Servas Peace School & Servas Cinema School Experience 2018

                                                

·         Peace School: July 06-16^th.

     Cinema School: July 17-21^st.

(Same Dates Every Year)

Concept:

Servas Peace&Cinema schools happen in Ekinci (3aydiy) in Antakya, Turkey every year. Within this school we invite Servas people to come and volunteer for children in the village. Volunteers teach children aged 7-14 anything they know such as peace, drama, music, children songs, languages, chess, pantomime, cultural and environmental issues, art, cooking, etc. We use big gardens, house yards, olive trees fields and streets for the activities. Everywhere is a classroom for us in this village. The main goal of this program is to open new windows in the local children’s lives. Volunteers stay with local families and exchange experiences with them. Families serve meals and their hospitality. No fee needed to attend. Sightseeing tours to experience Antakya (Antioch) are organized form volunteers. Families with children are welcome. 

Antakya is located in the very south of Turkey (close to Eastern Mediterranean sea). It is known to have a multicultural/liberal life style with different religions and ethnic backgrounds (Muslims; Sunnis-Alewis , Christians, Jews, Turks, Arabs, Armenians and Ozbaks). The dishes of Antakya have a big reputation, too.

Peace School Video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy-mxog-eNI

http://atesnaar.blogspot.com/2014/09/the-utopia-of-peace-village.html

Notes:

·         Volunteers pay travel expenses only. We take care of them during their stay.

·         School workshops happen in the mornings and evenings only.

·         Any ideas are welcome even during the school time. Flexible program. 

EXPERIENCE SHARE 2018 

Views from participants…

Cinar Ates (12), A Participant Child

I like making my films…

Servas Turkey organizes a cinema school in Antakya, Turkey every summer (June 17-21^st).  Some volunteer cinema people help us to learn how to make films from the very beginning till the end. Normally, children are separated into groups according to their wishes such as cousins group, friends group, brothers or sisters groups. Then, these groups create scenarios. Next, the film crew turns the scenarios into films. All the films that are made in this one week process are presented to the families at the end of the school. But this year we have had a different school format. 

The cinema school was not the same as the other years this year. All the participants worked with groups of 4 or 5 people. Working all together as a one group was the main difference this year. At the beginning, no one liked this idea of working all together in one group. But then, it was pretty exciting and useful. We realized that we did better and more professional film at the end. We created a scenario accompanied with the games in the first step of our film. Each participant had an idea in this film. That was one of the most important things in this process. After we finished the scenario, we prepared the materials we needed for the film. It was tiring days but we managed to finish it in a short time as we shared the responsibilities. Everybody was excited because it was the time of starting making the film. My heart had strong beats. I felt like I was in a dream. We finished our film by working hard. We were so happy. We edited our film with the help of the volunteer cinema people; Hazal and Isik. Finally it was ready. We worked hard and it was really worth it.  It was priceless experience to feel the happiness while we were watching the movie under the trees with friends and families. We want more cinema volunteers from all around the world next year.

Servas Cinema Animation-Peace School, Antakya, Turkey 2018

Işık Dikmen, Volunteer

 Since my childhood I have always had difficulty answering this question; ‘’where are you from?’’ 

would rather not belong to somewhere but belong to everywhere. I have never accepted the idea of leaving, instead I believed in the hope of unity. While I was wishing and dreaming unity a star fell in the sky and I found myself in the village of my dreams with children in Ekinci, Antakya Turkey. It was a meeting in the WORLD.

When I first arrive in Ekinci, village of Antakya, I relaise that I have passed a few pages in the book of civiliation. There are parents who believe in the healing effects and importance of art in the growing world of children. This is a village of children with musical instruments and cameras and a village who reserve a number of walls for children to be decorated.   

I have intended to encourage 20 children with the founder of cinema school, Hazal to make a movie which reflects us/oneself. We have discussed how we can make a movie which includes our imagination, animation, games and our dreams of unity. And finally we have made it.  

First, we have gathered in a circle, held hand in hand and looked into the eyes of one another. We have started the day with the feeling of togetherness by sitting silently even when someone is late. We have had conflicts and got pissed. However we have been able to come together in a circle again. We have shared our feelings and we have become aware of each other.

We have written the scripts of our movie together. How did we do it? There is no specific technic for

that. We have only wanted it from our hearts. Soon we have found ourselves playing the game of the moment but not feeling the necessity of finishing the script. Some of the children expressed the anxiety of exams and some have had to leave school after the failure in the exams.

