Social Erasmus is one of the international projects by the organization Erasmus Student Network and was created in 2008. The main aim of this project is to enrich the international experience of young people abroad with volunteering activities that allow them to understand society's problems in certain countries they are located during their Erasmus. We try to create positive social change through volunteering. We divide our SocialErasmus activities according to different 8 causes in which we can help our surroundings. Those causes (or so-called pillars) that SocialErasmus covers are: Animals, Disasters, Discrimination, Education, Environment, Health, Poverty, and Violence. Speaking about our section in Banská Bystrica, we can proudly say that we cover more causes. The most favorite SocialErasmus activity is dog walking. Another important activity that we should mention is Erasmus in Schools. International students studying abroad visit local schools and give lessons about their country, culture, and traditions to create cultural awareness among local students and fight stereotypes. We try to visit the House of St. Elizabeth for abused women and their children in Banská Bystrica regularly, where the students help with cleaning, donation or just playing with the children. We also visited a kindergarten once. It was such a great experience to observe children and how they reacted to people who couldn't speak Slovak. They were shy at the beginning, but after a while, they were dancing and singing with us a song about animals.
Our hill Urpín in Banská Bystrica is also a visited location. We collect trash on our way up and then we can have a picnic or just enjoy nature and view on the whole city. In order to aim attention on this project, there is SocialErasmus week taking place twice a year. We organize a week full of SocialErasmus activities. This project is here to show us also another side of Erasmus. It shouldn't be only about traveling and having fun, but also about showing foreign students that they can be useful and help people. We all can make a change for better in this world. The slogan of SocialEramus: „Leave your mark!“ Let's make the world a better place. We can do it together. If you are interested in this project, you can watch this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVaI34iDN1U More information about SocialErasmus on www.socialerasmus.esn.org
