As of now, the Press Committee has focused on the delegates’ doings. But what about the unsung heroes of the event: the volunteers? To get a closer look at what volunteering at iMEP truly entails, I sat down with one of the volunteers, Sirelin Ermann.
Why did you want to volunteer at iMEP?
I wanted to participate, but as I was not that active, I thought volunteering would be a great way to be here and give my part.
What were your first thoughts when you started volunteering?
I thought that I had no idea if I could do it and if I’m good enough to be there. I didn’t know if I had enough knowledge to control everything. But, at the same time, I was really excited because we have a great team and everybody is really friendly, so we support each other.
What are the jobs as a volunteer? Does everyone have a certain part?
Volunteers have different groups. I’m from the entertainment group, we did the masterclasses. Everybody has their own assignments on what they organize or do. There’s also different groups depending on where you stay. With hostels, you manage people, get them to breakfast or to dinner.
And what do you do?
I’m in entertainment, so I organized the cinema session and also I’m getting the people in Munkenhof to breakfast and back from the night events. I just do the things that people need also, like when somebody needs me to go to the other side of the city, I will go. Or when we need to manage lunch or breakfast.
And have you already made friends?
Yeah, a lot of friends. A lot of delegates are really nice, and CPs and Presidents. And it’s really nice being here when people treat you with respect mostly. I have some great friends already and I can talk with anyone if I want to.
What do you expect from the rest of the week?
I really hope that people will be more respectful towards us because today has been kind of hard for us. But I’m expecting interesting events and things to happen – just enjoying the time and having a great session at the end of the day.
Could you tell me what happened, when you were not respected?
Some delegates don’t respect us or some CPs, because they think that they’re higher than us. Also, during dinner, when we told people to start moving because we wanted to be here [Vabamu] at 16:30, Austrians started yelling at us; Italians, Australians – a lot of people just started yelling at us in full tone. We told them that it’s their lobbying time, not ours. Then people got really depressed and I thought that I could just quit too, just please, let us go away. Also, the teachers started to yell at us, when we just wanted to help them. Then they started explaining things to us, as if they knew the city better than us and they knew what to do. At the end of the day, we just sat outside and thought “okay, what do we do?”. But, yeah, sometimes it’s hard because people don’t listen to us, they won’t move fast enough. One person almost missed the tram because they won’t go through the doors when we tell them to move fast. It is a lot of yelling sometimes and I don’t like to yell at others, so it’s hard sometimes. We manage it quite well, but it’s sad when people yell at us and don’t respect us.
Do you work on the karaoke night as well?
I will be handing out some handbands, that show whether you’re 18-years-old, to get drinks from the bar, like at the Manor Party. Usually, the entertainment team is at all the events, because we are a team. We will be there when others need us. So, I will be at every nightly event. I don’t have a choice to just sneak away.
Author: Nuna Cosse