The document is a brochure created by Alexandra Rodrigues about her experiences volunteering with the Yellow Shirts Association in Baia Mare, Romania from April to December 2019. The brochure is divided into sections covering her activities taking photos of a senior volleyball team, general volunteer work, various volunteering experiences in Romania, events and workshops, and other activities in Baia Mare. Some of her experiences included sports photography of volleyball matches and practices, welcoming new volunteers, leading sports activities in schools, volunteering at a curling championship and sports festival, and helping with a youth exchange program.

1. Brochure
Association
Yellow Shirts
Project
Volleyball is not rocket science, we are!
Baia Mare, Romania
2019

2. Yellow Shirts Association
Baia Mare, Romania
yellow_shirts_ro@hotmail.com
facebook.com/YellowShirtsRomania
Volleyball is not rocket science. We are!
2018-1-RO01-ESC11-061246
Volunteer: Alexandra Rodrigues
Period: April – December 2019

3. 3
Introduction
This brochure was design to show my work as a volunteer and my civic participation and
involvement in the community’s life throughout the duration of the ESC project.
I have worked as a volunteer for the “Yellow Shirts” Association in Baia Mare, Romania, for
nine months in a project titled “Volleyball is not rocket science, we are!”
This brochure is divided into five major topics - the first one about the activities with
PhotoSport YSR (sports photography related to senior volleyball team Știința Explorări from
Baia Mare); the second one about general activities (required to do on a frequently and/or
weekly basis); the third one about different volunteering experiences that I had in Baia
Mare, as well as in other places of Romania; the fourth one about events and workshops
(some in which I have participated, others I hosted); and in fifth, other activities that
happened in Baia Mare, such as attending other association’s events and workshops.
Below is a list of the topics detailed in this brochure:
 Activities with YSR
 Project General activities
 Volunteering experiences
 Events and workshops
 Other activities and events

4. 4
Activities with
Photo Sport YSR

5. 5
Sports photography
This activity mostly consists of taking photos of the league matches between the senior
volleyball team of Baia Mare - Știința Explorări vs. other Romanian teams. The games season
usually starts between October and ends in April-May. The games are usually photographed
when the team Știința Explorări plays in Baia Mare in the Sport Complex Hall.
During the game different types of photos are taken: volleyball techniques such as the serve
and the attack; the audience, the referees, the judges, the team’s presentation in the
beginning, action photos and individual portrait photos of each player - all these photos
taken to both teams. The photos of the game are later selected, edited and sent to the
coordinator to be published the next day on the PhotoSport YSR official Facebook page.
I learned how to use the photo digital camera and sport photography techniques with my
coordinator, with other photographers that I met and worked during my project and by
reading guides and other materials. To practice and to learn more about sport photography
I attended some of the senior volleyball team practices and also took photos of the high
school and junior volleyball practices (girls and boys teams) in Oradea. Senior volleyball
friendly matches are also photographed, when played in Baia Mare.
Materials:
Digital Camera: Nikon D5100; Objective Nikkor: 55-300 mm f4.5-5.6G ED VR

6. 6

7. 7
Project General
Activities

8. 8
Photo Exhibition
In the beginning of the project, I prepared a photo exhibition of the city of Baia Mare. I
selected 30 photos, created a theme and a title for the exhibition, as well as subtitles for
each picture. All the photos were organized in a specific order, laminated and hanged
outside in the Bastionul Măcelarilor’s museum garden, in the city center, for a couple of
weeks.
Writing articles
Since the beginning of the project I have written a total of 18 articles. The majority of the
articles are about volunteering experiences and events (inside and outside Baia Mare). The
others are about my experience as an international volunteer, my expectations and
perspectives from the beginning, about the on-arrival training, mid-term and one about the
city of Brașov.
Writing weekly reports
At the end of each week I filled out a weekly report evaluation form, where I write in details
each activity performed during the week. I also write what I learned, my involvement in the
community’s life, Romanian language progress, mentor and team members relationship
evaluation as well as highlighting the positive and the negative aspects that we
encountered. This is one of the ways to evaluate my progress throughout the project, find

