For the third year in a row, ENIL is hosting two European Voluntary Service volunteers at its Brussels Office, now under the new framework of the European Solidarity Corps (ESC). At the beginning of March, Lisa Madl, from Austria, joined the ENIL Secretariat and will stay with us until 31 October. Lisa will contribute to a number of policy files (European Semester, freedom of movement, accessibility, EU Funds) and will also take part in the preparation of the Freedom Drive 2019.
Hatiye Garip, from Turkey, is still going through the process of obtaining a visa. We hope that the administrative issues will be solved quickly, so that Hatiye can join the ENIL team before the 5th May.
We have asked Lisa to introduce herself to our readers. You can find out more about her below.
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My name is Lisa Madl and I will be volunteering at the ENIL office in Brussels for eight months, so I will be around to hopefully meet many ENIL members at the 2019 Freedom Drive!
Before coming to Belgium, I studied conference interpreting for German, English and French at the University of Vienna, Austria. After finishing my university courses, I decided to go abroad for a while in order to gain experience in a new field. While browsing the available ESC projects, I came across the position at ENIL and immediately realized that it would be an amazing opportunity for me. Volunteering in Brussels will allow me to use English and French in my everyday life; learning Dutch is high on my priority list as well.
Although I have some experience in the domain of media accessibility (I have been co-authoring audio descriptions for blind and visually impaired people for over three years) and have previously done some translation work on the shadow report on the implementation of the UN CRPD in Austria, I am fairly new to the independent living movement.
I am looking forward to learning more about independent living and the related policies and practices during my time at ENIL. Of course, I am also excited about the Freedom Drive and the events surrounding the 5th of May, which I will help to coordinate together with the other ENIL staff members. In addition, I will hopefully contribute to the ENIL newsletter, social media and other communication channels and do my best to provide input from a blind woman’s point of view.
In my spare time, I enjoy reading, horse-riding, doing yoga and, as of recently, teaching myself to play the ukulele.
If you’d like to get in touch, you can reach me at escvolunteer1@enil.eu.
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The ESC programme is a great opportunity for both NGOs and young disabled people, and we would like to remind all the organisations that more information concerning the occupational strand is available under the following links: https://escorps.eu/en/ (available in 3 languages); www.issuu.com/esc4youth (ESC4Y enterprise leaflets, in 22 EU languages); www.issuu.com/esc4youth (ESC4Y employer info sheets, available in the project consortium languages).
For more information about doing ESC at ENIL, please contact secretariat@enil.eu.
