We are an association that organizes activities related to the topic ‘ Cultural Interaction and Awareness.

Our aim is to make people aware of social, cultural, technical, and economic matters by providing local, regional, national, and international interaction and cooperating with associations, corporations, and institutions.

Cultural awareness is being aware of the values, beliefs, and perceptions. As transportation, and communication tools are shaping up at incredible speed, the variety between societies and cultures is noticed more today. As a result of this, cultural interaction is gaining speed at the same rate. People living in different geographical lands, speaking different languages, and having different religious thoughts enjoy similar things now. This era exposes a type of person who has his own cultural attitudes but is also familiar with other cultures in the World. The contemporary person is expected to know much about his own culture and should know and respect the characteristics and values of other cultures and have the knowledge and awareness to compare his own culture with the other ones.

Making people have cultural awareness and learning about other cultures will help people to respect and tolerate each other, set up empathy, recognize the common problems and look for their solutions, and perceive the cultural variety, not as a problem but as an advantage. For this reason, our association targets to work under this main topic.

Being able to make comparisons between cultures, will help a person to state the place of his own culture in the World. We need to provide people with various processes of education to make Them contemporary. We think that this work which aims to make people aware of their own cultures and learn about the lifestyles of their cultures will help people to live happily and peacefully.

Organizing educational work such as courses, seminars, conferences, panels, workshops, Works of art, and festivals, producing presentation materials, and helping present products to get known by more people.

Organizing cultural trips, meetings, concerts, exhibitions, and competitions for people of any age and having different jobs and helping people to make use of these activities.

Starting common projects with national and international foundations and institutions.

We want to set up awareness by using processes of cultural interaction on local, regional, national, and international platforms.

We want to be a non–governmental organization that is preferred internationally by other organizations due to our social, cultural, and economic activities.

LOCK: Our association Works as a lock-in cultural interaction. The open lock represents our tolerance to every idea.

GRAY: Objectiveness, modesty, making peace between individuals and groups.

COLOURFUL HEARTS: Different cultures.

YELLOW: Intellectual strength, the quality of mind, variety.

TURQUOISE: Turkish blue. Silence, eternity, vastness, tranquility, love of life.

ORANGE: Foresight, balance, optimism, liveliness, happiness.

THREE HEARTS: our association holds the luck of three-leaved clover.

CLOVER’S STEM: Our association connects different colors and cultures under its umbrella. The end of the umbrella gets complete with an open lock.

THE ACTIVITIES OF OUR ASSOCIATION

Our aim is to organize more wide-ranging activities not just locally but also internationally in the future.

We enjoy doing English conversation activities every week with the moderation of one of our members. At the same time, the strategies to improve English shared with the members of the group. We sometimes invite native speakers to our English conversation activities. Every person who wants to improve their English can join our group activities. This activity is free to everyone. We started this activity with two members but we are happy that the number of our members is more than 100. Any person can join our activity whether he/she is a member or not. Our club gets more crowded and we reach more people day by day and we sometimes invite native speakers to this activity as well. We will work continuously to progress it. We hope to be together in the following years under the roof of  ‘The İzmir Amateur English Conversation Club’

Examples of some cultural activities

The historical building called Old Kızılçullu Village Institution was visited by the members of our association. NATO personnel take place in it nowadays.

We attended the anniversary celebrations of the Japan-İzmir Intercultural Friendship Association.

We went to Yeşilova Mound which presents the 8500 –year history of İzmir together with TÜKODER(Consumer Protection Association)

There will be a breakfast activity with the native foreign speakers, and English teachers. The president of the Association “Our board decided to come together with a group of English teachers who work in İzmir and make a contact and cooperate with them. Consequently, it is planned to meet them at breakfast in Kemalpaşa/ Ciceklikoy. There will be native speakers and English teachers at breakfast whom our members are in contact with. By the way, all the English teachers who work in İzmir can also participate in this breakfast activity.

After 8th March, International Women’s Day, we visited  İzmir Women’s Museum with the companion of a guide, and then we went to the Konak İmece association and watched an audiovisual presentation which told about the memories of traveling of a friend who toured around India and Fareast for a year with his motorcycle.

The ‘ Galle, Daum, Lalique- the Poets of Glass’ exhibition which was presented in Arkas Art Gallery was the first exhibition of art deco style in Turkey. After visiting the exhibition, there was a conversation meeting related to the exhibition. The exhibition which was liked by the members of our association also attracted the attention of other non-governmental organizations.

Our members visited the ‘İzmir in 18th and 19th Centuries’ exhibition in Arkas Art Gallery.  The exhibition which presented the theme ‘ A Western Look at İzmir’s History’ was liked very much by our members. The History teachers in our association who visited the exhibition offered that everybody should visit this exhibition.

Our members came together at Gelincik Morning Room. They tasted totally organic and regional food at breakfast and they had the chance to speak English with each other in a friendly atmosphere. The activity continued in front of the fireplace later and English and Turkish songs and folksongs were sung together in the garden. Our members requested to have breakfast again in spring.

The president of our association released a new year message. In her message, she expressed her expectations that the next year brings success to our country, everyone in the world, and our association. She also added that this year would be a year of progress for our association and we would organize various activities and we would actualize lots of successful work. She told that she was happy that Cultural Interaction and Awareness Association (KEFDER) has been noticed by lots of people in a short time. Our president celebrated the New Year of all the members of our association and wishes them health, happiness, and success.

Cultural Interaction and Awareness Association (KEFDER) which was founded on the 12th of December, 2012 celebrated its first anniversary at the Aegean Chamber of Industry’s building. Nearly 60 people joined the celebration. After the president’s speech, it was made in a presentation telling about the mission, vision, and activities of the association and explaining the meaning of the colors and symbols on the logo. Later, there was an award ceremony and certificates of appreciation were given to Aegean University teachers; assistant Professor Dizar Ercivan Zencirci,  Lecturer Melek Şahan, Işılay Saygın Fine Arts High School Art teachers; Mustafa  Albayrak, Gülin Çakal and artist Nilgün Vural for their contribution in the Logo/Emblem Design Competition Committee. Our participants had fun with the activities like “Unknown Regional Statements Game” and “Finding Objects Game”.  KEFDER which started its activities with Amateur English Conversation Club targeted to organize social and cultural projects starting from regional ones ranging to national and international projects. Prof. Dr. Fehmi AKçiçek who is head of the department of internal medicine at Aegean University, Medical Faculty is our honorary member. Also, other members have occupations that correspond to our association’s mission. KEFDER brings together people from various jobs (lawyers, engineers, teachers, artists, cookers, bankers, etc) and also cooperates with some other nongovernmental organizations (NGO) such as İzmir Lovers Platform, Turkish History Teacher Association, Japan-İzmir Intercultural Solidarity Association.

The story of our association was featured in the İzmir Life magazine. It was significant to be known by the people especially those living in İzmir,  spreading our foundation concept, our aims, and our targets.