A legacy in action

Mike Ogunnusi S‘ 96 says that Legacy/GYV continue to remain a catalyst for much that has followed both personally and professionally for him.  He is involved in various aspects of youth work, lecturing consulting and training. Mike is in the process of developing a network of community centers to create safe places that integrate age, ability and culture. Good Luck Mike!

Indonesians launch community projects

Our 22 Indonesian students have returned home with plans to improve their communities.  Learn more about their projects. 

PROPOSED PROJECTS: GORONTALO

Barak and Awa: My Library is My Life

• Conduct a seminar at their school and five area schools about literacy/readership.
• Get the heads of each class (16 classes totaling 200 students) at their school to do a needs assessment as a way of evaluating what to purchase for the library; goal is 50-60 books.
• Redecorate the library (involving administration, student groups, local government, etc.)
• Start a school-wide class contest held each month (read-a-thon)

Fahri and Zein:             Culture for Our People

• Establish a community theater troupe focusing on traditional cultural performances; will draw young people from schools in the Bone Bolango municipal area.
• Establish a community magazine (published, not wall) that is entirely devoted to the writings of young people in the same area.
• Profits raised from selling the magazine and minor ticket prices for performances.
• Get other schools involved via promotion via seminars/presentations.

Siti and Yahya:             Healthy Canteen

• Their boarding school doesn’t have a canteen for students to eat in or provide food.  They want to build a canteen place that sells healthy food.  They’ll do a seminar at the school promoting healthy eating habits, a workshop for food sellers that sell at the school (five or six businesses) and build the canteen.
• After it is built as a model, will do workshops at 10-15 nearby schools, focusing on elementary schools so as to develop lifelong habits.  They’ll do presentations and workshops.

PROPOSED PROJECTS: BATAM

Qisty and Jeri:             School Environment Project

• Presentations about environmental issues at their school (there are 21 classes, 26 students per a class, and a total student body of 800 students.)
• Start daily school environmental patrols
• Recycle fair event with each class competing.  Money raised will be put back into environmental projects.

Ferry and Elsa:             English for All

• Start a community English class meeting 2x a week for 1^st and 2^nd grade children from an at-risk neighborhood.  20 students per class. Classes will  last 90 minutes.
• Get a wifi hook up for the classroom along with two computers.  Computers will have educational software for learning English installed and also be available for internet use and computer training.
• Get school supplies for the students.
• Monthly English competitions for the students to keep learning fun.

Debby and Arin:             Cleaning Out Our Environment (COE)

• Involving at least three high schools in their project
• Presentations at schools concerning environment – get facilities cleaned, separate trash, collect trash, etc.  Schools will be involved in the craft project.
• Start a recycled craft project.  After cleaning and sorting trash, they’ll put non-organic trash to use by remaking it as crafts which will then be sold.
• Crafts will be sold and proceeds will go towards buying cleaning supplies for involved schools.

PROPOSED PROJECTS: CILEGON

Nia and Aldi: Recycle for Farmers

• Involves seven area schools.
• Presentation at local schools, separating trash, and starting a program where they will collect the organic trash from the participating schools to compost.
• After three weeks of composting, they will provide the compost to area farmers as free fertilizer for their crops.  They’ll be collecting hay from the farmers to assist in the composting and as a way of involvement.
• Goal is to provide compost to at least ten farmers and provide 50kg of compost a month.

Reza and Sasky: One Hole Change the World

• Fundraising and education program to raise money and volunteers for building biopori.  Done through proposals, seminars, and school area competitions (photography contest with environmental theme as an example).
• Once funds are raised, students will create the tool for building biopori.
• Create 20 biopori in 10 area schools
• Create no littering signs and other pro environmental slogans in the same schools.

Cahya and Tulloh: Separation of Rubbish

• Seminars on garbage issues at 5 area schools (mixed elementary, middle, and high schools)
• Plant at least 10 trees at each of these schools.
• Get separate trash cans and signs for separating organic and non-organic trash at each school.

