GAZİANTEP UNIVERSITY

VISITING CERABLUS

For those who don’t know, Jarabulus is located on the border of Syria and Turkey, a neighboring Syrian town to Gaziantep. The city is in pretty bad shape because of the war, and it’s part near the border with Turkey is under protection as part of a safe area. Gaziantep University established Jarablus Vocational High School on 05.06.2018 and extended a helping hand to the students whose education came to a halt due to the war.

As Peacemakers project team, we wanted to go to Jarablus with our international students, who volunteered with us in our previous activities, to spend a good time with our friends there and to make them forget that they were in the middle of the war for a few hours.

Our plan was to make a small festival there. The school and the students were prepared for us. Syrian students read Turkish and Arabic poems on the stage established. We tried to support them by listening and trying to understand them. After the ceremony, we started to communicate with them by talking and spend time. Although they don’t know Turkish, and we don’t know Arabic, it was nice to see that we understand each other, and communications is not only talking the same language.

We saw the effects of war alive. Although quite difficult, having a good time with them was priceless.

During the 3-4 hours we spent at Cerablus Vocational School, we managed to reach 150-200 students, understand them and touch their lives.