As you probably now, Park Istra Volunteers Center is based in Debeli Rtič (Red Cross Rehabilitation Resort) during this winter. We are glad to say we have the opportunity here to help not only the locals but also the red Cross organization and the workers that daily work here. We are also very free to give ideas and start projects that would improve or help them somehow.
Inside of the area of the Red Cross Resort, there is a building called “Rakovica”. Its main purpose is to welcome children for holidays, no matter their medical or social conditions, so they would have the time to have fun and live a bit of their childhood in peace. We want them to feel welcome and comfortable, enjoying the good conditions of the place and the surroundings.
The Rakovica building was being renovated by the workers with a bit of help of our volunteers. In the meanwhile, one of our volunteers had the amazing idea to colour some of the walls of the building to give some life to it, instead of the clean white walls. The paintings would also give some image to the name of the building, directing all the drawings to the depths of the sea and all the animals that live there.
We presented the idea to Ana Žerjal, Debeli Rtič Manager, and she accepted it. Slovenian company named Helios kindly agreed to provide us all the colours we needed for free!
After this, we were full of energy and inspiration to start, so the project went very fast! Only a few weeks later, we had the authorization and the paints to start working. The sketches started to come out. We are also glad to have a very talented volunteer, Katja Arnetee Marušič that painted the biggest wall by herself and created an explosion of colours and creativity, giving the most orientation for the development of the project. Quoting Katja’s words “It was pure beauty to create imaginary wall full of warm greetings and playful situations for the kids that will reside there.” Also we had the help of other volunteers to paint. I was mostly helping with sketching and painting.
Very recently, on 1st of February, the opening of “Rakovica” house happened! All the renovation and painting was finished and now we are ready to welcome the kids.
Beatriz Lourenço – EVS volunteer from Portugal