Archive of FAQ until now

Q: How much money is one box of marlboro ?
A: As far as we know, it`s somewhere around 2 Euros. This is regarding all types of ciggaretts.

Q: The tickets that you are buying, are they round trips or one way tickets, in case if I don't want to go after the service straight home?
A: We`ve decided to buy round trip tickets for you, but if there are any desires from your part, we can take them into consideration, for each one of you.

Q: If you get the information about the accommodation it would be nice to know, where are we going to live: how many rooms would be there and do we have the opportunity to use internet?
A: We will inform all of you regarding the place you are going to stay as soon as we have it. As for the internet connection, you will have it most of the time, just maybe not in the rural area, where you will aso develop some activities.

Q: Is there the possibility, that all guys from Germany travel together by train?
A: Probably yes, we will take that into consideration, depending the rute.

Q: Is it true that it is a very big house with 15 guys, living in a big international community? When it is clear where we live, can you send me the address of that place?
A: We are still looking for a place, but as soon as we have it, we will let you all know.

Q: When we will get the activity agreement from you?
A: As soon as we have it done. We are working on it now.

Q: Does my sending organisation has to care about the insurance, or is it your exercise? Our insurance is made by AXA, isn't it? Do we get the insurance card, when we arrive in Romania, or will you send it to Germany?
A: Yes, the insurance is made by AXA and sending organisations have to do it for the volunteer(s). You can get the insurance card(s) also in Romania, but it`s better to have them before you come here. You should get them from the company.

Q: We really didn’t understand well how should we registrate her (the volunteers) on web-site (for the insurance)?
A: Go to the web-site http://www.europeanbenefits.com -> link European Voluntary Service -> link Enrolment -> new user -> enter your data -> and so on. You will see than the web site will ask you to enter the password for this web-site (not the password which you establish). You have to enter there this password: evs32f3n or evsjsk74.
Also, you have to introduce the information of your organisation, the information of your national agency, data of the volunteers, of the host organisation and so on...
The name of the project is „Cultural clusters - to be discovered” - RO-21-13-2007-R4 (in case you need it)
When you finish with the registration, please send us an e`mail of confirmation.
Also, do not forget to give the insurance assistance card to the volunteer(s).

Q: Do we have a little kitchen in our apartment/living place?
A: Yes, we try to have in all the places a kitchen/house/apartment.

Q: Do we have holidays? For example at Christmas?
A: Yes, of course, all celebration days will be days off + 2 days/month. Generally you will not have very long days and you will have space for own initiatives.

Q: I need your complete post address of your organisation, please
A: Adress: Asociatia Millennium Center, 5 Unirii street, 2nd floor, ap 4, Arad 310123 Romania

Q: So we really don't need to bring bedclothes? There are blankets and also bedclothes?
A: We will provide bedclothes and blankets. If you want to take also yours, it is up to you.

Q: And what about towels and sheets? Do we have to bring those ourself?
A: We will provide them. But if you want, you can bring, if you consider necessary.

Q: And how does it go with the follow up? Is it a follow up for the whole group?
A: Every volunteer will choose how is he/she going to make his/her own follow up. Could be the same with the other, here, or could be in sending country.

Q: How often are we going to visit the language course?
A: We plan to do it twice a week in some periods and once in other periods.

Q: I am thinking about taking my laptop with me to Romania, is it useful?
A: Yes, can be very useful, it will be easier for you. Of course you will have to take care of it. Also, it is a very good idea to come with photo and video cameras, again, it will help you and us in some local activities.

Q: Do we have a mentor and who is our mentor in the project? Are you the mentor?
A: Yes, you will have a mentor. I will work with you in some organisational things. But I want to be your friend :-) even if I will not be your mentor.

Q: Is there a possibility for our volunteer to stay longer than 6 months for his EVS (without considering the follow-up activity)?
A: For EVS will not be possible because the budget is for 6 months. He can make a follow up, for sure, for one month.

Q: How does it go with our luggage? How much can we take with us? Could we send the luggage to Romania per post?
A: As soon as I have all the tickets I can tell you about this. Normally with the plane there is a luggage limit weight of 20 Kilos. As far as I know it is not the case with the train, for those who are coming by train.

Q: About electrivity, do you have 220 V ?
A: As I was asked about sockets and electricity, I can answer you that 220 V is here usually.

Q: Because of the way how I travel to Romania, I guess when travelling by plane I can only take about 25 kg of luggage with me - isn't it so?

A: As far as we know, the maximum weight of the luggages when travelling by plane is 20 kilos.

