) I was helped a lot by school psychologist Mrs. Ludmila Mazilu, and I am very grateful to her.

There were also little difficulties in my volunteer activity because of points of view of some religious persons (or maybe just stubborn ones) who thought the seminar topics to be horrible; although HIV \ AIDS, planning a family (moral values, contraception etc) are delicate and important at the same time.

A great feeling of satisfaction for the work done and the feeling of self significance make me continue volunteering for Family Planning Association of Moldova.

How can just an ordinary at the first sight training of Y-PEERs influence upon teenagers? The answer is simple: “it makes usual people do unusual things” (H. Ford). In one word: change them to positive direction, which is not only my personal opinion. I am afraid I will not recognize myself in a year, but I like it!