Comundos gives voice to the voiceless, lets their stories inspire others and creates a precious linkage between remote hopes and dreams. One of the links of this chain are the volunteers Comundos counts on, of which one of them is me, Leyre. As the Volunteer of the Year 2018, I would like to share my experience with Comundos during the last 12 months.

I crossed paths with Comundos on September 2017 while studying the PIEC, a UNESCO Postgraduate Programme on Sustainable Development and Education, as a part of my Erasmus+ studies in UCLL, Leuven, Belgium.

As a part of my internship, I created a digital story together with a classmate and we used it as didactical material in a two-days workshop for adults on discrimination and education. Besides, we fundraised over 2900€ to contribute to the work of Comundos.

After experiencing the potential of Comundos on education in my own skin, I started volunteering for them in November 2017. I was recruited as a Media Translation Manager and, among other tasks, I have already published over a hundred translations of digital stories on the website – thanks to PerMondo – and also other articles about didactical material.

This volunteering work has let me gain organisational, digital, content writing and collaborative skills, as well as open a window to several inspiring stories from all over the Earth. I want to give a special thanks to Bart Vetsuypens for the great work he does as the Director of Comundos, allowing all this to happen.

As an educator for the 21st century, these are priceless experiences for which I am sincerely grateful. Real education implies progress, and real progress needs of education to be sustainable. It is in this intertwined affirmation where my mission as an educator takes shape, and volunteering for Comundos is one more move towards its fulfilment.

Leyre Rebollo Blanco, Spain