After Algis, we would like to introduce you one second Northern volunteer who came to Stanica a month ago. Mats Blakstad from Norway - little guy with big idea in his head…
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My name is Mats Blakstad and I’m from Kristiansand (southern Norway). I just arrived at Stanica and will stay here for one year doing European Voluntary Service.

I’m 25 years old and in life I’ve done many different things so it is hard to give a comprehensive presentation. I’ve been active in several political youth organizations in Norway, I’ve also traveled a lot, had many different part time jobs and lived many places: Oslo, Copenhagen, Reykjavik, Barcelona and Lomé in Togo (West-Africa). I’ve done two years at art school and realized that I’m a person with minimal aesthetic skills, but better to work on ideas. Now I’m taking free courses at the University of Oslo, mostly related to culture and communication.

Here in Zilina my main focus will be to work on a project for intercultural dialogue. I work on this project with linguistic students in Togo. It is a postcard project and it works like a megaphone: Imagine you could say one thing to everyone else in the world, what would you say? People send us their ideas on a postcard and we help translate it into other languages. E.g, you can write something in Slovak and we will help to translate it into Norwegian, Arabic, Zulu or Chinese. So I work to make a website to present this project, and try to connect with people that want to help develop the project, with ideas, translations, design or website development. So if anyone find the project interested and want to help - please take contact!

Beside this I hope to try new things during this year and I’m very happy to be at Stanica, as there are so diverse activities here. I’m very happy for this opportunity and hope that I can contribute back to this cultural node in different ways. I also hope to learn some Slovak by time, and to do some hiking in your beautiful mountains. See you around.

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Mats is taking his 12-month European Voluntary Service in Stanica, funded by European Comission within Youth in Action programme.