Marina’s volunteering experience at OCC

Written by Marina Navas.

My name is Marina Navas García and I am a 23-year-old girl from Granada, Spain. I have studied Journalism in Málaga, a coast city in the south of Spain and a Master’s in International Journalism in Madrid. During my years of university, I specialized in television, migration and feminism, focusing my career in being a correspondent journalist. Also, I am super passionate about dancing and every other ways of the movement of human body in an artistic way; my other hobbies are photography, travelling, reading or painting. My favorite place to be is in the beach watching a golden sunset. 

For me, volunteering arrived as consequence of my studies in International Journalism. After a year of hard theoretical knowledge, a friend of mine shared her experience as a volunteer in Porto (Portugal) with me, and I felt attracted to this way of life. I wanted to put in practice all my knowledge by the time I feel useful with my work. I discovered OCC thanks to the European Solidarity Corps and it was the perfect match: volunteering abroad and working with refugee people. At OCC Greece, the main projects I participated in were the Communications Team and the Children Classes. 

I took part in the Communications Team thanks to my formation in Journalism. The main task was managing the NGO’s social media. Even it felt a little stressed sometimes, it allowed me to get to know how all the teams works and spent little times with every of them during work time. Photographing and making videos of the other volunteers and users allowed me to get to know my colleagues from another perspective: what they are like when they are busy.

On the other hand, being a ESL teacher was a challenge to me since the beginning. I had to learn how to be a teacher by the time I had to teach my students; fortunately, their kindness and their love to learn made my way easier. Thanks to that, I have discovered a new possible job for my future. 

At OCC I learnt how to be a part from a community. In Europe, we all live in an individual way of life, but in OCC you share your time and spaces all the time, every day. That teaches you how to take care of the people around you, so you can be comfortable at the end. Also, I have learnt how to work and live in a multicultural environment, respecting the little cultural differences and embracing the things that we have in common. 

In the future, I would like to work abroad to Spain. I want to discover all the stories and news the world can offer me and share it with my country, so Spanish people can be concerned about all the problems from other people around the world. My goal is to work as a correspondent journalist and change my residence every 5 or 10 years, focused on migration and feminism. Also, I would like to combine my work with more volunteering experiences. I would like the world to be one big borderless territory where anyone in need can find a safe haven and be welcomed by the rest of the international community.