News

This month, our team participated at the ALForum 2025 that was held in Tirana, the capitol of Albania. On the third and last day of the forum we led an interactive session with the title "Impact of War on Humanity" by showcasing one of our own peace promoting projects, "My Boots are Beautiful", in which participants created their own boots and shared messages of peace.

During the days before our own session took place, we joined other network members' sessions, as well as participated in the events and activities organised by the ALF network.

As we all left the forum very inspired by the knowledge and ideas we were presented for during the three days, we would like to share what we learned and became inspired by from our participation in the different sessions and activities.

Under the theme of "ALForum 2025: Discover What We Learned" we would like to invite our readers to discover what each of our team members learned from our participation at the forum and how that knowledge can be useful. The following news aricles will be from the viewpoint of Amina, Gentjana, Fadi, Ida, Victoria, and Karawan, who will share with you the important insights they have gotten.

In the spirit of the ALForum it's good to remember that the more we spread our knowledge, the more knowledgable we become!

Good readings.
 

#TheDialogueEffect

Why join?
 

You will be presented for theories and research that links mental health with volunteering and

learn more about how and why volunteering is a good strategy for improving young people’s

mental health condition while at the same time offering them a social platform for dealing

with life challenges. The session will also present you for real case-scenarios as the floor will

be given to ESC-volunteers who will share their personal experiences of volunteering,

including how it has affected them in their life, their mental health specifically and personal

development overall.
 

With this knowledge and insights, you will be able to understand and give answer to how and

why it is both effectful and meaningful to keep developing and implementing volunteering

projects in the field of youth.
 

We hope to see at the session!
 

Please register by filling out this form:

https://forms.gle/oBoMZSnU38GrkHfVA

Today, S&G president and the volunteering team met for the annual meeting with one of our local partners, the Turkish-American Association (TAD) to do status upon activities done this year together with the Turkish-American Kindergarten (TAA) and for a talk about upcoming events and projects. TAD General Manager Mrs. Dilek Dengizek Ersana welcomed us together with Principal of TAA, Mrs. Senem Özdemir.

The team of teachers at TAA explained about their daily activities together with the kindergarten children and our volunteers, their involvement in the intercultural programme, and their contributions to the different events that has taken place at TAA this year, such as the making of ceramic boots as part of the 'My Boots are Beautiful' Creativity Project, and the international Med-Day that took place at the kindergarten and was celebrated by children singing and dancing to "We are the World" together with our volunteers. The team also thanked our organisation for good collaboration practices and the new cultural experiences they have gotten through the ESC programme, System and Generation has introduced them for.

Our team shared information about our activities and events related to TAD and TAA. First and foremost, we explained about our recent participation at the ALF Forum in Tirana, Albania, at which we delivered an interactive session, focuing on the 'My Boots are Beautiful' ALFinMotion Project and lessons learned from it under the dimension 'Act'. As part of the session, we exhibited the ceramic boots made by the kindergarten children at TAA and presented them for participants at the forum while reading out loud quotes of the children, expressing the feelings they had while making the boots. Furthermore, participants were invited to follow in the steps of the children and draw their own boots to share personal messages of peace by using art as a tool.

Secondly, the volunteers shared their experiences of working with the children in the kindergarten and expressed their gratitude for the valuable time spent both with the children, the staff of teachers, and the administration team. Our team also thanked the TAD General Manager for offering and providing lessons in Turkish language for our long-term volunteers. Our TAD coordinator presented results of the projects done with TAD this year and ideas for future projects to be developed and implemented in close collaboration. Finally, our president thanked the whole team of teachers, the principal, and the General Manager of TAD for another good year of succesful partnership and collaboration. 

With this meeting, we are now ready to begin a new year of weekly activities, intercultural days, and other events and proejcts that can help to support the development and education of the children at the Turkish-American Kindergarten.

We held the meeting of the network chairmen of the Anna Lindh Foundation, established by 42 countries, in Tirana, the capital of Albania, on 20-21 June 2025.

At the meeting, we discussed different topics concerning the management and involvement of ALF network members, the operationalizing of the Multi-Annual Work Programme 2025–2028, including how to put the programme and its broader goals and actions into practice, the Network Engagement Scheme (NES 4), and, finally, the take-aways from this year's forum.

