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.