UWC
Short Course-Together for Development and I
“It was one of the best times I’ve ever had so
far” I say when I remember the UWC Short Course. It was a whole different
experience for me; I’ve learnt many things about everything. When I found out
it was in Swaziland, I was very thrilled to get involved. I knew it was very
distant from Turkey, but still I wanted to go and explore Africa. I was also
familiar to UWC from my friends who had gone to the short course in Germany,
with their acquaintance we had an opportunity to get into the Together for
Development Team.
I’m in a club in my school which is called
NICS(National International Community Service) with that club I have done four
projects so far. Three of them were with European Youth Programme – Youth in
Action. The other one was with the contacts we had from all over the world and
UWC short course in Germany. I took part
in as a group leader in one of the projects.
Apart from that, it was my first time as a participant, with that
experience I had a chance to empathy the participatory feeling and logic;
according to what I’ve found out we started to make schedules and programmes in
our project more carefully. We took lessons about Individual Projects; these
lessons with the facilitators really helped us learn how to manage a project,
pitching, advertising for funding etc. I used what I’ve learnt in my project
club to make our project more sufficient.
As Together for Development, I can truly say I
learned many things about development theories, economy, health HIV,
environment, politics, Swaziland culture and more. I had a chance to feel
Africa and see how the things work with my own eyes. At first, I was very
anxious about travelling to Swaziland with just my girlfriend by ourselves,
because it was a long journey from Turkey to Swaziland, South Africa. After we
landed I couldn’t believe myself that I was there and the dream was actually
coming true. I was very excited and ready to explore. The best part of the
project was the community service part; I was in Team Malolotja and it was the
coolest place and adventure I’ve ever been to. Also those friends are my best
friends in the project; we had a great chance to get to know each other more.
I think the short course really boost my
confidence with the activities and presentations. I gained so much from it and
I will use them in my entire life. I really would like to thank the
facilitators who had worked so hard for the short course, my school administrator
who gave us this opportunity and all my UWC friends who made the short course
unforgettable. Hope to see you again.
SELİN YILMAZ, 17
TURKEY
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