The story of Stefani Pashova : "So Much More than Money”

The story begins in the most typical way – early morning flight, rushing to the airport with excitement and preparing yourself for the adventure that’s coming. You will be attending the Training Course “More than money” in Gora Kalwaria, Poland and have prepared yourself for an intensive learning schedule, many discussions, and the opportunity to channel your creativity and inspiration doing the multiple different tasks that are a part of the course. You’re also very excited about the possibility to walk around Warsaw and do some sightseeing, to meet Polish people and get to know their culture a bit. Fortunately, there was enough time to do so, here’re some pictures from the beautiful city of Warsaw:

This was the quote that welcomed me in Warsaw, it was on the wall of the first café I entered. It is so stunning seeing it after the whole trip and everything that I experienced during the project, because it is so true. I really got so much more than I ever thought I wanted, because I obviously needed it. Therefore, this is going to serve as my disclaimer: “This whole story might not feel close to your heart, maybe because it’s not that time of your life, yet or whatever the reason. However, don’t doubt that the whole experience really had an impact on me and changed my perception of life in some ways. That’s why I’m so grateful for being a part of it and I’m so inspired to share my point of view.”

So continuing with the story… You’ve finally arrived, you’re eager to meet new people, gain some useful knowledge on the topic, to enhance your skills and have fun while doing it. Then you go through the process of meeting every participant, you’re telling each other stories about yourselves and your counties, sharing your dreams, goals and everything that is close to your heart. You spend the next 9 days and evenings with those people, doing everything together – breakfast, lectures, lunch, more lectures, group work, dinner, parties, walks around town, and suddenly you become so close so fast, that all of you feel like one big family. Unfortunately, good time always passes so quickly. At the end of the experience emotions have escalated so much that all of you end up with tears on your faces both out of happiness because you had the best time and sadness because it’s over and you will miss it and each other so much.

It might sound too cheesy, or insane, or impossible, but every person who has had the chance to be a part of an Erasmus project of some kind (internship, youth exchange, training course, etc.) will understand. This is the ultimate opportunity to both learn so many new skills and gain knowledge on various topics in such a short period and make international friendships that last for live. This is as much as an experiment as it is an experience. To elaborate on the “experiment” part – I mean it in the most positive and favourable way. The idea is that you’re put out of your natural environment, out of your comfort zone, out of your typical routine and schedule and it’s actually the best thing that can happen to you. You go to a “Training course” in some country or place you’ve never been, with a bunch of people you don’t know, and you are completely free to be your true self. It’s so elaborating, exciting, and fulfilling. What happens is that you completely sync in the routine of everyday training by non-formal ways of education like games and teamwork activities, having conversations with everyone, and following the course schedule that you forget about your live “out there”. There’s no time to look at your phone messages or email, notifications are just annoying sounds that distract you from the daily activities you enjoy so much. After all the planned lectures and tasks, you’re so into getting to know everyone - learning more about their personalities, interests, lives, and their countries, because no one there is a random participant. Everyone has something to teach you or inspire you to do.

If you managed to read through the “emotional part” - thank you, it means a lot. I’m finally getting to the “rational part” :D for the people who care more about the knowledge and the actual training. “More than money” was a training course on Social Entrepreneurship that helped us understand the concept of “social enterprise” in depth and see the differences between a normal business and one with a social impact. The training course was designed so well that everyone was equally engaged with the topic no matter how little they knew about the concept or terminology beforehand. The learning schedule was perfectly structured, so we could gradually learn and understand the theory without being overwhelmed or feeling not challenged enough. There were quite a few games involved that really enhanced our teamwork skills, whereas improving our understanding of the subject. During the whole training course, we exchange knowledge, ideas, we brainstormed on

solutions to various problems and had a lot of teamwork exercises. As a result, we were very well prepared to work together in groups to create our final task. This was the big challenge - we needed to come up with our own business idea of a Social enterprise – one that is profitable, sustainable, and creates a social impact. However, the results from all the activities were worth the effort. Another memorable part of the training was the absolute stunning day we spent visiting actual Social enterprises in Warsaw. We had the opportunity to see examples of successfully running social enterprises that are helping disadvantaged people have a job and a place to stay, while earning money to sustain their business. We went to the “Different” restaurant, where blind people serve you food and you eat in the complete darkness. This acquaintance with something so unusual for you, yet another person’s “reality” makes you appreciate your sight and makes you think about how much it means to have all your senses healthy. It’s something that can’t be explained with words.

As a conclusion I would like to present a summary list of before/after:

What you see on the outside before applying to a project:

A travel opportunity – a cool place to visit
A learning opportunity – a topic that engages you
A challenge – doing something unusual for you

What you get after you attend the project is all of the above and so much more:

New friends from all over Europe (and beyond)
Having both fun and rewarding experience that you’ll remember for live
Experiencing so many emotions and creating deep connections
Feeling like you belong and seeing there’re more people like you out there (with similar views of the world and the future)
A better and heightened sense of self

I can go on and on, but you get the idea. I strongly encourage anyone no matter their age, gender, country, social status or whatever, to join such a project at least once in their lifetime. And the best thing – it’s completely free, the European Union funds these programs, so all of us can learn, travel and get to know different cultures while doing so. Attending such project is an experience like no other and trust me, even if it’s not “the best” (of course, there might be some obstacles), you’re not going to be sorry, because it’s always SO MUCH MORE THAN MONEY.

And a huge THANK YOU to our wonderful team family of trainers – the guys from YoWo Poland!

The story of Georgi Panev :“More than Money2.0."

I am extremely glad I had the opportunity to attend the training course “More than Money” in Góra Kalwaria, Poland. This is definitely one of the best Erasmus experiences I have ever had. The training course was extremely well organized, planned and executed. The topic was about Social Enterprises (SE) and how to create a business model for such a company. In a nutshell, SEs are companies that use parts of their profit to support society by investing in a myriad of social causes, activities and events. It’s worth mentioning that SEs differ significantly from regular companies, that are profit oriented, and NGOs, that usually require external funding for their operations. One of the best parts of the project for me was a field trip to three such enterprises. The first one was a restaurant that hires homeless people, teaches them how to perform certain tasks, supports them in obtaining all necessary documentation for work and even provides them with accommodation for a few months until they become financially stable to rent a place themselves. The second SE was another restaurant led by a very charming lady who hires people with a wide specter of mental disabilities, such as autism, to work as waiters. The profits of the restaurant are spent on hiring professional trainers who prepare people with mental disabilities to find a job and be well prepared for the job market. The place also serves as a gathering point with people of mental disabilities. The last but not the least, was a dark restaurant that hires blind people to work as waiters and most of the profit is invested in an NGO that generally deals with social causes. We had lunch at the second SE and dinner in the third one. In addition, to the SE topic, we also had some sessions on what Erasmus is how to properly pitch and present ideas.

Furthermore, the people in the project were all very interesting and nice. I had a lot of fun interacting with them and discussing different topics. We managed to become really close during those few days there and developed a lot of inside jokes and memes.

I arrived in Warsaw a day before the project starts and had the opportunity to explore the city and visit some sights. I was really amazed by the diverse architecture and the many bike paths, which are not that typical for central and eastern Europe. We were served a lot of traditional Polish food so I got the chance to try the local cuisine.

To sum up, I had a wonderful time in Poland and I would like to thank the sending organization for selecting me and the host one for making this amazing project. Now I am looking forward to my next project(s) and I hope they are as exciting as this one.

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