I’m almost half way through my project now and I’m still really enjoying the experience. It’s nice getting to know the disabled people as I spend more time here. It’s difficult to know everything about every disabled person because there are a lot of people at ANFFAS, but every disabled person has their own unique characteristics and personality.

I’m no longer in my training period and am starting to feel more confident now at work. Also, I go to school twice a week so my Italian is slowly improving, and I am now able to understand a lot more when people speak to me in Italian. I have started to work some evening shifts and some morning shifts. I prefer doing this because it mixes my week up a bit and also I can sleep for longer when I am working in the evening. Morning shifts are good because I finish work at half past one and then I have the rest of the day free. Evening shifts are good because I can sleep for longer and go to work later.

Recently ANFFAS had a party for the residents on a Saturday evening with a live band, and all the volunteers were invited. We danced and ate nice food and all the volunteers even got up and sang a song with the band. Seeing all the disabled people listening to the music, dancing and enjoying themselves put a smile on my face. It was really nice to see them all having a good time, smiling and laughing.

Also, the volunteers from Anffas, including myself, have visited a local school a number of times recently to talk about volunteering in europe. We went into different classes with teenagers aged between 15 and 18 and spoke about who we are, what we do at anffas and why we chose to come here, amongst other questions. This was a good experience for me because not only did I get the chance to explain to others about volunteering, I also got the chance to ask the students about themselves and their lives in Italy. It helped me understand the culture here more.

This month has been good and I feel that I am maybe starting to settle in a bit more. Both workers and disabled people are getting to know me better and I’m getting used to working at anffas.

Leonardo Da Vinci Mobility project

part of Empowered From Within

and supported by ECORYS UK

and the Lifelong Learning Programme of the European Commission.