Get excited! From now on it might become easier for you to travel to a corner of Europe located between the Mediterranean Sea and the Middle East… In case you stay in the good graces of the local members in Hatay, Turkey. But that should not be a problem!
Hatay was approved as a new AEGEE Contact during the previous Spring Agora in Enschede.
It certainly has great potential for the network. Located on the border to Syria, Hatay is characterized by a Mediterranean climate, and offers a lot of historical sights to tourists and visitors, among which an important archaeological museum and Saint Pierre Church, said to be the first Catholic church in the world. “We will invite students from abroad”, promises Onur Ölmez, the leader of the new Contact, who studies Public Administration at the local university in Antakya.
A new Contact? Not exactly. There was an antenna in Hatay before, until the board stopped working. Now, six young people prove the will to start a new one from the very beginning. They paid the remaining debts of the former board at the Agora and already selected candidates for future new board which now is organising the activities until the start of the new term. Community seems a key concept when Ölmez speaks about his colleagues as his “team”, and motivation is high. “Our basic plan is a Summer University of course!”, the leader of Contact points out.
As Summer University is unique for antenna, they can not yet put this plan into effect, but Ölmez and his team successfully planned local trainings on the topics of volunteering and project management at their university. Each of them is bringing Hatay one step closer to their goal of re-establishing the antenna AEGEE-Hatay. The next phase will be proceeding to a Contact Antenna status, for which the rules of AEGEE require a list of at least ten members.
The foundations have been laid: in consequence of the workshops held, AEGEE is getting more popular at the Mustafa Kemal University in Antakya. With their enthusiasm, the team will certainly attract more supporters soon.
Written by Birte Huntemann, AEGEE-Mannheim