Everyone has different reasons for being a volunteer. After I graduated from University, I didn’t know what to do with my life. I decided to volunteer through the EVS programme. Choosing which country to go to can be tough. I had some contact with Swedish culture through an event at the embassy in Ankara but I didn’t really know much about Sweden, then suddenly, one day I was in Sweden!
Getting used to new things in a new country takes a lot of time, a new city, language, people, and making friends, it’s a long journey. I have been here for just seven months and I already feel that the people in PeaceWorks are kind of my family. When I leave Sweden I will miss my PeaceWorks family, just like I am missing my family back home in Turkey right now. To me, PeaceWorks is an organisation where everyone has different dreams about peace that they want to realise, and PeaceWorks helps them to realise their dreams.
I work in the PeaceWorks office and help with coordinating short term volunteer projects and general office work. When you are a volunteer, you should remember that you are very useful to many people in many ways, even if some of your tasks seem like small things. As well as working in the PeaceWorks office in the afternoons, I attend a Swedish course in the mornings. I feel very lucky to be learning a new language. My aim is to be able to make jokes in Swedish! Being a volunteer is a great way to help society. I really believe that small changes can together create big changes. That’s why the work PeaceWorks helps young people to do it so important.
I think that in order to increase understanding and dialogue between groups, we need to work towards borderless societies. Countries should be open for anyone. To make this happen, I guess we have to stop stereotyping each other. I think that volunteering is a great tool to reduce stereotypes and open minds and in this way, volunteering is helping me to work towards my dream of borderless societies.
Before I came to Sweden, I didn’t really know what to expect. Being a volunteer in a new country outside your comfort zone is difficult. But there are many similarities and many differences, but it’s the similarities that surprise me more. In a new country, you will find more things you recognise than you expect. The feeling of being a volunteer and helping people is great, you can’t get that feeling anywhere else. Cheers for peace!
