GONULLU HIZMETLER DERNEGI

We are the successor of GENÇLİK TURİZMİ DERNEĞİ - GENÇTUR which was founded in 2002 and accredited as sending, hosting and coordinating organisation for the Youth in Action program. In January 2019 , the general Assembly of GENÇLİK TURİZMİ DERNEĞİ decided to change the name to GÖNÜLLÜ HİZMETLER DERNEĞİ. The record of the decission and the new version of the constituon which is approved by governorship of İstanbul are attched at the anexes section. GHD is a member of UNESCO-CCIVS (Coordination Committee of International Voluntary Service) and ALLIANCE of European Voluntary Service Organizations and a partner of Service Civil Internationnal networks. We organize around 25 short term (2-3 weeks long) voluntary projects and host around 100 Turkish and international volunteer annualy. We also send Turkish volunteers of all ages but mainly young ones (14-30 age group) for international short term voluntary projects organized by our partners located in more than 100 countries, in the networks mentioned above. We place around 500 Turkish volunteers in abroad short term voluntary projects. We have got our first accreditation in 2007 as soon as Turkey became a program country. We have been accredited as hosting, sending and coordinating organisation in 2007. Then we started to deal with EU Youth in Action program. During the first term of our accreditation period, we have sent 25 EVS volunteers abroad both for short and long term. We have hosted 50 participants in 2 different youth exchanges and we were partner of many different youth exchanges hosted by our partners in Europe. In the following second and third terms, we have increased our activeness and have sent 386 EVS volunteers in total by 31.12.2018. We aim to offer a chance for Turkish citizens to meet other cultures, to visit and observe other countries, to be aware of opportunities, to meet their peers through volunteering programs. We believe that this helps to diminish prejudices and help to build cultural understanding and peace. We have no upper age limit to volunteer but 90 % of our outgoing volunteers are between 14-30 years old.