9. 9
what I need to improve and reflect on the experience. Also it was useful towards the end of
the project, to review the information to write on the Youthpass certificate.
Welcoming new volunteers to the project
When two new volunteers joined our project, as requested by the coordinator, I did some
activities with the volunteers that consisted in sharing experiences about volunteering,
motivation and making a video together to promote volunteering in Romania. Also reviewed
Youthpass competences and skills with them, and provided more information about
Erasmus+ and European Solidarity Corp programs.
Sport Activities in schools
After the month of October, we started to go to schools every week to make sport activities
with pupils during the sport class. Also during an exchange program with another NGO, in
November, we had the opportunity to go to primary schools to make activities with kids
during the sport class. A week before going to the school we start preparing the games and
the activities, for indoors and/or outdoors depending on the weather conditions, to then
implement them when we go to lead the sport class with the respective teacher. The major
outdoor activity we do is to teach volleyball to pupils. The majority of the classes we went to
are in primary schools and our target audience are children between 7 and 10 years old, but
we also went to a high school once a week to make sport class with 9th
and 10th
grade
pupils.

10. 10
Volunteering
experiences

11. 11
Curling Championship C-division
11-17 April 2019
Brașov
I volunteered for six days in Patinoarul Olimpic of Brașov, for the European Curling
Championship, C-division. My main task was to help prepare the ice rink for the players
before the games and in between games, including cleaning the ice and ordering the stones
for the players. I received a short training from the ice technicians on the day of my arrival
and performed the task on the following days.
1st
day - shift started at 8 AM to prepare the ice, and then later at 4 PM I attended the
Opening Ceremony;
2nd
day - shift started at 6 AM to prepare the ice rink for the practices; games started at 8
AM and I worked in between the games until lunch time;
3rd
day - shift also started at 6 AM, similar to the previous day;
4th
day - shift started at 7 AM to prepare the ice rink for the practices; games started at 10
AM.
5th
day - shift started at 6 AM to prepare the ice rink for the practices; games started at 8
AM.
6th
day - shift started at 6.30 AM to prepare the ice rink for the practices; games started at 9
AM; cleaning and preparing the ice sheets for the games at 2.30 PM; attended the
Closing Ceremony after the finals at 5 PM; helped taking out all materials including
posters from the ice rink related to curling to have the rink ready for the other
sports practices; attended the Closing Banquet at 8 PM with all the players and
volunteers and everybody involved in the championship.
 Learning opportunity
This was an opportunity to meet more local volunteers, to practice Romanian language, to
work in a team, following strict schedules and to get into the sports volunteering spirit,
meaning, feeling part of something bigger.

12. 12
Helping out in a Youth exchange
4-8 May 2019
Oradea
I spent 1 week with my coordinator in Oradea helping with a youth exchange project named
“We know the importance of voting in EU” promoted by the Association of Intercultural
Communities within the Erasmus + program. During this week I had three main tasks: to
take photos of the daily activities of the youth exchange; to plan and film a promotional
video to encourage young people to vote for the upcoming EU elections; and to go to one of
the high schools of Oradea to take photos of cadets and junior volleyball practices.
- Photos of the exchange activities carried out by the participants - such as discussions
about problems faced by the youth and possible solutions; presentations about EU
parliament and European countries; intercultural evenings.
- EU election videos - filmed with the help of the participants from the exchange; they
all participated in the video, identifying one problem they wished to be solved by the
EU parliament in the future. I edited the video and got it finalized after the exchange.
- Photos of volleyball practice - taken in the Sportive Programme High School from
Oradea (LPS Bihorul team) of cadets and junior volleyball practices and sent later to
the school.
 Learning opportunity
This was an opportunity to practice photography (generally) but also sport photography to
later apply in one of the project’s purposes, which is taking photos to senior volleyball
matches. It was as well an opportunity to also learn more about European Union
institutions, its structure and obviously the importance of voting for the EU and how to vote
for such elections. Editing the promotional video was also a challenge as it was the first time
making a video with personal testimonies with such a distinctive objective to be published
on an official page. Last but not least, the chance to witness a youth exchange and listening
young people sharing their views and concerns of the present world, there is much to hear
and to learn from the youth.

