Students, not tourists: when Erasmus volunteer

Who said that Erasmus students are only looking for party and leisure moments between classes? The famous period of study abroad, which by now has become a rite of passage for at least two generations, can transform itself into an occasion to help the community where the students are temporarily guests, starting with those in need. It is through this idea that, at the beginning of March, a group of international students at Ca’ Foscari, supported by the ESN Venezia student association, started dedicating their lunch break every Friday to serve attendees of the soup kitchen in San Martino, Castello, that serves lunch to around thirty citizens in need, venetians and foreigners.

The volunteers are all between the ages of 20 and 25, coming from countries such as France, Portugal and Spain, as well as Canada and Ecuador, and represent around twenty of the 300 international students that find themselves in Venice this semester for the Erasmus and Overseas exchanges.

“When I told my friends that I would be going to Italy, they all told me ‘you will be partying all the time’” - says Mafalda Prazeres, 20-year-old student from the Universidade Nova de Lisboa – “Instead, I wanted to do lots of different things, be in contact with the people, I didn’t want to be a tourist.” Mafalda, as well as being enrolled in a program at Ca’ Foscari School for International Education on the history of Venice, also has volunteer experience at home, but she wasn't expecting to be able to continue it here in Italy. “In Lisbon, Erasmus only means parties, there aren’t loads of different activities like here”, she tells us.

Erasmus can also become an occasion to live a “parallel life” to that of your home country, doing things that you’ve never done before, such as volunteering. “In Spain I study architecture, but here I have lots of time to carry out other activities between classes” says Silvia Toraño, Spanish student from the University of Madrid. For Ben Polasek, 22 year old Canadian student from the University of Regina, it is “an occasion to pop the Erasmus bubble. For me it is important to meet locals, to help and give back something to the community that hosts me” he adds.

The three students were particularly impressed with the convivial atmosphere that developed between those who in everyday life are strangers: “First they eat, and then, whilst the place is being cleaned,  one of the guests – a Venetian man who has studied at the conservatory before he found himself in difficulty – plays the piano for the others. It’s almost a kind of ritual, and it has created a certain familiarity amongst us, the staff and those attending” Mafalda concludes.