Every day we have come together in the circle to refresh the feeling of unity. We have melted the anxiety of exams, the pain of breaking up with friends, the desire of freedom and unity in our hearts and we have completed our movie.

I have seen the star of wish that has brought me to the village in the hearts of the children of peace school.

We have been like shining stars of a galaxy that help make dreams of each other come true.

Finally, we have graduated from a magical school that we keep turning around it and that makes our dreams come true.  

Seher&Nadir Kocak, Host family

The Guests of 3aydiy (Village of Ekinci); Greetings to SERVAS

We love to host Servas volunteers coming to teach kids during Servas Peace School. We call them Dyuf (Guests) in our mother tongue; Arabic. The doors of our hearts are always open for them; Ehlen ve Sehlen (Welcome). There are more host families who share their homes, hearts, food tables, conversations, gardens and neighbors with guests. It seems that there will always be such families in this village.

This year, we had the young woman; Ebru Bingöl as a (Dyuf) guest. We didn’t have any information about Ebru beforehand. Actually, we didn’t need to have since Servas means knowing new people. On the other hand, we still had some questions, anxiety and curiosity going through our minds. Was Ebru going to feel comfortable at our home? Was she going to get used to our daily life easily? How about our two little children? Anyway, they were exciting times…

Finally, Ebru showed up and stayed with us for one week. We learnt from her so much and local children did so, too.  She taught children architecture, planned an alternative city, made balls of seeds mixed with clay and they threw them in the nature. They also created the model of the village with recyclable materials. The cultural exchange of the experience was interesting, too. We drank our local Raki (3arak), played and sang together, read poems and exchanged cultural differences. She was good with our children; drew pictures together and played interesting games. We became good friends in a few days. Now, the connection with her is strong and we always keep in touch and visit each other. It seems that this friendship will go on forever.

Let us cut it short!

Isn`t it the enchanted whisper of the desire of humanity for living together with harmony? This is only one of the blessings that Servas has given to us. Let`s remember the Arabic lyrics of the master, soft hearted, strong voice; Samira Tavfik from Syria:

Welcome guest!

Guest of God

The friend of soul,

Won`t let you leave,

God knows we won`t let you leave.

Mehmet Ates, Servas Peace School Coordinator

مرحبا/Merhaba/Hello/Ola/Salute/Privet

We have carried out Servas Peace School with children the 10^th time (July 06-16^th)  this year. Also, a new school called Servas Cinema School was born out of peace school. Cinema school was held by the cinema worker Hazal Orhon and animation practitioner Isik Dikmen between the dates; July 17-21^st.

12 young and adult volunteers participated in the peace school activities this year. Some of the local volunteers were students of school when they were little children. Volunteers from Antakya held workshops and activities during peace school period. Volunteers coming from Istanbul, Izmir and Eskisehir did big contributions to the children and parents lives. There were around 80 children between the ages 5-15 who took part in the peace school activities. The disappointing thing was that we did not have any Servas volunteers from abroad the first time in the history of the Peace School. It was because they found it not safe to travel to Turkey which did not make sense. As we always do, musician volunteer, Uygar Ates, formed a Peace Choir with children and taught them to sing in different languages. The other activities were; School wall decoration with Servas and peace themes, making toy cars using solar panels, hand and sheet prints, bowling, masks and origami with recycling bottles, games with reeds, traditional street games, storytelling, walking trips in nature, dances and watching short films.

At the cinema school, children learned how to work in teams and how to write film scripts, shoot, edit and deal with post production process. When the movie was ready it was displayed on the screen under the grapes trees for the parents. Also, a big party for presentation of the school products was done for parents and local people at the end.

The results of the Peace School after 10 years of experience:

- Children, local people and parents have become more open to different cultures and developed feelings of peace.  

- Children of the village who have participated in the Peace School program started to enjoy learning different languages and the number of the young people who chose to study English at universities has increased considerably.

- University students from the village started to take part in Erasmus and other exchange programs more.

- Local people and children of the village liked and appreciated the Peace School Program.  

- Parents have enjoyed hosting foreign people and it has become something natural unlike in the beginning when they first found it strange to host `strange` people in their homes.

- Parents started to become more willing to send their children abroad and they show more liberal attitudes now.

- Servas Peace School has brought the village not only Servas potential but also the local and national richness and variety.   

- Village of Ekinci in Antakya, Turkey where the school happens is on the way of becoming a village of peace.

- Servas Peace School urgently needs Servas International to support and fund young volunteers from abroad to be able to take part in the school programme.

We would love to welcome more people in our village to share what we know and our care.