Kaunas

   One the 12th-13th of March, 15 sections came together as the 27th National Platform of ESN Lithuania began. Organized cooperatively by ESN KK and ESN VU KHF. With the plenaries and workshops being held in VU Kaunas Faculty of Humanities. Among other things, this NP was focused upon the reports of the National Board members, National Coordinators, National Committees and of the sections themselves.

   On the first day of the Platform they saw the reports of Eduk8 Starter participants, "Colours of Lithuania", CNR Jyvaskyla and the National Board.

   The day came to a energetic end as ESN ISM and then ESN ŠU presented their candidacies for the OC of NP'28. And finally the evening was a part where all faces began to fade, as the night brought on the Masquarade. An evening part with many games and a wonderful performance by the OC.

   On the second day of the Platform. For the second time at a Platform of ESN Lithuania an infomarket was held to present the sections, where everyone got a chance to get up and personal, meet face to face and learn all they could want about other sections and share gadgets with eachother.

   The votings decided ESN ŠU as the OC for the next platform and "Go Xtreme" as a National Event.

Written by Tautvydas Utyra

On 25^th-26^th April ESN Lithuania newbies as well as advanced members enjoyed the sunny spring weather while participating in the national trainings called “Survival KIT Vol.3”. It was organized by the ESN KK and HR Committee and held in Kaunas kolegija/University of Applied Sciences.  

We are glad to announce that productive and interactive workshop sessions were conducted by even four ESN international guests who shared their knowledge and experience on leadership, motivation, interculturalism, and creativity. We were excited to welcome IB-elect Communication Manager Gaffar Rampage (ESN Communication Committee, ESN The Netherlands) participating in the 2^nd ESN Lithuania national event. He was a facilitator who gave a short theoretical presentation on communication, its means, purpose, and types. Having gone through that, ESN members had an opportunity to apply the theory into practice. Thus, the specific skills and knowledge were gained through the interactive activities.

Another facilitator Kenny Ho from ESN Ireland shared his experience of five years volunteering with the advanced level members. We held a discussion about self-development taking into consideration our success and failures, strengths and fears. Also, we tried to figure out how to motivate ourselves and others, how to avoid or solve various problems within the local as well as national levels. In addition to that, another workshop provided by Kenny was about job interviews and filling in CV. He engaged students in some discussions and activities that lead to a better understanding how to succeed in applying for a job.

Other two guests, Magda Jarmołowicz from ESN Poland and Thibault Pean from ESN France, were facilitators for the newbies. They dealt with the relevant issues like motivation, interculturalism, and creativity. Magda went deeper into the ESN as a non-profit association that provides plenty of opportunities and volunteering benefits. Also, members participating in her workshop analysed some situations and tried to find the means for enhancing motivation. Thibault emphasised significance of the topics about people differences and stereotypes of cultures. Engaging in creative activities, students made themselves sure once again that we should not judge a book by its cover. We should pay more attention to people’s characters and personalities and should not form an opinion about them from their sexual, religious, or political orientation.

Having worked a lot, students had fun responsibly at the “Responsible Party”. The members who took part in the trainings received a certificate and gained valuable experience which hopefully will be spread throughout the ESN Lithuania sections. The newbies and advanced members improved their knowledge on different topics and they were greatly empowered to seek for more.

Find the picture gallery on Facebook.

Written by Evelina Doftartaitė, PuRe Committee

It’s a wonderful time of the year. Easter holiday comes to our country and welcomes the spring! Playing Easter games and eating traditional dishes brings families together. But not all the people can share their joy and happiness with beloved ones. That’s why sections of ESN Lithuania together with SocialErasmus Coordinator decided to do a good deed and unite international students with the children and elders to celebrate it together. The sections visited children day centers, orphanages and elderly homes and spread the Easter spirit all over the place. They decorated eggs, played traditional games and even prepared musical performances. Let’s have a look what kind of activities some sections had during past two weeks.

On 24^th of March ESN KK have celebrated Easter in a very traditional way. They taught international students how to decorate Easter eggs in all kinds of different ways. After that they all together have visited elderly house and shared their countries Easter traditions with elders.

On 25^th of March ESN VMU together with international students went to Child Care Center and spent time with children by helping them to prepare for Easter. They played games and decorated Easter eggs as well. After the meeting VMU students shared their impressions - “We spent there unforgettable afternoon and brought Easter joy to the children!”

On 26^th of March ESN ISLB team together with international students went to Čižiūnai Orphanage and spent a memorable time with children. Students played games, balloon fight, and football match with their new little friends. The day was summed up with the Easter dinner where they presented musical performance.

