There aren’t many words in the dictionary to describe an experience which can’t be verbalised, but only felt. I feel as if the closest feeling to what us, volunteers in SCI Switzerland’s Training course in Winterthur had, was forest’s calling. The call of the wild can describe many things… Being in a welcoming, free spirited community, bathing in the vast greenness of the forests and fields, feeling in the moment, and constantly reaching your palms to the ground.

The amount of barely a week of time has shown to be enough for us to completely change our perception of nature and its connection with humanity. 

Volunteers coming all the way from Jordan to Catalonia and in between, had the opportunity to share their “Peace” of mind, combining their culture, ways of youthwork’s involvement and relation with nature as a whole. 

This training course has allowed me to explore how I treat nature, and how it is always giving the care back to me. Workshops about Shinrin Yoku, gong meditation, lessons on gratitude, stress, and many more helpful topics enabled me to make big progress towards being the change maker of society. 

The people you meet on such projects never leave your heart. I like to think of them as my big far away family. They help me to get through hardships just by thinking of them, and I have never felt more comfortable as well as accepted, as in Winterthur… 

I want to give special thanks to our two fairies and magicians, otherwise known as the facilitators, Gośka Tur and Natalie Jivkova. I don’t believe that this story, experience and the ray bursting thru my, and our hearts, would have been the same shade of forest green.

The training course “Inner Peace and Peace with Nature” took place from 13th to 19th October 2022 in Winterthur and was organized by SCI Switzerland under the “Peace for Change, Change for Peace” project.

The project was financially supported by Movetia. Movetia promotes exchange, mobility and cooperation within the fields of education, training and youth work – in Switzerland, Europe and worldwide.