Syarief and Darwin: Let’s Start to Keep Our School Clean and Healthy

• Fundraise to get supplies for cleaning the schools and organize seminars about cleaning/environment at seven area schools.
• Establish weekly cleaning days at each school.  Organic trash will go into Nia and Aldi’s project.
• Organize a cleaning contest between the 7 area schools with a trophy that moves to the cleanest school each semester.
• Talked about ministry of education involvement.

Gandung and Shopi: Garbage is our Friend – 3 pg translate

• Separate garbage at their school and five area schools (presentations – one day seminars on environmental issues and recycling)
• Recycle fair between classes at the six schools.
• $$ raised via the recycle fair will be used to buy food that will be dispersed to poor families.

The Indonesian Youth Leadership Program is

Supported by the US Department of State – Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs

Shayn McCallum

Nationality: Australian (permanent resident of Turkey)
Attended GYV: as a Global Issues Workshop Instructor in 2003 and as a prep cook in 2006.

Education: MA in European Studies (Bogazici Univ, Istanbul), BA (hons) in Political Science & International Relations (Univ. of Tasmania, Australia)

Current Work & Volunteer Projects: Instructor in Academic English at Bogazici Univ. and freelance academic proofreader/translator.  I’m marginally involved in civil society projects on democratization, ethnic conflicts, environmentalism/agriculture and workers’ rights in Turkey but I’m not as active as I’d like to be! (I’m busy raising my baby daughter at the moment!)

Biography: I was born in 1972 in Tasmania, Australia and spent the first 20 years of my life there.  From my earliest years, I was aware that there was a much larger world and endlessly dreamed of travelling.  As soon as I graduated, I moved to Israel where I lived for several years as a yeshivah (rabbinical school) student, then a Kibbutznik in the Golan Heights & near the Judean desert.  I was active in the Israeli peace movement and was deeply affected by my witnessing, as a naive Australian Jew, of the Palestinian experience.   Although I left Israel in 1995, my time there has profoundly shaped my attitudes to issues of identity, nationalism, peace and basic love for humanity.

After leaving Israel, I decided to become an English teacher.  After two wonderful years in Prague and Gyor, Hungary, I made the fateful decision in 2000, to come to Turkey where I met my wife Ebru and, subsequently, have ended up an ‘honorary Turk’.  Turkey is a rich, dynamic society with many echoes of the issues I faced in Israel.   I love living at the nexus of European, Asian and Middle-Eastern culture.   Living in Turkey also helped me to consolidate my long engagement with Islam.  I finally took the step of embracing Islam, allowing me to explore the profundities and inner dimensions of this extraordinary religion as a participant rather than sympathetic observer.  Since then, the teachings of Sufic Islam have subtly but profoundly reshaped my understanding of life and the world.

In 2008, on December 14, the greatest happiness I have ever known came into my life in the form of my little daughter Ela Nur, and I have since discovered the indescribable joys (and trials) of being a Dad.   Between my work on Bogazici University’s breathtakingly gorgeous campus and my much-treasured ‘Daddy-Daughter Time’, I try to follow and engage with the struggles of life in this amazing, chaotic, beautiful city in this breath-taking, mad, delirious country.

My Memories of GYV: My wife first took me to GYV, having previously been a cabin counselor, and convinced me I would find the place inspiring.  Actually, ‘inspirational’ seems a weak word for what seems to transpire, each time in its own unique way, as people from impossibly different backgrounds become drawn into such powerful, lasting friendships.  It is astonishing to me to see how, even now, years after the GYV experience, so many people remain in close contact with each other.  The life-changing power of GYV cannot be overestimated.  I have been actively involved in GYV only twice, yet, whether we have an active position or not, my wife and I come back to visit almost every summer.  GYV above all, inspires so deeply, because it shows us, in microcosm, a living example of how the whole world should and could be, if only we collectively dared to dream it.  GYV is living proof that diverse people can live together in more than just tolerance, but mutual love, respect and friendship.  At its best, GYV opens a window in the heart to what it is to be truly human in the sense of embracing the best of the potential in all of us.  As an experience, it is unforgettable and transformational.

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