Hello! I am Hümeyra, I’m 23 years old and I’m from Türkiye. I participated in the "I am sports+ volunteer" project in Sivas, Türkiye. It will be a great pleasure for me to talk about the month we spent to the fullest with wonderful people.

This project has a special place for me and is something I will never forget. Because this is the first project I participated in. Therefore, first of all, I would like to thank the Gelişim Gençlik Association for including me in this unique experience.

It would be a great thing for me to do a project with friends with whom we feel family intimacy. I have a 12-year volleyball background, and it was very instructive for me to come together with my friends who like sports like me and are aware of the importance of sports, to exercise in many sports, to support each other and to contribute something to each other. It was inspiring to share with each other the experiences we learned in the same world, in our different lives. Some days, we got involved in the beautiful nature of my country thanks to activities such as walking and cycling. In addition to well-known sports such as volleyball, football, basketball and badminton, we also did activities that I am not very familiar with but enjoyed doing, such as yoga and meditation.

Apart from these, there were other things that were at least as important as doing sports. Thanks to this project, we had the opportunity to share a lot with our Italian friends and strengthened our social bound. Making them feel at home and hosting our guests well was one of the common thoughts of us Turkish volunteers, and we thought the same things without even talking about it. We had the opportunity to introduce the values of our traditional culture, we ate wonderful Sivas dishes together, we discovered new places in nature, we celebrated our birthdays together, and we even had a different experience such as attending a Turkish wedding. At the same time, they also shared about their own traditions and tasted delicious dishes. It literally became an environment of cultural sharing. Everyone had their own unique characteristics and I think we inspired each other.

Again, I would like to thank everyone who contributed to us meeting these wonderful people and gave us such an opportunity. If I receive an offer to participate in such a project again, I will accept it with my eyes closed.