20 years of KERIC
It is a blessed age for a civic association. This time is full of stories of people who have been associated with KERIC during these 20 years.

Maybe we can start from the beginning, sometime in the beginning, we had someone call KERIC and wanted to talk to Mr. KERIC. There is no Mr. or Mrs. KERIC, there are just a great many people, a community, who make up KERIC. KERIC and its name, its character, its community has been created over the past 20 quiet years by the people who have become a part of it. 13 people worked directly in the office, 3 in the tea room, more than 10 teachers helped us during the courses and almost 30 students who taught children English, to keep KERIC nice and clean, 5 cleaning ladies took care of KERIC during the 20 years.

Back thanks to the people, we are also able to change the space around us, for example the waterfront with the successful realization of the Bench project. KERIC is all about volunteering and so far we have hosted 174 volunteers from 43 countries, 124 from Europe, 24 from Latin America, 15 from Asia, 10 from Africa and one from North America. We have hosted the most volunteers from France and the volunteer who came to us from the farthest distance was from Uruguay.

Statistics by continent:

We can thank our host families who have been helping us since 2010 for making it all happen. Two families have been with us since the beginning - the Pishteks and the Melichers, and other families have gradually come and expanded our KERIC community. Also mentors, school teachers, young volunteers have helped the foreign volunteers to feel comfortable in Slovakia.
 
We would be hard pressed to find a school in Kysuce that has not had the opportunity to meet each other during educational events, and so generations of young people in Kysuce have the opportunity to meet foreigners and become more open to different cultures. We are really proud of that and we are proud that it is happening in Kysuce.
Even more interesting is the statistic from the broadcast, we sent 322 Slovak young people to 52 countries around the world to gain new experiences, knowledge and friendships. 207 to Europe, 64 to Latin America, 40 to Asia and 11 to Africa. We sent the most volunteers to Italy and the furthest again to Uruguay.

Statistics by continent:

 
It is very difficult to sum up twenty years of Keric's hectic life in a few words. Perhaps apart from the numbers, it is important to write that there are many human stories behind this time that are associated with KERIC and we can immodestly write which ones KERIC has influenced. Many people have been influenced by their time at KERIC professionally, and have chosen to further their studies or pursue their dream jobs because of their experience here. Several have found their love, friends and friendships. We have managed to create a community where positive feelings and moods prevail, and for that we owe thanks to all of you who are and have been with us over these 20 years.
 
Mirka Petríková