AFS Volunteers Association of Turkey

Founded in 1999 with the aim of building a more just and peaceful world through intercultural interaction and youth exchanges, AFS Volunteers Association of Turkey is a non-profit NGO specializing in the fields of intercultural communication and global active citizenship. We have four core values upon which all of our work is built: peace, respect, equality and professional volunteerism. Our mission is to create opportunities for intercultural interaction for a more just and peaceful world, and to provide a roof to all who are committed to fostering awareness for respect for differences and will to live together, where they can work in solidarity. We mainly provide volunteer support to AFS programs in Turkey, which are the leading intercultural exchange programs active in 99 countries all around the world. Within this framework, every year we carry out exams and interviews of over 150 students between the ages 16-18, organize their departure and return orientations as well as all the orientations of students hosted in Turkey. However, our work is not only limited with AFS programs. We carry out several youth-led projects, activities and initiatives. We mainly focus on capacity building trainings, youth camps and exchange programs. We launched KArE Platformu (Intercultural Interaction Initiative) in 2015 and we have three projects under this initiative: (1) “Hakkari, Gel Gari!” (Hakkari, Let’s Meet) which is an exchange programme between Eastern and Western regions in Turkey, aiming at strengthening intercultural competences of young people and helping them to acknowledge the differences to overcome prejudices towards each other due to national, religious and cultural backgrounds. This project is the winner of AFS Changemaker Award in 2015 for bringing intercultural learning and youth exchange to a region affected by violent conflicts and fewer opportunities. (2) “Sisters and Brothers of Turkey”: Being the first and only domestic exchange project in Turkey with notions of diversity and intercultural understanding, the project aims at promoting diversity and pluralism among the youth through educational, cultural and social exchanges. Participants learn each other's local reality through staying within each other's families for a week, experiencing the local culture, volunteering and learning together. (3) “Hello Neighbor!”: We have recently started this project to contribute to the establishment of peaceful dialogue channels between Armenia and Turkey, the countries that share a tragic past and no peaceful dialogue. We also offer trainings on various topics from team work to non-violent communication; and scholarship programs.