Tales of dofaks and dofačky

I liked the values that DOFE promotes and highlights. For a long time, I was looking for a program that would lead young people to be independent, build discipline, or even step out of their comfort zone. One of the biggest draws in my case was an adventure expedition.

Filling the DOFE was a beautiful, if at times winding, journey. I took away a lot - experiences from the expedition, new friends that I would give my hand for. It was one big challenge, but one that showed me how important it is to have someone in your life who will stand by you on the road to your dreams... I learned that if you want something, you have to go for it, and all success is hidden in hard work and the ability to persevere. No one becomes successful overnight.

DOFE was a new challenge for me to step out of my comfort zone and discover things, people and experiences that I would not have known without DOFE. The residency project at the Global Youth Gathering in Lisbon gave me confidence, including the fact that I have no problem talking to a Brazilian, Portuguese or Malagasy (Madagascar resident) during a metro journey. And a DOFE expedition in half a meter of snow? An unforgettable experience.

Thanks to the DOFE, I have improved my skills in 5 languages, which I use to promote intercultural understanding, and I have discovered a great interest in psychology. I have reached C2 level in AJ and NJ. I am currently tutoring and working as a freelance translator. I also co-founded the first Ukrainian scout centre in our region, and worked with Ukrainian refugee children in the Stand By Me project as an ambassador. I am currently running an anti-bullying campaign for refugee children at our high school.

During the DoOFE, I worked on myself, and in different ways. Thanks to this, unique opportunities have opened up for me: to assist with communication to foreign patients hospitalized in Czech hospitals, to participate in an international youth conference of the European Union as one of the students of the Czech delegation or to experience an international expedition between Czech and Slovak expeditions in the White Carpathians in 2023.

I like to push myself and do extra things, so I didn't give up and started DOFE. It was a new challenge. I picked the gold level straight away and after talking to my supervisor, we surprisingly connected a lot of my activities very well with DOFE, gave them direction and also added goals that I would have rather just thought about before.

Overall, what I take away from DOFE is more organization, perseverance in what I do, the fact that you can connect things that I first thought were impossible and a lot of experiences from the expedition. To the new participants I would like to tell them not to be afraid to join DOFE, they have nothing to lose only to gain and also a lot of new unforgettable experiences await them.

I've been swimming since I was a kid and I wanted to push myself a bit further, so the idea of swimming across Gibraltar came up. I succeeded and thanks to that I got an invitation to dinner with British Prince Edward, who runs the worldwide DOFE... I also learned a lot in the field of volunteering, where I coached a children's swimming team.