Devam Eden Projeler/Faaliyetler/Ongoing Projects/Activities (Ekim/October 2019)

Servas Barış Okulu, 11.Yılında. Antakya, Turkey. Uluslararası.

Nasıl Bir Okul? Barış Okulu hayat bilgisi ve kültürüdür. Dünyanın bilgi ve kültür birikimini köye taşımayı amaçlayan ve bunu yaparken barış duygularını büyütmeyi arzu eden bir okuldur. Aynı anda Antakya’nın kendine özgü kültürel çeşitliliğini ve barış içinde yaşama deneyimini dünya ile paylaşma girişimidir.

Felsefesi? Her insan bir şey öğretebilir. Ve her bilgi değerlidir. Fırıncı ekmek yapmayı, köylü insanlar salça yapmayı, kimi insanlar da matematik, astronomi, yoga, doğa sanatı, Fransızca, İngilizce, Arapça, bir Afrika dili ya da halk dansları öğretebilir. Dolayısı ile bu okulda herkes gönüllü çalışabilir.

Yeri? Her yer okuldur … Sokaklar, bahçeler, zeytin tarlaları, dere yatakları, okul bahçesi ya da evlerin içleri… Her mekan bir eğitim ve paylaşım alanıdır.

Nasıl işler? Barış Okulu tüm çocuklara ücretsizdir. Fırsat eşittir. Kayıt yoktur. Müdür de yok. Müfredat ve atölyeler gönüllülerle beraber her gün yenilenir. Ekleme ve çıkarmalar yapılır. Çocuklar Barış Okuluna isteyerek katılırlar.

Konaklama? Yurt dışından ve içinden gelen gönüllüler köyde ailelerin yanına yerleştirilir. Buyüzden kültür ve bilgi değişimi gün boyunca aile üyelerinin hepsi ile devam eder. Bu sayede güzel düşünceler kolay filizlenir.

Bütçe? Bu okulda bütçeye gerek yok. Köy içinden ve dışından gönüllü insanlar kırtasiye, ulaşım ve araç gereç için destek oluyorlar. Barış Okulu 11 yıldır ve bu kadar çocukla para olmadan eğitim yapılabileceğini ve bunun sürdürülebilirliğini gösterdi. Dünyanın farklı bölgeleri için bir model olabilir…
Kazanımlar? Bu okulda çocuklar küçük yaşta evrenselleşme sürecine giriyorlar. Farklı ülkelerden

insanlarla tanışıyor, kimi zaman onlarla beraber yaşıyorlar ve yüzleri dünyaya doğru dönüyor. Aynı anda yerel kültür ve bilgi birikimini de bu okulda öğreniyorlar. 11 yıl içinde İngilizce öğretmeni sayısında büyük artış oldu. Bu okulda büyüyen çocuklar şimdi aynı yerde gönüllü olarak çalışıyorlar. Müzik, resim, sinema, drama ve başka alanlara ciddi bir artış oldu. Aileler daha açık hale geldi. Çocuklarının yurt içi ve dışına çıkmaları konusunda korkuları azaldı. Köyden gönüllülerin yurt dışına seyahatleri arttı. Ve en önemlisi hayaller büyüdü. Her şeyin mümkün olabileceği fikri serpildi…

Tarihleri? Her sene 03-23 Temmuz arası
Kısa tanıtım filmi:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy-mxog-eNI&t=151s

Dostluk Tiyatrosu (Okulda, İzmir)
Mülteci ve 'yerli' öğrencilerden oluşan bir tiyatro topluluğudur. Okulumuz bünyesinde kurduğumuz tiyatro Türkçe-Arapça oyun hazırlamaktadır. Oyunun adı; Oyuncakçı Teyze. Sahnelenme Tarihi: Aralık 2019.

