DISCOVER THE WORLD TOGETHER AGAIN WITH CHILDREN
Turkey is home to refugees and immigrants too much in recent years. This number is increasing day by day. Unfortunately, because we have different cultures and religions, integration is not easy. As part of the ‘’Peacemakers’’ project, which we participated, we were expected to produce small projects in order to increase the immigrant-community harmony. We have come together with our teammates almost every week for a long time and discussed different ideas for these projects. As Gaziantep University participants, we have identified children as the target audience of our project. One of the main reasons we chose children was that their prejudices were more easily destructible and they could adapt more easily than adults. We have often come together with international students at our school and decided to organize ‘’Discover the World Together Agaın’’. Our event was to introduce the real world to children by bringing together different age groups, races and religions. Even though we were very different, it was to tell us that we are all human. In order to realize this goal, we started to look for schools. There were many points we paid attention to when searching for school; Turkish and Syrian immigrant students are co-educated, socio-cultural activities are less common, and the city has some economically under-average students. We selected Nesrin Mehmet Abay Elementary School. We organized various meetings with the deputy principal of the school and talked about the details of our project. First, we prepared a poster explaining the location, time and subject of our event. We have enabled this poster to reach many people through whatsapp and social media. The event will consist of 200 Syrian / Turkish elementary school students, 25 Gaziantep University International students and Gaziantep University team members. We have also exchanged ideas with our international students on how to make this event more effective. Then, we prepared a slide for our international students to introduce themselves better. The content of our slide first started with a few small questions to get the attention of the children and to make our presentation interactive. Then, with little clues, we tried to make them predict countries. In the following parts of the country's position on the world map, flag, capital, famous structures, local costumes, and continued by explaining things specific to that country. Some of our countries had little surprises for them. Our African student raised all the children and taught them their local dance, and then we all danced together. Our Filipino student showed about 20-odd tattoos on his body and told his stories as he could attract children's attention. Our Egyptian students prepared a pharaoh-like photo board. The children loved this board and took photos one by one. After the presentation, we gave them a little chocolate as they listened to us carefully. After the event, it was seen after the critics that both children and we were very happy. If I have to say a few sentences for myself; Yes, because I was studying architecture, I was used to giving presentations, but this was the most memorable one. After seeing that happiness in the children's eyes, I realized that I was really where I should be. I would like to thank the Gaziantep Team and the Peacemaker family who changed my view of life through the project. Good thing you are!
