Müge's activities and miniprojects

"Hello, I'm Müge! As I write these lines, I have completed my second month in the Czech Republic and at DVC School.

I have had many volunteering experiences in my own country before, but this is my first experience abroad. My organization is doing its best to ensure that we do not experience any difficulties here. They introduced us to other volunteers at arrival seminars and encouraged us to form great friendships together. We explore different countries every month with these volunteers. During the seminars, we also took part in activities with our supervisors, where we used our empathy skills and proved how much we trust each other.

As a professional communicator, I have worked in public relations and marketing for non-governmental organizations and the healthcare field. At the age of 28, I made a sudden decision to take part in this project. With this radical decision, I resigned from my job and now I am here. Even though my volunteering position here is far from my profession, my organization encourages me to take part in social media efforts. This is inspiring to me!

I had friends with physical disabilities before, and I received sign language training to communicate with hearing impaired people. I also received training on how to communicate with people with disabilities. However, I was worried about what it would be like when these trainings were put into practice. I didn't experience anything I was worried about. Because we understand each other no matter what and we are truly happy. It is a wonderful experience for me to be among these kind-hearted people. I feel like I'm part of this team. I feel like I'm helping people.

In my volunteering journey here, I work in a school where young adults with disabilities are located. My workspace is quite enjoyable. We do music therapy together every morning, and then I help with breakfast. When breakfast is completed, we sometimes do educational and informative activities such as handicrafts, painting, computers, reading books, hippotherapy, geography, cooking. If the weather is hot, we take a walk together in a wonderful green park and chat. Sometimes our teachers accompany these walks with their guitars. I am very pleased with the team I work with, my supervisor, coordinators and students. I get inspired by them and use my professionalism to work on a mini project for them. For this project, I took beautiful photographs of the students in their natural moments, they became great models for me. I am designing a desk calendar for them for 2024 with these photos. When my project is finished, they will not forget the year they spent with me.

When my project is completed, I will not want to go back because I am a part of this family. I wish to be remembered with beautiful memories in hearts and minds, I love everyone very much! With my most sincere love, (Müge,Turkey)"