On 27^th of March ESN KUK with Erasmus students went to a child day care centre. They were introduced with all children’s activities, decorated eggs, played games, learned several Lithuanian words and had an amazing time together.

On 30^th of March ESN VGTU organized a visit to one pension in Vilnius, where students learnt old traditions of painting eggs with wax and Easter games, as well. They were really kindly welcomed there by livers of the pension and even given some handmade presents. After the big job while decorating eggs, they had coffee and cake time and SURPRISINGLY, the barrier of language differences didn’t cause any discomfort. We also had the most beautiful egg election and the “Rolling eggs game”, which was really funny. 

 On 3^rd of April ESN LEU members and their exchange students together with ESN MRU Vilnius exchange students spent some time with children at the children’s day center. The children were happy to have visitors from all around the world.

All together international students and local communities built the bridges between different cultures and traditions. The ESN Lithuania team hopes that the warmth sections have shared with children and elders were appreciated and made them happier and that it was unforgettable experiences for international students as well.

Happy Easter everyone!  

All ESN Lithuania this weekend met for the last time before well-deserved summer holidays. Meeting has united 13 HEIs of the country, representatives of Lithuanian NA together with guests from Vilnius Design College applying for the position of a candidate section. For the first time members of the organization were welcomed in Kaunas city municipality what made 20th National Platform even more special.

This year ESN Lithuania had an amazing SocialErasmus week. 10 sections representing all 4 ESN cities of Lithuania have joined the initiative. Even 15 activities were organized.

The first day was started with our second National event „Give a smile for children“. The idea was to collect white coins from Erasmus students (all March) and then buy something nice for children. We decided to visit children in different cities. So we did by we viting Pamūšio child care homes, Old Town Children Day Center, Children day care center,  „Vaikų ir Paauglių Socialinis Centras“. All those meetings during this day ware awesome. Students were happy and proved us, that they would love to come back. 

During next days we had events like visit in Lithuanian educational centre, two Erasmus fairytales in school, small things can make you happy – we were giving people sweets with words like „Smile, it‘s simple“, two visits in pet shelter, what makes you happy, two free hugs activities, change a cigarete – don‘t smoke better eat a chocolade, Erasmus forest – it‘s nice to plant trees by ourselves, visit in the horse farm, action "Have a Nice Day". SocialErasmus week was finished with the video „I love you, Mom“ from ESN VMU. Erasmus students said in their language „I love you, Mom“.

All those activities showed us that together we are power. SocialErasmus week was full of positive mood, smiles and lots of love and hugs. Thanks for all, who has participated in this week and just keep being social.

Written by National SocialErasmus Coordinator Ona Bumbulytė

Every time ESN Lithuania meets in the National Platform it gets bigger and better. This weekend it has gathered more than 80 participants from 13 different higher education institutions. For the first time NP was welcomed by the representative of Kaunas city municipality, who was happy to be back to the organization where he used to belong once. After listening to heartwarming speeches from NB representatives and dear guests from ESN Estonia in the morning of Saturday 18th Spring National Platform was opened.

Saturday

Day has started with elections of the Chairing Team. This time it consisted of two long lasting experience having ESNers – Vydūnas Pakrijauskas, former Human Resources Coordinator of ESN Lithuania and member of ESN VGTU, and Modesta Džiaugytė, former president of ESN KK section. This strong duo has definitely ensured an international quality while successfully leading the entire event. Later on 6 sections of the network have presented their goals achieved during the recent half of the year. Ideas realized and upcoming projects were a great proof that ESN Lithuania keeps developing. Afterwards participants were invited to listen to the Communication Manager Sandra Baltkojytė, who has presented an idea to further develop the idea of the establishment of Pure Committee, which would invite to join all interested in communication or public relations.  President of ESN VU Darija Kupstaitė suggested sharing opinions about the future of ESNers contract, which is being developed to better establish the position and the status of the member of ESN Lithuania.
After the lunch NP was invited to participate in one of 4 organized workshops. Participants could choose between Scanbalt Experience WG (Kristofer, Scanbalt Experience) CLR or who needs to know all about ESN International in the Section (Simona Patašiūtė, NR of Lithuania), How Big is THAT (Simas Ivanauskas, Partnership Coordinator of ESN Lithuania) and Lobbing for ESN (Jaanika Saarmets, Henri Vennikas – president and treasurer of ESN Estonia). Second half of the day was dedicated for the reports of NB members for their recent half of the year and presentation about ESN Alumni and their development. Moreover, new ideas were presented as “Photo Rally within Lithuania” idea. Updates about upcoming projects as ABROADIN.EU and STORY were given. Day one was closed by the updates on the recently established positions of free listeners, who are allowed to attend NPs as guests with no rights for voting, and situation with Lithuanian NA, who recently has reached the new level of partnership since the project Erasmus in Schools were totally transferred to ESN Lithuania’s supervision.