Mültecilere Gönüllü Tercümanlık, İzmir 
İzmir'in ilçesinde yaşayan Suriyeli mültecilerin eğitim, sağlık ve toplumsal yaşama katılımlarına yardımcı olmak olmak için 6 yıldır gönüllü tercümanlık yapmaktayım. Aynı zamanda bir grup arkadaşla beraber yardım kampanyaları yürütmekteyim. 
Bu kapsamda kısa belgesel (Çıplak) filmini çektim. Fragmanı:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQ1ZoF52wYE

Barış Okulu nasıl birşey? Nasıl işliyor?
http://atesnaar.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2019-08-11T00:48:00-07:00&max-results=7

Köy Belleği Müzesi Ekinci (3aydiy), Antakya...

Beyt it Trob Köy Belleği Müzesi

Köyümüzde 1950’lerde dedemler/nenemler ve babamlar tarafından inşa edilen Beyt-it Trob/Toprakev 1990lara kadar ev olarak 13 kişilik ailemizi ve ineklerimizi barındırdı.

Şimdi bu evimizi müzeye çevirmek için kolları sıvadık. Özgün kültürü ve geçmişi yeni nesiller taşımak için…

Müzede neler sergilenecek?

Taş el değirmeni, zeytin yağı lambası, gaz lambası, buğday sapı tepsileri, geleneksel kıyafetler, havan, sanduka, orak, saban, testi, zeytinyağı küpü, bennike (cam boğma rakı şişesi), çeyizlik aynalar, kapı tokmakları, Eski yaşamı anlatan fotoğraflar, eski tapular, mektuplar, Fransız/Hatay Cumhuriyeti dönemlerinden kimlik kartları, videolar ve sözlü tarih çalışmasını kapsayan Belgesel bir film; 'Ken el Zemen' (Bir Zamanlar). Film çekimine köyün yaşlı insanları ile başlamış durumdayım…

Herkes Bir şeyler Öğretebilir. (Okulda, İzmir)
Okul dışından veli ve farklı mesleklerden insanlar sınıfa davet edilir. Ve bildiklerini çocuklarla paylaşır (Mümkünse uygulamalı). Öğretmenler kendi sınıfları için ayda bir Misafir Eğitici davet eder. Müzisyen, çiftçi, yazar, su tesisatçısı, vb. olabilir. 

Bir Arkadaş Bir Dünya Mektup Arkadaşlığı (Uluslararası)
Hedef 600 Öğrenci ve öğretmenin yurt dışında yaşıtları ile mektup arkadaşlığı yapması. Amaç; Çocukların farklı ülkelerden yaşıtları ile mektuplaşmaları ve ufuklarının açılması. Kültürel alış verişin sağlanması. Dostluk…







Köy Öğretmenleri Kapasite geliştirme eğitimleri
Türkiyenin köylerinde çalışan ilkokul öğretmenlerinin kapasitelerinin geliştirilmesi için KODA(Köy öğretmenleri destek Ağı) derneği öncülüğünde öğretmen eğitimleri gerçekleştiriyoruz. MEB desteği de mevcut. Sabancı Vakfı fonu ile...



Çocuk Atölyeleri 
Üniversitelerin öğretmen adayı öğrencilerini köy öğretmenliğine hazırlama eğitimleri vermekteyiz. (KADA Öncülüğünde). 8 haftalık eğitim ve köylerde uygulama yapılmaktadır...

Collecting Stories with Servas

For me, travelling with Servas is collecting stories. They could be stories of people, places and unusual works. I had the same experience during the trip I made to Italy for Servas Camp in Fano last month. I am not going to talk about how wonderful the landscape, the old monastry we stayed in at the top of the hill surrounded by wineyards and olive trees nor about the friendly, warm and nicely chaotic  atmoshpere with 70 people with different cultures, expectations and backgrounds. On the other hand, I do not want to mention how dedicated Rafaella

and her volunteering team were and how much they were struggling to make the meeting unforgettable for everyone. Instead, I would like to talk about 5 stories of interesting people I had the chance to know.

When you have deep passion inside, life is always meaningful to you. You never feel bored,

depressed or hopeless. Your passion keeps you move and feel energetic. I met such passionate and dedicated couple; Barbara and Luciano Benini in Fano. They had the warm appearance of mediterranean people and they usually wore smiles on their faces and carried friendly look in their eyes.