13. 13
Volunteering for the Sports Festival in Cluj-Arena
12-16 June 2019
Cluj-Napoca
During four days I volunteered at Sports Festival that took place in Cluj-Napoca, one of the
biggest cities of Romania. The event’s purpose is to promote physical activity and a healthy
lifestyle, by giving the participants the chance to try different sports. In fact, more than 30
sports were represented in this festival, which also brought tennis players such as Simona
Halep, Marius Copil, Daniela Hantuchova and Fabio Fognini for a demonstrative match.
My tasks were different every day. First step to integrate such event as a volunteer is to go
to the first meeting, to learn more about the work, rules, guidelines to follow, etc. The
meeting’s purpose is to prepare the volunteer for the different type of tasks and the
environment they will encounter. In this case, the focus was on the 3rd
day of the event
when the tennis demonstrative match was going to take place, and they were expecting
around 9000 people.
1st
day - Logistics help in the beach volleyball court;
2nd
day - Logistics help with outdoor Zumba dance;
3rd
day - Logistics help in BT arena during the demonstrative tennis matches;
4th
day - Logistics help during the cross marathon (5km and 10km).
 Learning opportunity
This was an opportunity again to meet new local volunteers, practice and learn more
Romanian language with the volunteers and with the community as I had to interact with
the participants in different occasions. Learn a bit more about the complex organization of
such big event and its difficulties, as well as interacting with large crowds, which is not an
easy task. I also learned more about the importance of sport in our lives and rediscovered
my favorite sport.

14. 14
Street Delivery Event
29-30 June 2019
Baia Mare
During three days I had a stand representing the association in the Street Delivery event,
held in a park in Baia Mare. The event’s objective of this year was to promote literacy and
the concept of Dadaism. Many groups and associations participated in this event, each one
presenting different type of games and materials to interact with the community. As one of
our project’s goals is to promote sports and I am a Portuguese volunteer, we decided to
promote poetry and the poets from Portugal, as well as to make games playing with
different words related to the volleyball sport.
- Prepared two main games: to take out 5 words out of a box (all words related to
volleyball) and write a poem with these words; to complete different Portuguese
song lyrics by filling out the hidden words.
- Presented a short museum of Portuguese literature, concretely - poetry, by
presenting some of the most famous Portuguese poems translated in English and in
Romanian, as well as the biographies of each poet.
 Learning opportunity
It was an opportunity to be in direct contact with the local community, by interacting with
the participants in the event. It was also a challenge being alone with the stand during these
days, thought I had some assistance from another organization that had a stand next to me.
Yet I was the one talking with the visitors, explaining the games and helping them out. I
learned not only how to organize a stand for such kind of event but also how to present the
information in a pleasant and captivating way.

15. 15
Celebrating the 100th
anniversary of Cluj-Napoca football team
12 July 2019
Cluj-Napoca
This was a rather short event to volunteer for but an exciting one. We were celebrating the
100th
anniversary of the Universitatea Cluj-Napoca club that decided to mark this date with
a friendly match against the Greek football team, Paok Salonica. Once again I arrived one
day before to attend the volunteering meeting, where the different tasks were explained to
the group.
- The first task was to help out people at the entrance of the stadium by indicating the
directions of their chairs.
- The second task consisted in, during the break, together with all the volunteers,
gather in the middle of the stadium in a circle to take part in the activities
celebrating the 100th
anniversary of Cluj-Napoca team.
 Learning opportunity
An opportunity to meet new local volunteers and be again part of the sport volunteering
spirit which is so great. Personally it was interesting to be in the field so close to the game
and the players as I am also a football fan. It was good to practice again the Romanian
language while trying to give indications to the people.

