Hi! My name is Torben, I'm from Germany, and I'm currently living and volunteering in Rzeszów, Poland. Over the past few weeks, one of my main responsibilities was guiding and working alongside an incredible team of short-term ESC volunteers from all corners of the world. It was one of the most rewarding experiences of my time here, and I want to tell you all about it.
So, what is Global Village?
Global Village was a three-week project bringing together 12 short-term volunteers from nine different countries: Catalonia (Spain), Cyprus, France, Greece, Nigeria, Armenia, the USA, Kazakhstan, and Zimbabwe. Some of them already lived in Rzeszów, others travelled from far away. But they all arrived with the same purpose: to connect with young students and make cultural exchange feel real, personal, and meaningful.
How it all began
On September 23rd, the participants gathered one by one in the training room at the INPRO office. As always happens when strangers meet for the first time, there was a certain quietness in the room at the start. But strangers become acquaintances, and acquaintances become friends. I've rarely seen that transformation happen as fast as it did during those first three days.
The opening days were dedicated to preparation and getting to know each other. We introduced the volunteers to the project, the organisation, and to us as a team. They jumped into games and group activities that were not only fun but genuinely shifted the energy in the room. By the end of day three, this group of people who had never met before were laughing, joking, and talking like they'd known each other for years.
The work itself
Once the group had found its footing, it was time to get to work. Each volunteer had prepared a short, engaging presentation about their home country, and now came the moment to share it.
Over the course of three weeks, we visited five different schools across the area. The format was something between a fair and a classroom: volunteers sat at their own desks arranged in a circle, waiting for students to arrive. After a brief introduction, the students were split into small groups and rotated clockwise from table to table, spending ten minutes at each one, listening, asking questions, and having real conversations with someone from a completely different part of the world.
On top of the country presentations, our volunteers had also prepared thought-provoking questions designed to get students talking and practising their English in a low-pressure, natural way.
Why does this matter?
The whole project was built around one idea: cultural exchange. In a world that is more connected than ever through the internet, social media, and globalisation, understanding each other is not a nice extra, it's essential. We all come from different backgrounds, different histories, different ways of seeing the world. Global Village tries to make that feel less abstract and more human, through direct interaction and real conversation, one classroom at a time.
A two-hour event like this can plant a seed of curiosity and openness that stays with a young person for the rest of their life. That's not an exaggeration, that's the whole point.
What I'll take away from it
As one of the facilitators, my favourite part was simply getting to know the volunteers themselves. We came from completely different places and yet found so much common ground. The project didn't just expand the students' horizons, it expanded mine too. I learned things about other cultures, and honestly about myself, that I wouldn't have discovered any other way.
If any of this sounds like something you'd want to be part of, don't hesitate to reach out to INPRO and ask about upcoming projects. I can't recommend it enough.
See you soon!
Torben