What makes this couple different? They run a piece of beach called La Spiaggia del Talenti (Seaside Talent) in Fano to provide better service for disabled people. They also collect money to build a house for refugees. Although Italian governement tries to push refugees away from Italian coasts Barbara and Luciano work hard to make lives of refugees easy. This case tells us to distinguish between governments and people of a country. At least some of the people…

On the other hand, Barbara and Luciano had an interesting experience in Turkey they visited long time ago. They experienced the harsh September 12th, 1980 military coup in Turkey. Barbara says; “there were no people but only soldiers on the streets that day. We didn’t know what was happening. We kept seeing Istanbul”. See the photo taken my Luciano the day of the coup. 

Ahmad  and Weghi are 16 years old Egyptian twin boys who left their home country by boat and could hardly arrive Italian coasts. It was 4 years ago. Ahmad says; “It was a quite dangerous cruise. We could have died but thanks God we survived” The twins go to school, speak Italian well and are popular among their Italian

friends. Ahmad likes to speak, make jokes and being noisy whereas Weghi seems to be thinkful, more mature and less talkative. They both are engaged much with mobile phones, watching football and other videos from Egypt. The twins miss their life with their carpenter father, warm hearted mother, little sister and other brothers. Ahmad speaks hopefully; “We will certainly meet my family again.”

There are good people who are taking care of the young twins. Ahmad  and Weghi live with their foster family, Carolina Bolla and Ermanno Gaiga. Carolina is a psycologist and Ermano is a teacher. Apart from these foster children they have 3 grown up children. This  couple is involved in the movement called Terreferme, which helps people become foster families to refugee children arriving in Italy illegally.  Terreferme is an active organisation in Lombardy, Veneto and Sicily. Carolina and Ermanno are a positive couple and they believe in what they are doing. Not suprisingly, they tried to include the twins in every activity of the camp. However, Ahmad  and Weghi like to sleep late. One day, Caroline asked me to wake them up so that they would not miss the breakfast. So I just went into their room and started to yell in Arabic, which is my mother tongue, same with the twins; “Yalla!” “Yalla!” (Come on! Come on!). They stood up in the bed bewildered. They must have  thought they were in Egypt, and maybe it was their daddy. They stared at me with sleepy eyes but happy face. And we became friends. Since that moment, I always woke them up in the mornings and we were always together chatting in Arabic during the camp. Isn’t it important to be able to speak your mother tongue when you are in foreign lands and cultures and feeling like a stranger?

I met more people with interesting background. Samuel Canestri, a radical pacifist person. He is married to a Thai woman, Viyada and Samuel has a little daughter called Elisa. Samuel is doing home schooling with a group of parents because he doesn’t believe in the school system. Italian education system allows parents to design their own curricula. However, children have to take exams of the schools. Samuel says; “This movement is getting bigger but I am afraid the government will submit new laws to restrict this important right.” On the other hand, Samuel is involved in the movement who is against vaccination of infants/children. So they avoid vaccinating their children. Members of this movement believe that vaccination is not neccessary, especially in the

developed countries. On the contrary, vaccination increases the risks of sicknesses of children instead of preventing. Samuel speaks confidently, “when you study the statistics of vaccination compaigns by years in Italy, you will notice that the sickness rate of the children has increased soon after the vaccination. Vaccination is a gift of the medicine industry lobby to the children.”

I left the table with questioning ideas on my mind and joined the dances of different cultures in front of the monastry hotel. We were in a campus of nature. Different people were in a lovely harmony and looked enjoying the togetherness.

It was a special feeling to meet Guiseppe (with the hat) who is a shephard. He was always helping in the kitchen. He looked

satisfied with his life all the time. I asked him;”You are here now but where did you leave the goats?” He said, “In the Alps. My assistant is taking care of them.” The goats are having a holiday in the Alps. He offered me some fantastico goat cheese that he made himself. The cheese made my eyes shut while rolling it in my mouth. What a pleasure! I just remembered my childhood when I used to bring our sheep to the nature in Antakya, Turkey. Guiseppe invited me to his farm and I gladly accepted to go one day and experience that life. Servas opens new paths to you as long as you open yourself.

