How is it like to volunteer with Zó?
With lots of energy and new perspective from a Latino country- Lorena Martin , a Chilean designer brought to Zó office such a positive enerfgy everyday during her time of volunteering with Zó. Let'ss talk to Lorena to know more about this cool girl and discover what it is like volunteering with us.
Can you introduce to us a little bit about yourself?
I’m Lorena San MartÃn, I’m from Chile and I’m 27 Years Old. In the University I studied Graphic Design and when I finished It I started to study master in Business Management. My passions are travel, the art and the editorial design.
What makes you decide to come to Vietnam and work with Zo Project as a volunteer?
One of my dreams when I was a child was to work like volunteer in some place in the world. I spoke with Latinomics and they told me a little bit about Zó and all the work that they done there. Iwas very interested in work in Zó Project,which made me to come to Vietnam.
What is your first impression about Zó Project? What is the work you did to contribute Zó Project as a designer volunteer?
My first impression when I arrive the first day in Zó, was very good, I really wanted to start working at the same day, because in the house of Zó ,you could feel all the creativity that inspires you to create new products and made grown new ideas. The only thing that made me feel insecure was the language, because I didn’t speakEnglish so well.
During.... months of volunteering here, you must have lots of experience creating on dó paper and involving in some of the culture events which were organized by Zó Project. Can you please share with us some of your experiences?
Oh yeah, I’ve got a lot of experience working at Zó Project, these are some of my favorite ones:
When we went to the bamboo village and we learnt about the craftsman, one of them show us all the beautiful products that he made to sell like lamps, jars, chairs, etc. after that we went to a cultural house in where we met a man who was very kind with us and showed us how to play music with Vietnamese instruments.
When with Nhung we went to an institute for people with special capacities and we taught how bind notebooks. It was a very heartfull experience.
When we went to the paper village and we taught kids how to recycle paper. When we done this activity, we had lunch with vey good Vietnamese food and drank a special liqueur made with the honeycomb and bees. In the afternoon we started to learn about how the villagers make hand made paper.
I also liked the meditation on Mondays, where I learnt a lot about different kind of meditation.
What do you think about the propose of Zó’s establishment to preserve Vietnam traditional paper and bring modernized design to the traditional paper?
I really think that is an amazing initiative to keep the vietnamese traditions alive and give the new generations the opportunity tolearn about traditional values. Adapting the paper to the modern design is a creative way to attract the attention of young generations, so in that way we can have a los followers and young people who appreciate the vietnamese paper.
Any message for who is interested in collaborate with Zó as volunteers, interns, supporters?
The motivation, being proactive and new ideas are key words when you start to work with Zó. Sometimes , you might face difficulties during the adaptation to the culture and the weather , but don’t forget to remind yourself of your goals from working , the result coming out will really cheer you up and satisfied.