Photo: Carmen Kong

Invited by the European Youth Press Network, the biggest youth media organisation in Europe, E&M is attending "Integration Europe Online", a one-week training workshop organised by FEJS Macedonia (soon to be renamed as Mladiinfo), a non-profit independent organisation that promotes civil engagement and fosters professional journalism among young Europeans.

These sunny July summer days brought together around 40 young journalists from more than 20 countries, to discuss and share their experience and visions of reporting in Europe. Coming from Armenia, Austria, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Serbian, Slovakia, Slovenia, Switzerland and, of course, Macedonia, the conversations are truly transnational.

Participants arrived at Ohrid, the hosting city, mostly with no or little knowledge of this country with a population of around two million. Frankly, many of us, including myself, even had embarrassingly little knowledge of this part of Europe.

Have you ever thought of volunteering in Africa, Asia or the rest of the developing world? Motivated because you don't know what to do after graduation and volunteering makes your CV more impressive? Maybe you are eager to learn a new language, a new culture while doing something good and finding a sense of belonging?

Whatever reason it is, many young Europeans plan to volunteer in developing countries. But here comes the question: are their motivations good or bad; selfless or selfish?

In the workshop led by Maaret Jokela from Finland, an experienced volunteer to developing countries, around 20 participants from Europe reflected on their own motivations and explored ways to make volunteering in developing countries sustainable.

Sitting in the inner courtyard of the Frank-Loebsche Haus, the former residence of Anne Frank's grandfather Zacharias Frank in Landau, volunteers from Romania, Russia, Germany, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Hungary and the UK were divided into small groups to discuss their own definitions of good and bad motives for volunteering. And the (un)surprising result is, of course, that it is impossible to define good or evil.