Martha-Hena is a young woman (20) with endless energy and enthusiasm. I always wondered the source of this energy since I met her at the camp. She is very much curious and her eyes are always searching the streams of life. She studies languages, which reflects her character well. It was not suprising because one language would never satisfy her desire to speak and tell. She asked me which other language she should take this semester. At that moment, I wrote her name in her palm in Arabic letters. A broad smile appeared on her face noding with her eyes. During the camp, I helped her discover Arabic language whereas she taught me funny Italian expressions.

Martha-Hena volunteers in an organisation called Arte Migrante. She meets in a park every 2 weeks with her friends and migrants. They do music, art, dancing and play games together. They also bring their food to share with the people in the park.

Martha explains; “we do this activity to include not only refugees but also the homeless, the hashishan and other ignored people. Not suprisingly, they usually join us…” Isn’t it a brave and considerate behaviour of a young person? We said goodbye the last day and Martha-Hena left for her university to study in Bologna.  

I have to stop writing now. I feel sorry for not including many other stories of people of the camp. 

Terry Squire Stone said; “Travelling to people, not to places.” I agree with him again after the meeting with the people in Italy. This experience also taught me that my life would be more connected with Italy and Italians every other day. At dawn, I left the monastry at the hill and looked down the panaroma. Four springs (Fall) plays on the radio. I felt sure about something that moment. If you want to know Italy closely you need to climb up to a high hill and spend one day with Italians. Ciao natura e persone Italiana per un breve periodo J.

Mehmet Ates

İzmir, September 2019

11. Servas Peace School, Ekinci, Antakya, Turkey 2019

A Universal Education Model in Local Area: 

Experience Share…

Mehmet Ateş,

Coordinator

mehsevi@hotmail.com

Antakya, 2019

What is the Peace School Like? Peace School is life practices and cultures. It aims to bring the knowledge and cultural riches of the world into the village and increase feelings of peace in children and local people. Also, it means to introduce the multicultural background and peace experience of Antakia with the world. 

Philosophy behind the school?  Every person has something to teach and every piece of knowledge is precious. A baker teaches how to make bread, the villagers teach making tomatoe paste, some people teach maths, astronomy, yoga, landart, folk dances, French, Arabic or an indiginous African or American language, etc. That means every person can volunteer in this school, teach and learn.  

School area? Everywhere is a school. Streets, gardens, olive fields, the banks of the river, school garden and sometimes inside houses. All places can be classrooms for learning and sharing.

How does the school work? Attandance to Peace school is free of charge so that we can provide equal rights to all children. Children come to school with their free of will. There is no registration. No school principle. No curriculum. All workshops are designed with the volunteers every day.

Accomodation? Volunteers coming from abroad and other parts of Turkey stay with local families so that exchanging cultural background and knowledge can happen throughout their stay. Volunteers and families develope life long friendship this way.

Budget? This school needs no budget. Good people from the village, Turkey and abroad  donate stationary and other materials for workshops. Local people provide accomodation, food and sight seeing tours. Peace School has proved that it is possible to provide educ

ation and training to thousands of children for 11 years with no money. That’s why this is a sustainable system and can be a good model for different parts of the world.

What Gains? Childen are intoduced with universal values and they experience the first steps of becoming global persons. They meet people from different world cultures, learn from them and some of them live with them during their very early ages. Children become aware of their own culture at the same time. There are many more English teachers in 11 years in the village. Some children who grew up in this school work as volunteers at this school now. Music, art, cinema, drama, and many other

 subjects have become more important for children. Families have developed more liberal values. Young people of the village travel abroad more often now. Most importantly, imagination of children has increased. They believe that all dreams are possible.

Dates of the School? July 03-23rd (Every year)

How was Servas Peace School this summer?Experience Share…

 It is usally windy in the hot summer times in Antakia, very South of Turkey. That makes summer time sweet and learning outdoor easier. During Peace School days, children left homes early in the mornings like snails and arrived Peace School campus just like they did every year.