16. 16
Joining Geentin (another NGO) in summer activities with kids
9-10 July 2019 - Oarța School
15-16 July 2019 - Bicaz School
For two weeks, specifically a total of four days, I joined the Greentin organization to develop
summer activities with their volunteers, in the village’s schools of Oarța and Bicaz. The
games and the materials were prepared the day before together with Greentin volunteers,
and then implemented in the schools. Below is a list with the type of games we played with
the pupils that were coming during summer time to do creative activities with the
volunteers.
- In Oarța’s school we had a small group of pupils with various ages (from 9 to 13 years
old). With this group we did few energizers, games with obstacles, a treasure hunt,
played handball, charades, sang and dances songs, help the kids make a paper kite
and teach them about the food pyramid, mainly the importance of healthy food vs.
fast food.
- In Bicaz’s school, we had a bigger group of pupils with very different ages (some
were under 9 years old, other above 12 years old), we prepared different kind of
games according to their ages. On the first day we had the opportunity to promote
sports, specifically volleyball with two volleyball professional players, Andrei and
Csaba from Știința Explorări, who joined us to teach the kids volley. We helped them
organize the pupils in different groups to learn the steps (to serve, to block, to
attack), and later in different teams to play one game all together. On the second
day we did activities with them, including energizers, prison ball game, bowling using
plastic bottles and a small ball, dancing traditional songs led by two older pupils, who
were eager to teach us this specific dance.
 Learning opportunity
It was the first time for me doing activities with kids, so in the beginning it was challenging,
but I learned from the other volunteers who were already used to make games with the
pupils and copy their good examples and practices. I guess it is always a learning experience
to work with kids, not only the first time, but every time we work with them as they demand
our best, they want us to be creative and to engage them as much as possible, and we have
to be flexible and improvise when needed. Some of these kids have never played volleyball
before and this was a great opportunity for them to learn and to practice a new sport.

17. 17

18. 18
Basketball 3x3 challenge
19-21 July 2019
Târgoviște
In July I volunteered for a Basketball 3x3 competition in the city of Târgoviște, in the south
of Romania. This was an event organized by “Be you” Association and powered by Meda
Park. Initially my main task was to assist with the check-in of the players participating in the
matches, but as there were already local volunteers assigned to this task, I suggested taking
photos to the games. Although they had already some photographers they accepted my
suggestion and I spent three days (from morning until evening) photographing the matches.
There were a total of 200 games.
- Took photos to the matches during the day, edited them later and sent to the
Association “Be You” for publication in their official webpage.
 Learning opportunity
An opportunity to meet more local volunteers and another sport association’s work. A
chance to practice sports photography, learned a few more tips and skills from another
photographer on the court.

19. 19
Volunteer exchange
05-15 November 2019
Miercurea Ciuc
A new initiative was presented to us - that was to make an exchange with other volunteers.
Meaning, we would switch places with them, live in Miercurea Ciuc and work for their
organization for 10 days and they would come to Baia Mare to live in our house and work
for our association in the same period. The organization from Miercurea Cius is Young
Europe’s Society. And that’s what happened. It was a very interesting change of places, to
meet other volunteers, a new city and different kind of work and organization. It was also
helpful to make an evaluation of our own work and also the association’s work and compare
the differences.
- The Association gave us the plan for the following days, which included activities
with pupils from primary and secondary school; and to make a presentation about
the ESC volunteering program and talk about our own experience in a youth
exchange organized by the same NGO.
- The first working day, after we planned the activities and gathered all materials
needed from the office, we went to a school in Bilbor village 2h away from
Miercurea Ciuc. First hour we did activities with a class that had pupils of around 14
years old; second hour we did activities with a class that had pupils of around 10
years old.
- The second working day we went to another school to do activities with one class for
two hours in a primary school with kids between 4 and 10 years old.
- The third working day we went to the village of Bălan where the Youth Exchange -
structure dialogue (under Key Action 3) took place, and where we shown our
PowerPoint presentation, share our own volunteering experience and answer
questions about ESC program.
- On the forth working day we went to another primary school to also make activities
with small kids between 6 and 10 years old, for two hours.
 Learning opportunity
The opportunity to work with different type of creative materials, such as a parachute and
see the positive reaction of the children playing. Challenge to prepare activities for sport
classes, which require movement. Prepare games to play indoors as well as outdoors,
depending on the weather conditions.