We would like to thank the president of ALF,  HRH Princess Rym Ali, the Executive Director, Josep Ferré, and all participating network members for organising and contributing to a fruitful meeting with many good take-home messages.

You can read more about the meeting here:
https://www.haberler.com/guncel/tiran-da-avrupa-akdeniz-diyalogu-uzerine-forum-devam-ediyor-18766035-haberi/#

#TheDialogueEffect #ALForum2025

Yesterday, we met with Mr. Argiris Cholias who is one of the first ESC volunteers that worked with System and Generation back in 2009. Today, Mr. Argiris is running his own branch of System and G in Greece where he continues developing and leading youth projects that drive change and social action in local communites.

Mr. Argiris and his family welcomed us in their hometown located in Vissani in the Northern region of Greece and hosted us in the most kind and warm-hearted way. Mr. Argiris and Mr. Gürkan Akçaer shared stories and memories from time together at System and Generation years ago, while we were being served both local specialities, homemade food and greek coffee by Argiris mother, Mrs. Dimitri, who also joined us for a trip around the village this morning where we visited the local church and coffee place. Argiris also showed us around in the city of Ioannis before it was time to say goodbye and see you again.

From all sides, it was a truly touching and memorable meeting that we will all keep with us as inspiration for future ESC projects!

 

“Children are the future of every nation and the symbol of peace”

Our project, ”My Boots are Beautiful”, which brought together children in Türkiye and Bosnia-Herzegovina to explore the topic of peace thorugh art was implemented one year ago in June 2024. The project was back then made as an ALFinMotion: Mobility for Creativity Project. Now it is time to take the project to its next step and present its results, findings and further potential to inspire to the development of future youth-led peace promoting projects! 

We are excited to announce that we will bring our peace promoting project, ”My Boots are Beautiful” to the upcoming ALForum 2025 taking place in Tirana, Albania from 18-20 June as a case to exhibit and learn from under the theme of “The Dialogue Effect: From Knowledge to Action”.

Under the title ”Impact on War and Humanity”, Mr. Gürkan Akçaer, president and LEAR of System and Generation Association and HoN of the Turkish ALF Network, will present an interactive session that aims at demonstrating the substantial significance of understanding as well as promoting values of coexistence, tolerance and fraternity during and post times of conflicts. The session will be run by our four young panelists, Gentjana Hasa, Ida Elsborg, Amina Dzafic, and Karawan Dawoud, who will help participants to explore the topic of war and peace from a multi-perspective view and assist them in using art to act out their own messages of peace!

The session ”My Boots are Beautiful” will take place on the 20 June, at 10:30-11:45 and include:

• Best practices from My Boots are Beautiful in the field of Education and Learning for Peace-Making and How to learn from history to create a better future.
• The important role of Empathy in peacebuilding and the potential of art for developing Social Solidarity and Empathy.
• The use of data to understand the long-term effects of war on individuals and societies, and the use of digital tools to support peacebuilding.
• Learning from first-person perspectives and practising perspective-taking in practice.

During the session participants are invited to draw their own boots and use our photobooth stand to share their messages of peace!
We hope to see as many of you at our session!

Follow our page for more info and updates during and after the forum.
 

#MyBootsAreBeautiful #ALForum2025 #TheDialogueEffect #PeacePromotion #EuroMed # CreatingSpace #Imagination #Creativity #PlayfulActivity #Children’sRights #HumanRights #Empathy #SocialChangeandActivism #ALFinMotion #ACT

SEZ’25

Social Impact Summit 2025, an important meeting point for social transformation and sustainable impact, once again witnessed inspiring moments this year. In this meaningful event sponsored by Buldan Foundation, participants once again witnessed the collective power of increasing impact and solidarity.

This year’s summit focused on prejudices, one of the biggest obstacles to social transformation and equality. In order to ensure real equality, creating impact with the support of all parties to the transformation was determined as the main goal.

The sessions held within the scope of the summit drew attention to the importance of concrete steps and collaborations towards strengthening social impact. This meeting, which once again demonstrated the transformative power of acting together in the field of social benefit, began with the opening speech of the architect of the summit, Ms. Müntaha Adalı, and was enriched with inspiring speeches and sharings from professionals from many different fields.