Peace School took place with 110 children and 25 volunteers in its 11th year. The oldest but the most energetic volunteer was Rosa (71) from Italy and the youngest one was Naz (15) who grew up in this school. We started the day with the morning circle every day. We greeted each other with the languages of the world. First, in the mother tongue-Arabic-of the village and then in Turkish, Italian, German, French and many others. We all ran in the garden with warm up activities, got energetic, hugged each other and we woke the neighbours up with our high laughings. But they didn’t get angry with us. We noticed that some secrets made the children wake up early during Peace School although they were on summer holiday. Ahmet and Nehir’s mother, Selda, was amazed saying; “When this school started my children felt energetic and excited. They 

woke up early by themselves and even prepared breakfast for guest volunteers”. The programme was very intensive and we sometimes got exhausted during the workshops. Neighbours served us tea, coffee and water during those critical moments.

Servas Peace School aimed to raise awareness about cultures, languages, different faiths, countries, rights and set up friendly relationship with nature. Volunteers also focused on teaching how to consume without hurting, recycle and how to sing with the languages of people of the world. Most importantly, Peace School aimed to promote feelings of equality rather than superiority and encouraged children not to compete but to cooperate. Children were introduced with Servas, 

established in the 1950s, which aims to develope feelings of peace in the world by hosting people and becoming guests. Children made new dreams of becoming a member of this organisation in the future.  Then they worked together and designed their own organisations to create peace between people and cultures. Peace School children discovered the variety of birds and other animals and plants in the river bank, olive fields and small forests during nature workshops. They also learnt interesting life of trees and land art.  It was great fun for children to swim in the river with many of  friends. The elder people taught them how to make old toys and they played together. Children read questioning stories during philosophy workshops. Volunteer teachers helped them discuss the points and the how to ask Why. All children played street games and sweated a lot. Tablet computers and other technological tools could not enter into Peace School. Photography team (Colors) members were trained and they went taking photos with a theme every day. They took interesting photos in the village and enjoyed telling their experience at the end of the day. The themes of the photo safaris were; the babies and old people, vegetables and fruit that grow in the village and pollution.

On the other side of the school, the songs of Multi Lingual Choir brought joy and happiness to the 

streets.  Children shot short movies by themselves. At the end of the school, we shared all of the school products with 300 hundred local people at the Peace School Party. One could easily notice from smiles how parents were proud of their children.  The volunteers seemed satified, proud, excited and happy when they saw the performance of the childen. Volunteers were satisfied because they did a job that served to create the good world they dreamt of.  They also learnt from each other. Working together and making things beautiful meant a lot to them. The friendship they made with their host families and extraordinary daily life with them and exchanging cultural aspects and good feelings made 

Peace School experience precious and special for everyone. 

A university student, Ilgın, who experienced her first volunteering programme tried to tell her feelings with tears in her eyes and children were hugging her; “Here, I have learnt to go beyond my limits, leave my shell, touch other hearts. Hard to leave leave these children here?”. Tulin, with 25 years of experience as an art teacher, was so excited like a fresh teacher spoke to us; “I made conclusions out of this experience for the whole world. Teaching and learning should be everyone’s duty for a beautiful world.  Every person with different ages and races should experience this school. I do feel lucky”.

People who have dreams of a fair, good and peaceful world in their hearts come to volunteer in Peace school. Once they share these values with the children they feel satisfied and peaceful as they do their duties. One of those volunteers was a university academic, Pınar. She tells us her experience; “The small hearts were open enough to receive knowledge, practice it and have fun. I have realised that I have made some changes in those small hearts”. A university student from the village Burçin, who has the habit of nourishing herself with learning gives us feedback; “I have learnt that the most precious thing in life is sharing. I have  the real volunteering. I have not only taught a lot but also learnt much.”

Rosa, who has the energy of a young woman, was very excited to tell us her experience; “I have had a lovely experience in here. It was very interesting to know a new country, cultures, people and children. Children were very curious, open minded and they learnt about peace and solidarity. I will tell this story in Italy.”With her life story, free spirit and thoughts, Rosa was a good model for young volunteers, children and local people in terms of going after dreams. Everybody in the village liked her. A music teacher, Uygar, who aimed to make children like singing in different languages told his feelings in his mother tongue, Arabic; “If I could make a child smile the world would change. If I could teach children to love birds on streets, music, theatre, books and tolarance then I would be able to send lights on the dark sides of the hearts”. Servas Peace 

secretary of Turkey, Şermin was also one of the volunteers. She did an interesting workshop with children using drama. Şermin was excited while talking; “Peace School was an interesting experience for me. Children came here to learn and improve. My host family, Sinem-with 3 children, was kind, open minded and hospitable. This school is a big chance for the development of the children, parents and whole village. It would be a good idea to practice Peace School in different parts of Turkey and the World”.

