Turkey (Kirklareli-Istanbul) (May 17 – May 30 )

A trip full of nature, adventure, history, and city life!

Trip Leaders: Yasemin Tarhan and Volkan Doda

It will be a labor-intensive but fun trip. We will deal with three of the focus areas of non-governmental organizations: environment, culture and education. The first week, we will visit Babaeski village in Kirklareli, a small city in the Thracian area 2.5 hours from Istanbul. We will stay with the locals and work in the field: plant trees, clear grasslands, help build artificial lakes, and join the locals in their daily routines such as taking care of the animals and their gardens. We will also help build a village library: transport books, catalogue them, build bookshelves and create a sustainable system that the villagers later can easily use. After these labor-intensive days, we will have field trips to beautiful beaches of Edirne, to the Meric river which is the natural borderline with Greece, and to the vineyard and wine factory in Tekirdag-- famous for its wine tasting seminars. Second week, we will come back to Istanbul. After visiting the historical sites, we will meet and have short projects with Turkish Education Volunteers Foundation (TEGV), Environment and Culture Foundation (CEKUL) and Istanbul Culture and Arts Foundation (IKSV)-- three of the leading NGOs in Turkey. With TEGV, after watching a short presentation, we’ll volunteer for one full day in helping kids in English, arts and sports in their education parks. With CEKUL, we will follow the route they have recently created to visit all the works of Sinan the Architect in Istanbul with a professional guide. We will meet with IKSV and learn about their projects such as “Istanbul 2010 capital of culture.”

Please contact the trip co-leaders Yasemin Tarhan or Volkan Doda for more information.