Sunday 

New day, new challenges! Agenda, approved in the morning, suggested that this time NP will not be over until lunch as it used to be one year ago. This time it has lasted until 6pm. Rest of the sections were invited to present their achievements, which were no less surprising as the previous sections’ ones. Day was continued by the presentation about AGM and Lithuanian participants present there. This time Lithuanian delegation will consist of even 17 people!

After the lunch 5 workshops were organized: Image ABC (Akvilė Pušinskaitė, ESN ŠU), Goal Setting (Mariin Karp, ESN Estonia), ESN – Way to Success (Julius Zaburas, ESN Alumni), Preparations for AGM (Simona Patašiūtė, ESN LT NR) and Communicators Communicate (Sandra Baltkojytė, ESN LT Communication Manager). 1 hour long lasting conversations about the future of ESN LT and how to seize the opportunities ESN has to offer for you benefited to the motivation and knowledge of every single participant.At the second half of the day guests from ESN Estonia finally had a change to present their activities and structure. 4 NB members and 1 section representative allowed get a proper impression how are the activities in Lithuania’s Baltic neighbor organized. While the guests were already preparing to leave, stage was occupied by Communication Manager and her report for the last 6 months of activities, which was followed by the report of HRC Tomas Tamulevičius, Project&Coordinator Sandra Rimavičiūtė, who at the time was present in ESNSurvey meeting in Brussels, and Ona Bumbulytė, ESN LT SE Coordinator.

Few more discussions were held at the end of the day about the Erasmus+ possibilities, future of Partnership Coordinator’s position and International events of ESN. Event was closed by the NB representatives awarding the Secretariat, the CT and the amazing OC.
This time National Platform only for the 3rd time in the history was organized in Kaunas city and for the first time by the cooperation of two sections – ESN KK and ESN VMU. Great job was done to ensure the quality of the event, starting from the impressive auditorium, capable to contain even 725 people, ending up with the cozy evening part, where everyone had a great opportunity to get better to know each other and even be evaluated by the colleagues for the results achieved.

One day after the NP there are so many positive feedback that it makes us all to believe that ESN Lithuania, which has now accepted already it’s 12th member – ESN LEU – is one big and the most important family, who is united again.

More photos: HERE

Yesterday students who are studying in Vilnius were invited to join, not the first time organized, Blood Donation Day. This time it has become a grand event because not only the majority of the ESN sections in Vilnius united for the common purpose but on the same day the action took place in Kaunas and Šiauliai as well.

Blood donation campaign’s goal is to draw public attention to the lack of blood donors in Lithuania and encourage young people to become more involved in this voluntary activity.

​The best thing was that not only compatriots participated in the event, but also foreign students who are studying in Lithuania actively involved themselves too. They were extremely active as wanted to encourage other by showing their example of becoming donors in Lithuania. When asked do they are afraid to give blood for the first time, almost everyone answered that they are not afraid to do this and event they are doing this not for the first. Students encouraged and supported each other, so the results was amazing: in 6 hours 40 students donated blood - most of them – foreigners.

The event was divided into two parts and the students had the opportunity to choose the convenient time of arrival to Blood Centre by the bus. The first group came at 12 AM (there were over 50 students) and the second – 15 PM.

Visitors were greeted by not only the organizers but also had a chance to take part in well prepared an interesting program, were invited to have some refreshments. Participants had the opportunity to play table football, various table and movement games, join guided tours of the blood center, contributed to the picture painting, which later was left as the memory in Blood center. They even watched the movie "Blood Road"! Also, each participant was awarded not only with the gifts of the sponsors but got some presents from their universities.

Vilnius must be proud of this success of the event when vast majority of the sections contributed to the project: ESN VGTU, ESN VU, ESN MRU Vilnius, LEU ESN , ESN VDA, ESN ISLB.

After the event, everyone was invited to come to the Responsible party which was organized by the ESN members in University's pub and urged young people to have responsible celebrations.

We hope that this will become an annual event and more ESN sections in Lithuania will join this beautiful idea in the future!

by Viktorija Mažonaitė, ESN LEU