The youth exchange “Play with me: Refugees inclusion through games and sport” is a project that involved directly 36 young people from 6 different nations , Included 6 volunteers from Shahed.

The Youth Exchange took a place in natural park near Padova (Italy), in the area of Colli Euganei from 22th to 30st July 2019 (Travel days excluded) Through the joint use of non formal education activities and sport the YE was aimed to promoting tolerance,

multicultural dialogues and to increase youth social  skills.

It was a real chance to challenge themselves in a beautiful and international environment  they learned how sport can be used to empower young refugees and the local community;

The programm helped the participants to develop life skills such as group dynamics, and tolerance.

it was also a chance to meet new people and friends and share thoughts, ideas and dreams; New friends, new partnership and future cooperation.

Took Place in Ankara, organized with our Turkish partner, between 11-18 February 2019.  8 Active members and volunteers from WITNESS participated.

In this global world where it is almost a global village, it is crucial to sustain national cultural heritage and pass on to the next generations. In this respect, Turkey is a country in need of protecting its cultural identity in view of globalisation. As our foreigner partners have the same worries for their next generation, this parallelism made easier to meet on common ground for the project.

The protection and transfer of ‘’Intangible Cultural Heritage’’ comprising the elements of cultural identity will contribute to avert standardisation of the diverse cultures by preserving cultural codes in this global system.

In this sense, this project is a common effort for youngster participants to understand and raise awareness of their unique ‘’Intangible Cultural Heritage’’, and respect for different cultures as well.

An Erasmus project took place in Ankara between 21.02.2019 and 02.03.2019, 6 active members from Shahed participated in the project. And the project was aiming to :

-recognize different cultures & different people.

-progress our different languages.

-learn the meanings of gesture, mimic and other body language messages in different cultures and will have prevented the misunderstandings that arise from them.

-Share our culture to the world and transfer different cultural values to our country

-Develop an electronic book that contains body language visuals and meanings and shared on the web.

Took Place in Istanbul between 30/04/2019 to 07/05/2019, and 5 active members and volunteers from Shahed participated.

According to the United Nations Refugee Agency, Today, records are witnessing human migration levels reaching the highest figures in history. In 2018, approximately 26 million people, mostly younger than 18 years of age, were considered legal refugees. 

Since the beginning of the Syrian crisis in 2011, Turkey established an efficient emergency response and declared a temporary protection regime for Syrian refugees, ensuring protection and assistance in 22 camps, set up by the Disaster and Emergency Management Agency (AFAD). The projected number of Syrian refugees in Turkey in 2015 is 2.5 million of whom 300,000 will reside in 25 camps and 2.2 million people will live among communities. In addition, it is estimated that 8.2 million people in refugee hosting areas will be impacted. The main act of some of these refugees is using Turkey as bridge and arriving at European countries, which make the Programme countries related with the Project subject intensely. Crowded camps, malnutrition and poor living conditions of refugees emerges the need of psychosocial support, especially for youngsters for adopting social life which includes different cultural norms than the ones in their homeland. 

Government of Turkey is dealing with projects and regulations with reference to basic needs, but our project will enable the international community to extend its support to the most affected local populations. Language is another aspect of crisis for basic communication in the community they seek protection. promoting EU languages in their specifically designed education may help them overcome cultural difficulties. At this point we wish to extend opportunities. 

Regarding these facts; defining the needs of refugee youngsters and awareness raising studies for making them adopt to social life and socialize with their home owner peers are the base of our project. 36 youngsters coming together from 6 different countries and organisations, will prepare awareness raising activities for public and related bodies about the needs of refugee youngsters, information materials for EU youngsters about adopting refugees to social life, make sample activity with refugee youngsters and share their experiences with public in this 8-day activity in Turkey. The outcomes will be shared through the websites of partners and information meetings will be held with related bodies after the project. The partner countries are Bulgaria, Finland, Nederland, Bosnia Herzegovina, Palestine, Hungary and Turkey.