Project environment:
The German society "Erfolg" is situated in the second biggest city of Latvia, Daugavpils. It is beautiful and multinational, multicultural and multilingual environment. Daugavpils is situated in the south-eastern part of Latvia, and lies on the banks of the river Daugava.The city has an interesting past, and its name is has been changed several times. Nowadays Daugavpils is one of the educational centres of Latvia, there are several universities, namely Daugavpils University, the filial branch of the Riga's Riga's Technical University as well as some other commercial universities.

The most important cultural monument is concidered to be the Daugavpils Fortress, which is an example of the only untouched fortress in the Eastern Europe dated back to the first half of the 19th century. But this is not the only object worth to see in Daugavpils.The high street of our town is very beautiful, it is surrounded by several examples of the fascinating buildings in the Jugend style, as well as there are some examples of Latgalian barocco, which are concidered to be the most expressive architectural heritage of Daugavpils. In the high street there are a lot of shops and cafees, where you can take rest and taste Latvian cuisine. The adjacent streets are quite and beautiful as well. In the centre of Daugavpils there are several beautiful parks, e.g.: Park of Dubrovin, which is the beloved place of the city-dwellers' rest. In the exibition hall "Latgale" there is the largest choice of decorative art articles. If you visited our town, you would have an opportunity to know about the history of Daugavpils region in the Museum of Lore and Art. There is located the show of the world-known artist Mark Rotko. There are also numerous possibilities for the entertainment in Daugavpils, namely: a theatre, a cinema, different clubs, diiscos, etc. As Daugavpils is not only multicultural, but also multireligious town, there many beautiful churches there, namely: Catholic Church of the Virgin Mary built in the neobaroque style; Lutheran Church of Martin Luther in the neogothic style, the Ortodox Church of Boris and Gleb, Old Believers' Church, St. Peter Catholic Church, etc. Standing atop the Baznîckalns (Church Hill), can be best understood, where the spires of four churches, each belonging to a different denomenation, rise to the sky. Daugavpils also has the finest recreational areas: Meþciems and Stropi, one is the health resort and the other is area around the beautiful lake which bears the same name.

Daugavpils has the most continental climate in Latvia. The average temperature in January is -6.6°C, in July - 17.6°C. The annual average rainfall in 665mm. Daugavpils is richer in water than any other city in Latvia.It has fifteen lakes, eight rivers and creeks.

Undobtedly, not only Daugavpils could arouse interest of our applicants, but also the very region, where Daugavpils is situated, - Latgale. Latgale is the region of Latvia that occupies the fourth part of Latvia. Latgale is famous by its beautiful nature. It is not amazingly that it bears the name of the Blue Lake Land, because there are situated the biggest lakes of Latvia, namely: Lubans (82,1 km²), the second largest lake in Latvia - Raznas Lake (near Rezekne), the deepest lake in Latvia - Dridzis (63 m deep), which is also the deepest lake in the Baltic region. The landschafts of Latgale are fascinating, there are a lot of forests, hills, and valleys which are worth of seeing them.

Our German society "Efolg" is involved in the dissemination of the German culture and language and in the exploration of the German history in the south-eastern part of Latvia as an integrated part of the Latvian history. In our society there is a educational centre, we arrange different couses, especially the ones which are aimed on language learning, and professional and non-formal education. In our society also sucessfully functions music band "Loreley". We arrange different cultural and social activities for different age and for different social level groups. In our society there is an educational centre, the main focus of which is teaching foreign languages, so we are interested not only in the German-speaking volunteers, we will also accept others. We could propose Russian, English, German and Latvian as the lingua franca. Next to the foreign language teaching we arrange also different workshops according to the interests of our students, as well as Winter, Autumn, Summer children non-formal schools. Our target is contribution to the mastery of new knowledge by the society.