We were having breakfast with all children sitting on the ground around the food under the olive, 

pomegranate and fig trees. It was like a farewell activity. There were screams behind us coming from some of the children swimming in a traditional pool. At this moment, Gökçen, who has a loud nice laugh and who was like a well motivated teacher explains her experience; “I had such an interesting volunteering experience. I never felt tired with the questions of children and was very happy with their love they raised for me. I would come again next year”.

The neighbour, the mother and the first aid of Peace School, Seher, shares her feelings; “Children learn things they usually do not see at normal schools. They also make the first step for becoming member of world family”. The youngest volunteer, 15 year old person, Naz, does workshops with many children and she is happy 

that children call her; “Teacher”. She says; “I have learnt how to improve myself and how to teach what I know. Also, I have realised that there is no limit for sharing and loving”. 11 years old girl, Rana, played the Zammuha (hand made flüte) and started to speak; “I learn to draw, play games and make musical instruments like this every time. Let’s all leave in peace”. Host family, Sibel invites all volunteers for a complete table of Antakya dishes every year. We met at her beautiful terrace and started to serve the dishes together. Sibel tells her feelings while making the Kofte with Rosa; “We host volunteers every year. We have fun together. My children become friends with them and they keep in touch throughout the year. The guests like our culture very much. They learn Arabic and Turkish. And also they experience how to make dishes of Antakya. They are welcome every year (Ehlen ve Sehlen)”. People of the village are aware of what the volunteers are trying to do with their children and they often appriciate it.

It made us feel good when we saw groups of children in different parts of the school, sitting on the ground and learning about mythology, Egypt, Colombia, Morocco, gender equality, peace in the world, children rights, making parfume out of scents of plants and different languages. Also, listening to the Zammuhas (made with reeds) played by all children 
and decorating a wall with the theme of peace in the village helped us streghten our faith in peace.  

It was a special moment when we met with all the volunteers at the old house (Beyt-it Trob-Mud Brick house) where I was born and watched the documentary of Servas Peace School and shared our feelings about 11-year of experience. Discussing the future of the school and disseminating it in different countries filled our hearts with hope and excitement.

Besides, we did a workshop about effective volunteering and exchanged 

ideas about the possible volunteering oppurtunities. We also watched the documentary movie, Naked, that I made on a Syrian refugee family in Turkey and discussed the prejudice against refugees and the ways of dealing with such sentiments. This year, we invited Syrian children to join Peace School workshops. Not suprisingly, local children were  
good enough to play with them, draw pictures together and make toys. We had cinema workshops too and the trainer was a Syrian young man, Ayham, who studied cinema at a university in Turkey. He did the workshops in Arabic and Turkish.

During the sightseeing tours for volunteers, we had long conversations about the multicultural background of Antakya, the peace culture and how Antakya was my inspiration to start Peace School. We visited the old mosques, the churches, the sinagog, the Allawi Ziyareths, the old bazaar, 
the amazing museum and the old parliemant which played great importance in the identity of the city. We had some stops to eat the local desserts; Haytali, Kunefe Müşebbek and sometimes for Kagit Kabab. We drank a Suvari Coffee at the old inn watching the great mountain Habib-i Neccar that protects the city. Such sight seeing tours helped to exchange experience between volunteers and develop friendship.

Servas Peace School planted its seeds and left the village again this summer. Children and local 

people will water the plants patiently and they will grow until next year. When we meet again we will help them grow more and plant new seeds at the same time. We will continue from the point where J. Lennon left… The kids wrote it on the peace wall of the village this year; “Imagine all the people. Living life in peace.” We still imagine. That’s why, there is Peace School in our lives.

Mehmet Ateş

August 11th, 2019