ERASMUS+, Key action 1: youth exchange
Dates: 27 April—3 May 2025
Venue: Karaman, Turkey
Czech team: 6 participants + 1 group leader
Please read the info-pack.
Hosting organisation: Karaman AB Gençlik Platformu – Karaman EU Youth Platform
Project report:
Merhaba! Hi! Welcome to Türkiye!
Our Czech team spent one week in Turkey, a country where everyone drinks strong black tea at any time of the day, where you might get olives or potato fries for breakfast, and where you can meet a stray cat on almost every street. Interested in visiting?
Our project was called “Learn Your Potential for Better Employment”, and it took place in a city called Karaman. If you don’t know where that is, don’t worry — we didn’t either! Karaman is located in south-central Turkey, about 100 km south of Konya. With a population under 200,000, we had the chance to experience the “real” Turkey: a place that isn’t touristy, is quite conservative, and where communicating with the locals requires speaking Turkish.
There were five countries represented in the project, and thanks to the cultural nights, we had the chance to learn about their customs and traditions. Besides Czechia and Turkey, participants came from Latvia, Romania, and Poland, with roughly seven members from each country. Thanks to the program and the many activities in international groups, we learned a lot from each other — communicating mainly in English — and deepened our understanding of other nations and ourselves as well.
And as for the project itself? The instructors had prepared a full program for us. We first spent time bonding as a group, then visited the university (even having a private meeting with the rector), toured a well-known local biscuit factory to see how the biscuits are made, visited the Karaman Museum, and learned more about the city’s rich history.
It was a week full of new experiences — discovering Turkey and its culture directly from its citizens, learning about other nations, and gaining valuable experiences that will help us in the future. 🙂
Lucie G.
