"My favourite co-worker is also the therapy dog!"

"Ahoj! My name is Rika and I volunteer at Salome. Salome is a project that helps young people with disabilities. From the first day on I felt very welcomed and included not only by the other workers but also by the clients. I´m volunteering there for a month now and I would like to share some of my impressions and experiences.

I volunteer in Bohumin but I live with my lovely Flatmate Marta in Cesky Tesin, which makes my way to work a little journey every day. I sometimes work in the morning and on other days in the afternoon. When I work in the morning, I start around 7:40. I help preparing tasks for clients. Then the clients come. With younger children there is mostly one client at a time, a social worker and me. With older kids there are sometimes more clients who do activities together. In the morning there are mostly younger children with whom we train motoric, language and social skills.

When I work in the afternoon, I start at 12:30. At that time there are normally older kids who come after school. We do a lot of different tasks that are specific for each client’s need. We have gone for walks around the city, went to the supermarket, have prepared food, went to the library, worked in the garden, played games and much more. Sometimes my task is to help or play with clients, sometimes I film the other workers while they work with clients so they can analysis the videos later and sometimes I do creative work.

A special moment for me is every time when one of the kids communicates with me although I don´t speak Czech. Some kids communicate with their hands, other speak English and some even know a few German words. It is very heart-warming to see them trying to make me understand them.

Working at Salome made me realise the importance of not giving up on children who struggle but to keep motivating and helping them so that they can reach their full potential. It also made me understand that you can communicate without language but that language makes communication way easier. Beside of my supervisor I also work with all the other social workers in Salome. My favourite co-worker is also the therapy dog Bara who I met two weeks ago for the first time." (Rika, Germany)