20. 20

21. 21
Events and
workshops

22. 22
Museum’s Night
18 May 2019
The Museums’ Night was an event promoted by the Bastionul Măcelarilor of Baia Mare,
with an open art exposition with free entrance. In agreement with the museum our
association took the initiative to prepare some games for the participants during the
exposition. A total of four games were prepared for the visitors to play in groups, ruled with
a score system and prizes in the end.
- First game was for the participants to match flags, countries and capitals, a
cardboard was prepared with photos of all the flags of EU for the participants to take
separately the names of the countries and capitals and match them with the flags.
- In the second game the participants needed to guess which monuments belong to
each EU country, a map was presented and small figures of monuments were
printed out for the participants to put on the map according to the country to which
it belonged to. Also a list of monuments and its description was done for the
participants to check afterwards.
- The third game was about sports, the participants had to identify the sport, matching
sport photos with descriptions; a sport from each country was selected for the game.
- In the forth game participants had to answer questions about volleyball (rules;
techniques; championships; volleyball in Romania), for each question there were
multiple choices.

23. 23
Picnic voluHUB with volunteers from Constanța
18 June 2019
In the summer, our coordinator from “Yellow Shirts” association took the initiative to invite
various associations from the city for a picnic to meet the volunteers that recently arrived in
Baia Mare, and of one NGO from Constanța, that were travelling around Romania and had a
stop in Baia Mare. One afternoon, together with my coordinator and other associations we
gathered in one of the biggest parks of Baia Mare and participated in the picnic. It first
started with an energizer, we sat down to share information about our projects and
activities, and then played volleyball and blanket volleyball in the park.

24. 24
Portuguese traditional festivities - “Arraial”
20 June 2019
This event was created together with three more Portuguese volunteers from three
different associations (Greentin, YMCA and Somaschi) to promote Portuguese culture and
traditions. More concretely to celebrate festivities that take place in the city of Porto in the
month of June called “Festas de São João”, which is celebrated all over the streets of Porto
with many decorations and people going out to enjoy the summer nights, dancing, eating
traditional food and listening to popular music. Below is the list of all the activities done
during the event:
- The event started with a brief presentation of ourselves and an explanation about
why and how these festivities are celebrated in the country;
- Following a short quiz with 7 questions about fun facts of Portugal;
- Then we did a role-play to present some of the most touristic places in Portugal,
showing a map of the country with the places we were representing;
- After we launched sky lanterns through the sky with the participants;
- The traditional popular music started and we gave space for the people to go around
the pub’s garden decorated according to Portuguese festivities, to visit the “Museum
of Portugal” (that we prepared with short biographies of Portuguese figures, the
history of “Fado” and translated poems and songs) and most importantly to actually
taste Portuguese traditional food such as small coconut cakes, cream pastry, molotof
cake, codfish, pork meat among others.

25. 25
VoluHUB - an encounter of volunteers to talk about volunteering
15-18 August 2019
This was an event created for volunteers to discuss volunteering, again an initiative from our
association “Yellow Shirts”. Volunteers from different parts of Romania and international
volunteers participated in this event and took part in the following activities:
- Sharing our passion for volunteering and motivations;
- City tour around Baia Mare following a list of tasks to perform along the way;
- Sharing stories from past experiences in other projects, events, youth exchanges,
school/university exchanges, among others;
- Defining volunteering and explaining what volunteering means to us;
- Learning about the Youth Participation ladder;
- Volunteering in Romania;
- Sharing examples of good practices from our communities and organizations we
know;
- Making videos in different groups to promote volunteering in Romania;
- Resources and opportunities (we checked a list of future opportunities for jobs,
studies and volunteering) and also shared other opportunities we knew;
- Learning and putting into practice the “dialogue method” that consists in sharing
stories, experiences or an opinion in group without ever being interrupted;
- At the end of each day we did an evaluation and provided feedback.

