My perspective on life has completely changed

“Ahoj, nice person who's reading this! My name is Asude , I am now volunteer at the middle school in Česky Těšín. Our school takes care and helps children with disabilities. 

I want to start from the day I first came here. I was extremely nervous and stressed throughout my trip. However, until I saw my Supervisor Aleš and my current colleague Jane, who were waiting for me at the train station, all my worries ended after seeing them. They acted as if we had known each other for a long time. Thanks to this project, I had the chance to work with children for the first time. My perspective on life has completely changed. We need to follow every need and movement of children with special needs and take care of each of them individually. The school where I work provides the necessary attention and care in this regard.

What impressed me the most is that despite all the employees working for a long time, their approach to children has never changed, just like the first day. Another detail I liked was that all employees acted in a coordinated and planned manner. We closely monitor the changes in children's moods by communicating with their families. I can say that singing with the children in the morning circle we do every day is our best activity. All the children accompany us with the instruments they want. Since we have everything necessary at school, we can do a new activity every day. We have the chance to monitor children's development with every new activity we do. We are happy together with the employees when we notice every improvement. If the weather is nice, we use these days by going outside. We go to the gym and the library with the kids. In this way, we ensure their social development. It is enough to look into children's eyes to understand that they are happy. Since we are in the same building as the kindergarten, we make our day better by helping each other with our other volunteer friend and my roommate Aga.

It's only been 2 months since I started this project, but I feel at home. I have never felt strange about this. I just want to achieve my dream of communicating more fluently with children. Because this way I will communicate with them more closely. I am a person with high empathy. Thanks to this project, I got to know families with children with special needs more closely and my perspective on them became different. I can say that it was the best experience I have ever had.” (Asude, Turkey)