Reflection Time :)

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