Turkey's Kırklareli, which lies on the border with Bulgaria, is among the first stopovers for people evacuated from Ukraine amid the ongoing war. A group of volunteers in the province have opened up their hearts and are catering to the needs of the young evacuees.
Families that fled the conflict have taken shelter in student dormitories following the evacuation efforts by the Foreign Ministry. The children among these families are being aided with the help of volunteers from the Kırklareli Youth Center. Some 20 volunteers seek to boost the morale of children, mainly ethnic Crimean Tatars, as their country faces an uncertain future.
The dormitories have a number of options to engage children from sports courts to game rooms and free internet to help them socialize and forget the circumstances under which they came to the country. The volunteers keep the children busy with various activities despite the language barrier.
Irem Damla Uncu, who is studying child development at Kırklareli University, is among the volunteers. "I am proud and happy to be a part of it. I was worried about them but found spending time with them made both us and them happy," she told Anadolu Agency (AA) on Thursday.
Uncu taught the children new games, and they blew up balloons together. "They have adapted well to their new surroundings and do not shy away from games," she said. "There was a girl here, Meryem. I noticed she liked my ring. I gave it to her, and she felt like she had to give me something too and so took off her bracelet and gave it to me. I burst into tears and barely held myself so as not to make her cry too," she recalled. "We don't speak the same language, but our body language bonded us," she said.
Ebubekir Bayat, another university student who volunteers for children, said they would probably never see the children again but they did everything to cheer them up and make them forget about the war. "They are the most innocent victims of the war. It was very emotional for us to meet them," he said.
Children are usually quiet when they're not playing. Yakub Bariiev, a 7-year-old boy, said he warmed up to his "new brothers and sisters" (the volunteers) who visited them but he missed his father and uncle who had to stay behind in Ukraine when he traveled to Turkey with his mother.
"I was scared of the sound of bombs in Ukraine but I feel so happy and peaceful in Turkey," Suleyman Kurtbedinov, another boy, said.