Proposed activities for EVS volunteers:
Please explain:
" what you can offer to volunteers in terms of Service and learning opportunities,
Learning opportunities:
" Possibility to learn Latvian and Russian languages (in the natural enviroment);
" Pedagogical experience and practice exchange for future teachers (students) within the opportunities of our German society, namely teaching children, young, grown up, and elderly people..;
" Gaining the new intercultural perspective;
" Gaining the experience in creating and carrying out projects and working with media;
" Multicultural experience
" what will be the role of EVS volunteers in the Host Organisation,
- at first - observers
- then - active participants in the activities of the society
" the activities in which the volunteers could be involved and the activities the volunteers could create in your organisation. Please give examples of typical activities for the volunteers.
As all the applicants wil have very different intersts and culturalbackgrounds, we assume that the applicant can decide himself, what he/she is going to do in our society, but we can provide with the following opportunities, which are not obligatory for all the participants:
- - opportunity to carry out different activities;
- opportunity to share his/her experience in different spheres;
- possibility to work in the sphere of public relations;
- possibility to work individually and in a team;
- participation in different projects;
- participation in excursions and exploration sphere;
- participation in intercultural courses and trainings;
- participation in the social and cultural life of Daugavpils and region;
- participation in the international projects;
- creation of educational/entertainig programms and cultural activities for the citizens of Daugavpils and region;
- creation of the learning/informating materials;
- participation in discussions;
- consultation and help in the project creation;
- assistentship and tuition at non-formal education centres (pre-school learners, young learners, basic school learners, secondary school learners, grown up people, retired persons)
a. English classes
b. German classes
c. Swedish classes,
d. Spanish classes;
- search for further partners for the society;
- fundraising;
- music performance or other artistic activities.
The range of the activities performed by the participants of our project, may differ according to the interests and wishes of them. But our society could propose such a role for the applicant, to enroll as a assistant of the project manager. The responsibilities and duties of the applicant would be as following: preparation, summarising and generalisation of the information related to the project application, be enrolled in the all stages of the project activities, helping in the creation and realisation of the project.


Volunteer profiles and recruitment process:
We would like to receive the volunteers which are interested at the educational (namely: they could be actual or former students of the pedagogical faculty, unexperienced or low experienced teachers, actual or former students of the faculty intercultural relations, persons who have intension to gain experience in the certain spheres correlated to the interests of the society) and cultural spheres.

We will concider as an advantage if a potential applicant will:
" be opened to the new ideas,
" be hard-working,
" be energetic,
" be trustworthy;
" be enthusiastic about his/her work;
" be cooperative;
" be conscientious;
" be confident;
" be responsible;
" be able to function in an orderly and purposeful manner in situations of uncertainty;
" be tolerant of ambiguity;
" be able to think analytically;
" possess manegement experience,
" possess crisis management experience,
" possess press and PR experience,
" have leader and organisator qualities
But it does not mean that we will not concider the other applicants as well. We hope to give the equal opportunities to every applicant.

Number of volunteers hosted:
Our organisation is able to host one volunteer at the same time.

Risk prevention, protection and safety:
Please describe:
" how you will guarantee a safe living and working environment for the EVS volunteers,
We plan to ensure a supervisor for each of the volunteers. The one-room flat (Vienîbas 32a, Daugavpils) is available. We also take into concideration the psychological problems of the volunteers, such as different crises, lack of motivation, desire to return home, cultural shock, etc. We will ensure the appropriate psychological and human support at the every stage of the cultural shock and contribute to the adaptation and successful integration in the foreign society, concerning the following aspects: language, weather/climate, eating, traditions, non-verbal communication, etc.
how you will prevent risks and crises,
We are going to elaborate on the exact plan for each volunteer. We are going to organize special consultations for each of them. We are going to provide services of the professional psychologist (if needed) and also the support of our team.
" how - in the case of EVS volunteers aged 16 or 17 - you ensure appropriate supervision, protection and safety.
We are going to elaborate on the exact plan for each volunteer. We are going to organize special consultations for each of them.

 

Our society is interested in the dissemination of the German culture and language, we assume that volunteers from different countries will gain an opportunity to share their experience as well as get new perspective in our country. We also are interested in the issue of multiculturalism, namely we are interested in the comparison of German language and culture with other languages and cultures. In our society there is an educational centre, the main focus of which is teaching foreign languages, so we are interested not only in the German-speaking volunteers, we will also accept others. We could propose Russian, English, German and Latvian as the lingua franca. Next to the foreign language teaching we arrange also different workshops according to the interests of our students, as well as Winter, Autumn, Summer children non-formal schools. Our target is contribution to the mastery of new knowledge by the society.

The German society "Erfolg" is interested in the popularisation and dissemination of the German culture, and language, and in the exploration of the German history in the south-eastern part of Latvia as an integrated part of the Latvian history. In our society there is a educational centre, we arrange different couses, especially the ones which are aimed on language learning, and professional and non-formal education. In our society also sucessfully functions music band "Loreley". We arrange different cultural and social activities for different age and for different social level groups. In our society there is an educational centre, the main focus of which is teaching foreign languages, so we are interested not only in the German-speaking volunteers, we will also accept others. We could propose Russian, English, German and Latvian as the lingua franca. Next to the foreign language teaching we arrange also different workshops according to the interests of our students, as well as Winter, Autumn, Summer children non-formal schools. Our target is contribution to the mastery of new knowledge by the society.