Q: Where are we exactly, can you tell me an adress, or a description of the place we are going to be? Are we going to live in flats, or all together in one big house?

A: Arad, one of the cities in which you will have activities is near to the hungarian border, in the westerned part of Romania. We don`t know yet where are you going to stay, but we take the place and let you know.

Q:On the EBA- homepage, what should I enter when it asks me after my national agency - the european union, or what - if yes, i wouldn't know that the european union has an e-mail adress.

A: Your national agency is the organisation in your country responsible for the Youth in Action programme and the e`mail address should be one of those people responsible for EVS in your country.

Q: Is it OK for you, if I organize the travel for my volunteer and after the project goes on I will send you the receipt. Could you please tell me how much did you applied for the travel costs?

A: Yes, if you consider it`s better this way, we don`t have a problem with that. We will reimburse you the money, anyway, afterwards. The travel costs are different regarding each volunteer or organisation in part.

Q: What is the specific project activity which the volunteer will be involved in? How mane hours? What sort of job? What about accomodation? How much volunteer will get allowance?

A: Please see the AA.. :-)

Q: What about the sending activity cost?
A: You can see information regarding sending activity costs in the AA of each volunteers, it depends also of the organisation. We will send those funds to you as soon as we get the second amount of money for the project, somewhere around 2 or 3 month after the volunteers are coming here.

Q: What does this mean: sending organisation will pay international currency charges?

A: It means that the sending organisation will have to pay the cost of bank transffers.

Q: At what telephone number can we join to you once arrived on the spot?

A: We will let you know when it will be the case.

Q: How we go from the airport to Arad please?

A: Most probably somebody from our organisation will pick you up.

Q: Is it possible to travel with another volunteer?

A: Yes, of course. If you have the same route and using the same mean of transport, i don`t see a problem in that.

Q: Is it possible and safe to send some luggage to arad?
A: Probably yes, we don`t know for sure, but we`ll try to check that.

Q:Shall we arrange everything for our volunteer regarding the transport and you will pay her travel costs directly to him/her in Romania?

A: If you consider it`s more suitable, that`s not a problem for us. We will, anyhow, reimburse you the money.

Q: In the contract is written that we receive 520 euro for our preparation etc. Please advise what you need to transfer these funds

A: We will need the details regarding the bank account of your organisation, but we will let you know about that, when the case.

Q: Should you bring your mobile phone with you? Or can you use a telephone there, or should you buy telephone cards? What's the best thing to do?

A: You can bring your phone with you, but we will provide you also with a telephone when you`ll come here. There`s also the possibility of buing international telephone cards.

Q: I heard there is a little formation at the arrival organised by the national Agency. Where will this formation take part? In Arad? When will that be? On 1st February?

A: It`s true that when you will get here there will be an on`arrival training in which you will find out more about the objectives of the project, the activities you are going to develop here and also about the places in which these will take place. It will be just after your arrival here, and it will probably organised in Arad.

Q: When will the language courses begin?

A: At the beginning of the project.

Q: What day will the effective voluntary job begin? Just after the formation?

A: Yes.

Q: About the accomodation, I really like to know if we have on single or a 2 persons room. I guess it's important to imagine and to prepare ourselves to live an experience like that...

A: We don`t know that for sure, but we will let you know as soon as we have booked the place for you.

Q: I heard about this big snow chaos and the cold weather that is troubling Rumania at the moment! Is this affecting our project anyhow?

A: It`s true that in some parts of Romania it`s preatty cold, but in Arad it`s not really that cold. The temperature it`s somewhere between -1 and -7 degrees maximum these days. I don`t know how it will be in February when you will arrive here, but it will probably be a little bit warmer. Anyhow, this is not going to affect the project in any matter. Don`t worry.

Q: Now since almost everyday people keep on asking me when I´m going to Rumania, is there already a date settled?

A: Not yet, but it will be as soon as we buy the tickets for you.

Q: Is there a possibility to snowboard or ski close to Arad?

A: Yes, there is. It`s not really close to Arad, but some kilometres away. Still, you can get there by train.

Q:Just another question: how's the weather in Arad? Is it very cold and snowing? Do I need special clothes?

A: The weather in Arad it`s a little bit cold, but not very. The temperature it`s somewhere between -1 and -7 degrees maximum these days. I don`t know how it will be in February when you will arrive here, but it will probably a little bit warmer. But, it`s better to take some warm clothes with you.

Q: Should you bring your mobile phone with you? Or can you use a telephone there, or should you buy telephone cards? What's the best thing to do?

