During my\nvolunteering I have been responsible for social media management, I have\ndone my own projects like Turkish Day, I have done activities with children\nlike comic workshop. We have gone hiking, sledging, ice skating, swimming and\nclimbing in holidays. We have played table tennis, basketball, football,\ncard\/table games and we have cooked together. Cleaning our place has been also\nmy daily task. I have had role in daily\/future organizations and preparation. I\nhave joined school projects like social adaptation on cultural facts and done\nactivities based on kids` wishes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have worked as a social\nmedia specialist and website manager for five years in Turkey. It means I know\nhow to manage a social media account on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Youtube\nand also I can develop a strategy, do special projects like an advertisement on\ndigital media, analyze and consult to customers. So it`s what I bring to my\nproject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before I came to my\nproject, we had a Skype interview with my Tutor. He told me all details about\nmy project and he asked questions about my skills and what I can bring to them.\nSo I said him that beside my other tasks, I can manage their social media\naccounts and give them advices. He liked this idea and he said they need this\nfor digital marketing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I like to take\nresponsibilities and bring my own knowledge even if I can`t communicate in my\nmother tongue. I like challenges in general so that I have started to manage\nthe social media accounts of Freizeitladen. When I have needed to write\nsentences in German, I have used translation program and made my colleagues\ncheck these. I haven`t let my language barrier stop me. It has been a win-win\nsituation that they have had a social media manager and I had found a new space\nto improve my German.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I`m used work with a team\nbut I`m not used to work with third language and I`m used to work on computer\nand cellphone almost all day long. I have worked in a publishing house that\nbased on children and youth literature for three years and also I have written\na children book that will be published on October. Despite this it is the first\ntime I have started to work physically active way, face to face with children\nand also in a foreign country. Firstly it was interesting and different for me\nbecause I haven`t felt like it`s a real job. I have done activities and played\nwith the children everyday and since my childhood I didn`t do these kind of\nthings and I have had fun a lot. And also my colleagues are so helpful about my\nlanguage situation and everything. Later I have seen the big picture that\nworking in here doesn\u2019t mean that we play all day long and do cool stuffs. We\nhave to organize everything, supply equipments, do paperworks and also deal\nwith accidents, hard situations. What I want to say is when I have worked at my\nproject, I have never felt alone. We`re used to do everything together with a\nwell \u2013 organized program. And also we`re kind, sensitive and supportive to each\nother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Firstly I have learnt that\nwhen you`re working with children you should do your organizations based on\ntheir wishes and what they like. You can come up with your ideas and suggest\nthem but you can`t force them to enjoy and you should be flexible about these.\nThey can lose their interest or they prefer to do any other thing. So you\nshould prepare yourself for all situations, be patient and creative with your\nback up plans. You need to use practical intelligence and be spontaneous\nsometimes. If something doesn`t work, don`t insist to do what you imagine or\nplan but also don`t give it up. You should just try to make it much better and\nsuitable for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example, I have done\nfour projects during EVS. One of them has been \u201eTurkish Night\u201c for young and\nadult people at Polaris. One of them have been \u201eTurkish Day\u201c for children at my\nproject (Kinder Akademie) and one more \u201eTurkish Day\u201c for children and their parents\nat Klex. One of them has been \u201eVegan Kitchen\u201c for young and adult people at\nPolaris. Before organizing projects we have done brain storming with my\npartners and made a list what we can do and what we need for each project.\nDuring this period what I have learnt is you can`t do the same things for all\nof them. You should consider all dynamics and differences. Everything is so\nimportant like time limit, budget, target audience, amount of people, region\netc. After thinking about these, you can start searching, picking and creating\nmaterials. Otherwise, even if you think that it`s the best project ever, it\nmight not work as well as you imagine. And also you should follow your project\nfrom the beginning till the end. In addition to have feedbacks after each project\nmake me improve the new ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before organizing my\nproject, I have decided to use different, enjoyable, interactive methods to\nintroduce, show and teach something about my own culture. It`s because they can\nreach anything they want to learn on the Internet so I have needed to create\nspecial and entertaining activities. I have prepared games to tell fun facts\nabout Turkish people, touristic places, Turkish words. I have prepared a test\ncalled \u201eHow much Turkish are you?\u201c and made two groups to do a competition. I\nhave shown videos and photos about the correct answers and made the winners\ndrink traditional Turkish drinks. I have prepared and an auction game and we\nhave made fake plane tickets to show videos of touristic places in Turkey. We\nhave played a circle game to teach them some simple Turkish words. We have also\nplayed Turkish children street games with kids. While we have been doing live\nmusic, the participants also have eaten Turkish traditional desserts, drink\nTurkish tea and coffee. We taught them some Turkish traditional dances. Beside\nthese we have made a \u201eQuestion Box\u201c and suggested them to put all their\nquestions inside of it. While we have been eating our Turkish dishes which we\ncooked, we have opened the box and we have started to discuss and talk about\nall kind of questions they have had. And also we have shown them a board called\n\u201eGet To Know More\u201c and it has been full of our advices about Turkish writers,\ndirectors, artists, singers, celebrities, performers etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have had chance to do these\nprojects not only in Freizeitladen but also in other children\/youth centres\nbecause of my network and my good relations with people. For example, one of\nthe volunteer who works in Polaris knows that I`m vegan. So she has invited me\nto do a project about vegan dishes. I have cooked with them and introduced them\nTurkish vegan dishes. And also an other volunteer who works in Klex said me\nthat she wants to show different nationalities in her project and I have\norganized a day about Turkey in her project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n