Erase It All, Raise It Up!

The volunteers are expected to do voluntary service in three different fields:
1- In the field of school education: The participants are going to be asked to organize activities at kindergartens such as, reading fairy tales and acting them out, teaching songs, playing and teaching traditional games of their own countries, acquainting children with their own culture.
They are also expected to perform almost the same activities with primary school children to teach them about the outer world and help them socialise.
The activities at high schools are going to be about the term EU citizenship and awareness. The volunteers are expected to prepare presentations and organize workshops for students at high schools to help them realize what EU can offer to them and what it is like to be an EU citizen. The activities are expected to raise awareness and break down the prejudices if there are any.

2- In the field of social services: There are about 20 children's shelters and 98 children living in them in the province of Mugla. The volunteers will be taking part in the events where the children in care are taken to educational, rehabilitative and supportive activities. Along with these events, they are expected to accompany the children during shopping - especially when the children go to the open bazaar or supermarkets as a part of their socialisation. Cooking both the local food and the food from the volunteers' own cuisine would be a good chance to establish a bond with the children. The volunteers are welcome to come up with new creative ideas.

3- In the field of youth work: One of the most important services that the volunteers are expected to provide is organizing social activities with the university student groups and raising awareness about the EU citizenship. The activities with these groups are going to be included on the weekly programmes of the volunteers. The European Union and Foreign Relations Coordination Center
is going to equip the volunteers with the latest information regarding the EU programmes and grant schemes and expect them to conduct activities at the university. One of the most important outputs of these events are going to be youth projects prepared by the university students led by our volunteers. During this part of the voluntary service, the participants will have the chance to meet other volunteers in Mugla and they are going to be given the opportunity to work together to enrich their everyday activities.

In terms of learning opportunities, the volunteers are going to be offered a wide range of training possibilites on sportive, cultural, artistic, musical etc. skills. They have the chance to choose from both the courses organized by the university and the public training center. It will be the volunteers' decision to choose between many options according to their needs or interests. Some of the learning possibilites will be the Turkish course designed for foreigners, local musical instruments courses, folk dance courses, painting and sport courses. Besides, they are going to be trained on EU programmes and grant schemes by the Coordination Center and they are going to be provided with various sources, materials and digital media tools.

We don't consider the volunteers as workers or part time assistants. We are well aware that this service is a unique chance for both the volunteers and us to know both cultures better and develop a mutual understanding towards the ethnic, national or religious phenomena. That's why both the learning and service programmes are going to be arranged in a well-balanced way in order to ensure a continuous interaction between the cultures.