Cilem, our volunteer from Turkey came to work with us through the European Solidarity Corps (ESC) framework. Read a short interview about her experiences and watch her video!
How I Decided to Come Here: I’ve been actively working as a volunteer since I started university in Turkey. The main focus of my volunteer activities has been visiting nursing homes, starting library projects in disadvantaged schools, and visiting village schools, among many other areas. Later, I began to think about why I hadn’t experienced this in a different country and a different field. That’s when I started to research, and I met Mira Haz. I was really drawn to the activities they were doing and the audience they were trying to reach. Since June, I’ve been working as a volunteer with Mira.
Did You Face Any Challenges When You First Arrived: Actually, my motivation was quite high until I got to the airport. But in the first week, I felt a bit lonely; my family, friends, the language I spoke—everything had changed. It took me a week to adapt to this new environment. I was particularly concerned about the language because my English wasn’t at a very advanced level when I first arrived. But, as I mentioned, it took me a week to get used to everything. The loneliness in terms of friends completely disappeared after I joined an on arrival meeting organised by Tempus for ESC volunteers in Hungary. I was now communicating more easily and speaking without hesitation.
What Exactly Is Your Role at Mira: Actually, I can’t provide a straightforward answer to this because when I work with Mira, I take on various responsibilities, and I genuinely enjoy doing this. But, to put it briefly, in most of the events we organize, I assist the people who organize workshops in intercultural nights, various creative workshops, and most of the events that pique my interest. I tried to organize the workshops I was interested in almost every month. Turkish night, children’s workshops, movie nights, and so on. Moreover, since Mira Haz is an intercultural place, we’ve had many days where we prepared meals from different cultures. I always enjoyed preparing Turkish dishes here. Additionally, one of my favorite responsibilities is promoting events on social media, designing content for it, and creating various videos. I would like to mention that I really enjoy doing these tasks.
How Has This Project Changed Your Life: First and foremost, I’ve met people from various cultures, tried to learn positive things from each of them. I’ve made wonderful friendships. I can say that Mira is one of the best places to go in this regard because it is entirely a place for socializing and communicating. Meeting people from different cultures at every event, listening to their experiences, life stories, achievements, and sometimes how difficult life can be really changed my perspective on many things, I can say.
For me Mira Haz: Mira is an organization that primarily works with refugees and immigrants, helping them with their adaptation process in the host country and facilitating their social integration. Consequently, it provides opportunities for the local community to socialize, make new friends, and learn about different cultures. You can often find Hungarian locals participating in many of the activities as well.
Artemisszió Foundation and Mira Intercultural Community have been hosting international volunteers for more than 15 years. We believe that these opportunities provide a unique experience for young adults and their presence enrich our team.
You can find out more about ESC opportunities at https://youth.europa.eu/solidarity/young-people/volunteering_en
The project is funded by the European Union.
