Unica Radio Raccontiamo la città che cambia
Julija Baublinskaitė is a student, volunteer, and human rights activist from Lithuania. In this interview, she talks about the importance of local volunteering and helping your own community.
Human rights activism is the most important part of Julija‘s everyday work. She started volunteering back in school in different cultural events, and as the years went by it developed into long-term volunteering at the National LGBTQ+ rights organization in Lithuania ’’LGL’’. She chose this organization because LGTBTQ+ rights are a very important topic for her, as she is queer herself.
Julija believes that volunteering is one of the most important tools in advancing human rights.
When asked if she would consider going to volunteer abroad, Julija said she is the most passionate about issues affecting her home country and her community. According to Julija, “If you don‘t try to resolve the issues that affect you, the people closest to you and your country, who else is going to do it.”
The best part of volunteering for Julija is the sense of purpose that doing something genuinely important and helping others gives you. The most challenging part is the feeling of responsibility – in her opinion, if you don‘t try to solve the issues affecting your community, then nobody will. For Julija it sometimes becomes tiring. The best experience that volunteering gave her was organizing the first queer culture festival in Lithuania. Julija and her team of volunteers did it in a month and a half, but the outcome was very rewarding, as they managed to create a safe space for people to experience the queer culture.
In Julija‘s future plans there are more LGBTQ+ activism initiatives, and in the fall she is going to participate in a student exchange program in Istambul. She is hoping to get involved in some volunteering initiatives there as well.
Interested in volunteering?
If you are a young person or you may know young people who are interested in volunteering and international experience, the radio show “LIVE” is for you.
Your host is Ona Stasiuleviciute , who does this radio show as a part of her long-term European Solidarity Corps volunteering program in the organization TDM 2000 in Cagliari. You can find more information about the LIVE project on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook.