26. 26
ActiveNoon (Sport event)
02 October 2019
This event was created together with my two team members with the objective to promote
sports, specifically volleyball and basketball. The main target was the local community and
international volunteers, which also participated in our event. We started the event with a
names game, followed by an energizer, after which we divided the participants into two
different groups, one group to play basketball and another group to play volleyball. In the
end, we split all the participants in two different teams to play volleyball.

27. 27
Workshop “Mens Sana”
14-18 October 2019
During these five days I hosted a workshop called “Mens sana in corporatist sano” (a
healthy mind in a healthy corporatist). In the begining of each day we would make an energizer
and/or team building game with the participants and then contnue with the activities. Below is a
list of activities performed with the participants learning more about the importance of four
major topics: mental health, nutrition, physical activity and happiness.
- We dedicated one day just doing sport activities in outside field, playing basketball,
volleyball, badminton, demonstration of martial arts including self-defense tactics
performed by one of our team members in the association and a brief dance
demonstration of hip-hop moves performed by me.
- Divided the group in different teams, each one to plan and shoot a video on how to
promote a healthy lifestyle, including movement and then to edit the video and
watch it in the end.
- Divided the group in 5 different teams, each to make a poster about a different
topic: benefits of individual sports vs. team sports; happiness; mental health,
nutrition and healthy lifestyle (connecting the importance of physical activity, mental
health, good eating diet). After each poster presentation we presented the poster
designed by our association summarizing the same information.
- A list of ingredients of a Portuguese traditional dish was given to the participants to
analyze each ingredient and understand why the recipe is healthy.
- We sat in a round circle where participants had to share what makes them happy,
also personal interests, hobbies and how they spend their free time. Asked the
participants to share what new experiences they would like to have, particularly in
Baia Mare while volunteering, in order to share contacts, places and ideas.
- Divided the group in two different teams to apply the “Dialogue method” while
answering questions about gratitude.
- Participants wrote and shared on one poster different opportunities related to jobs,
studies and volunteering for the future. Sharing knowledge and contacts with each
other.
- Participants filled out an Evaluation form in the end and also shared messages of
appreciation. The messages were distributed per envelope (one envelope for each
participant).

28. 28

29. 29
Other activities
and events

30. 30
 Attending a Danish workshop organized by AIST - American School of Transylvania
Association - 09 April 2019;
 Attending a Polish event prepared by the association Team for Youth - 07 June 2019;
 Attending a multicultural event organized by YMCA about the Basque country - 25
June 2019;
 Attended a multicultural event organized by Team for Youth about Algeria country -
26 June 2019;
 Attending a multicultural event about France organized by YMCA - 01 August 2019;
 Attending an event about summer activities developed during a short term project
by volunteers of AIST - 02 August 2019;
 Attending Mythbusters event from Greentin association and taking photos to the
participants and the experiences conducted during the event - 08 August 2019;
 Participation and taking photos to FestivArt event organized by YMCA - 22 August
2019;
 Attending an event organized by AIST about “Functional literacy challenge” - 09
September 2019;
 Helping in the preparation and participation in the “Turkish Delights” event
organized by the volunteers Baris and Batu from Yellow Shirts and also volunteers
from Greentin and Somaschi NGOs. Also took photos to the event - 11 September
2019;
 Attending AIST event about “Service opening and SWAP language” - 12 September
2019;
 Attending AIST event about “Tolerance day” - 19 November 2019;
 Attending AIST event about SWAP Scandinavian Language Event - 21 November
2019;
 Attending AIST event about volunteering - 16 December 2019.

31. 31
Thank you!
Thank you to my association “Yellow Shirts”, coordinators, team members, flat mates, local
and international volunteers, the community and all the people I had the privilege to meet
and to learn with throughout the course of this project. All of them contributed for this life
changing experience that I will never forget and that transformed me as a person. Hope to
continue to do volunteering work locally and to be more involved in my community in the
future.

32. This project is financed by the European Commission through the
European Solidarity Corps programme. This publication reflects
the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held
responsible for any use which may be made of the information
contained therein.