“My Village in 3 Days” project is ongoing

Within the scope of the ‘Three Days in My Village’ project initiated by the Erzincan Governorship, high school students who have never lived in a village before are experiencing topics they are curious about related to village life through hands-on training and a camping program. The young people, who sleep in tents, feed cattle, milk cows, bake bread in a tandoor, and work in the fields, are quite satisfied with their situation.

Due to the summer vacation, the Erzincan Governorship launched the ‘Three Days in My Village’ project to help students learn about life and work in villages. A total of 12 students participated in the second group of the project, which will last for 3 days.

Students will stay for 3 days in the villages of Günbağı and Yalınca as part of the project, in groups. The students, who sleep in tents for 3 days, will engage in various activities depending on the work in the village; some will take care of cattle on a farm, some will work in the fields, and others in the gardens. Teachers from AFAD and the Ministry of National Education will be responsible for the students. The students will carry out their activities under the supervision of the assigned teachers, AFAD personnel, and the village headman, according to the established activity program. The first phase of the project started in the villages of Aydoğdu, Tatlısu, and Binkoç, which are connected to the Erzincan center, and the second phase continues in the villages of Günbağı and Yalınca, with plans to extend to other villages later.

Regarding the project, Erzincan Governor Hamza Aydoğdu stated, “We initiated a project called ‘Three Days in My Village’ in Erzincan. The aim of the project is to send our youth to our villages alongside AFAD, UMKE, and our teachers and to let them experience village life. Our students are experiencing village life in our villages. If our traditions and customs are alive today, it is because of these traditions. The carrier of culture is language. We need to engrave all our concepts related to the past into the minds and hearts of today’s youth. The way to achieve this is to provide these young people with all the cultural transfer regarding our past in our villages and cities. This was a pilot application. Hopefully, we will expand this in the future to 5, 10, or 20 villages. Seeing our young people happy makes us very happy. What made me particularly happy here is that the villagers treat these young people, whom they have never met before, as if they were their own children, taking care of them and cherishing them. I thank them all.”

The students expressed that experiencing village life has been a great gain for them and has brought them happiness, stating, “There are no phones or tablets. We are collecting real and enjoyable memories about life.”