We Can Change the World with Children, Gaziantep University (GAUN), Turkey

 

PROJECT TITLE:	We Can Change The World with Children
STAKEHOLDERS:	Nesrin Mehmed Abar Elementry School, Şehit İsa Karakaş Middle School, Şehit Öğretmen Hayri Kaya Middle School, Dr. Sadık Ahmet Elementry School, Zeytinli Köyü Elementry School
TARGET AUDIENCE	Gaziantep University students (Turkish and international students), students of the stakeholder schools
PROJECT PERIOD:	11.03.2019 – 30.04.2019
OBJECTIVE:	To increase inclusion by bringing together Turkish / International university and primary school students via different activities.
ACTIVITY CALENDAR:
11.03.2019	First Meeting and Icebreaking Activity
18.03.2019	Playing Brain Teaser
19.03.2019	Painting Activity
09.04.2019	Discovering the World
22.04.2019	Visiting Jarablus (Syria)
25.04.2019, 26.04.2019, 27.04.2019	International Student Festival – Exhibition of Paintings
29.04.2019	Visiting Gaziantep Zoo
OUTPUTS OF THE PROJECT:	–          4 different primary and secondary schools. –          500 university students to attend the activities. Playing brain teaser with 50 elementary and middle school students. –          Reaching 50 students with 1 picture event. –          40 elementary school students with university students to be taken to the zoo. Presenting the short film consisting of 1 activity in social media and related media. –          Opening of the exhibition on 1 International –          – Student Day. * All students are Turkish / International students.
DISSEMINATION CHANNELS:	Facebook: @peacemakersgaun   Twitter: @GaunPeacemakers   Instagram: @peacemakers.gaun   Web Site: http://peacemakers.gantep.edu.tr/

Through the planned activities and contributing experiences, the purpose of the GAUN’s Peace Envoys inclusion project was to break the prejudices between the target audiences and increase their empathy towards inclusion of one another. Through building collaborations with other student platforms such as “Gaziantep University Syrian Students Scholarship Project”, and by recruiting volunteers among Turkish and international students of GAUN, they organized activities at several local schools in the city of Gaziantep, where Turkish and Syrian children study together.

 

These activities included games that improve children’s social skills and abilities such as quick decision making, thinking the next step and calculating; painting and a follow-up exhibition; visiting the zoo; and cultural exchanges through conversations and dancing together. Through those conversations, the volunteering international students of GAUN (from several different countries e.g. Madagascar, India, Philippines, Egypt etc.) told children about their stories and countries, and shared with them examples of their cultural traditions, with an underlying message that although we all look different from each other, we are all human.

The city of Gaziantep is on Turkey’s southern border with Syria and is home to nearly half a million Syrian migrants. Gaziantep University established a vocational school in Jarablus, a neighboring border city in Syria, in June 2018, and extended a helping hand to the students whose education came to a halt due to the war. In another one of their activities, the GAUN Peace Envoys visited Jarablus and spent a day there to have a good time with the students down there and to make them forget that they were in the middle of the war for a few hours. During the 3-4 hours they spent at Jarablus Vocational School, they managed to engage with 150-200 Syrian students by participating in an international student festival organized by Gaziantep University.