A: We will try to provide you with a mobile photo for the time you are going to stay here, but if you would like to bring your own also, it`s your choice.

Q: Do we live in flats, or in a big house? If flat: how much people live together in one? If house: same question, and do we have a kitchen, bathroom and toilet?

A: We don`t know yet, because we haven`t decided yet. We have many options and we are thinking at the best solution, considering that you are going to be a little bit numerouse. We`ll let you know anyway, when we`ll know for sure. You will have in any case all the necessary stuffs.

Q: Where am I going to exactly, can you give me an adress of the place?

A: You are going to arrive in Arad, which is placed in the western part of Romania, near to the Hungarian border.

Q: I am vegetarian, is that any problem?
A: No, it`s not a problem at all. That thing will be taken into consideration by us.

Q: What about diseases - are there any special, which you can not find in Austria, do I have to inoculate against some special diseases?
A: No, i don`t think so, just if you know you have some alergies or reactions to new environments.

Q: Do the shops in Romania accept euros, or only lei? 1 euro is about 3.67 lei, but i can`t imagine anything with numbers. Can you tell me how much a loaf of bread, or one litre of milk, or anthing else costs, jut that i can compare euro and lei?

A: In Romania we do not use euros already, only lei. So if you`ll have euros you will have to change them in lei when you arrive here. As for your questions about products, a loaf of bread is between 1 and 2,5 lei, sometimes also 3 lei, but it depends of the product. That will be somewhere around 50, 70 or 80 cents in euros. As for the milk, is somewhere around 3 lei, meaning almost 1 euro, but it also depends on the product. Some of them are cheper, some of them are more expensive.

Q: Is it possible to work out the project in Arad?

A: I guess you can work, just to have time. I think a part time job wouldn`t be a problem.

Q: In this project are there english courses included?

A: No, but if there are many people interested, maybe we can discuss and see if it`s possible to organise some.

Q: The ticket is for 3 months (from Feb 1 till 30 April). The project is for 6 months – will you issue him a new return ticket in Romania and what is his actual return date.

A: We bought the ticket for 3 month because he will probably have to leave after that, but we will see how we can manage with his visa.

Q: The ticket is till Prague how does he get to the project? Will their be somebody waiting for him at Prague airport (and how will he recognize them)?

A: He will take the plane to Prague, and then change for another one to Budapest (please see that there are 2 plane he has to take). In Budapest airport there will be somebody waiting for him as well as the other volunteers that will take them directly to Arad by bus.

Q: Can you give emergency number and name in case he has problems getting to you?

A: Phone numbers that you can use in case of anything: 0040 722 686 170 (Andreea) and 0040 722 977 094 (Victor).

Q: Is their anything special he should bring with him (We understand that towels etc will be provided)

A: We will try to provide them with all the necessary things, but if there`s something he would like to take with him, that`s not a problem with us.

Q: Is there a number that his family can ring during the project in case of emergency?

A: All the volunteers will get a mobile phone after arriving here that they can use for calls, also they will have access to our phone office, and if it`s the case they can use it at anytime.

Q: Did you find a house for the participans?

A: We are in the process of choosing a place for all of you.

Q: How many will arrive at the first of february?

A: The total number of volunteers that will arrive at the 1st of February it`s 14.

Q: Do I need anything else except my passport to get from Budapest du Arad? Will I meet some others from the project there?

A: You don`t need anything else besides your passport or id card for the travel. You will also meet other 4 volunteers in Budapest, from where somebody will pick you all up and take you directly to Arad by bus.

Q: My gynaecologist asked me to do her a favour: she has an gynaecologist chair which is in a good condition, but she already got a new one, and because she doesn't want to throw it away, she wanted to send it to Africa, but they didn't want it. When she found out, that I am going to Romania, she asked me if I could help her transport the chair to Romania. Do you know if a gynaecologist in Arad needs a gynaecologist chair? Can you get some information on that?

A: I personally don`t know a gynecologist that will need a chair as well as if there`s a possibility of transporting it, because it`s kind of big. Maybe just with some special cars that are transporting materials of this kind. I will try to check, but i cannot promise you anything. :-(

Q: Do you already know the place were we are going to live? My mother would like to have an adress of this place.

A: We don`t know exactly the place where you are going to stay, because after your arrival you will go directly to on`arrival training and after that you will be splitted into 4 communities from the country.

Q: Do we get a bank account in Romania? So that we can keep our pocket money there?

A: You can open a back accoun here, of course, after you arrive.