Bronze

I joined Eco-club as a voluntary service. In this environmental club in our school, we think about how we can raise awareness about the environment. One week before the New Year, we decided to design a Christmas tree by collecting plastic bottles consumed at school. We collected thousands of bottles. We made this tree with about 1000 of these bottles. We sent the rest to the recycling center. In fact, after the New Year's, the sale of water in plastic bottles in our school canteen stopped and it began to be sold in glass bottles. I can say that this moment is the most special moment I have experienced thanks to the award program because as a result of these developments, I felt that I was in a group that created very important awareness.

15

Definitely the adventure and exploration part is very challenging. This is not something I say to intimidate anyone. However, considering that someone who walks 12 kilometers every day for a bronze certificate with a bag of approximately 15 20 kg on your back, walks 24 kilometers, this was very challenging for me. Also, the main compelling factor was the harsh weather conditions. During the walk we held in Eskişehir on 12-13 June 2022, I encountered more rain than I had ever encountered in my life. So much so that there were flood disasters in the surrounding areas. Every time I took a step, my shoes were getting muddy. When I got to the point where I couldn't take a step, I used to slide my feet like I was ice skating, but I was actually skating on mud. When the walk was over, the normal colors of my shoes were not visible. It was completely muddy. From here you can understand how difficult conditions we are walking in. In short, I can say for myself that this is the most difficult part of this program.

Türkiye

While doing the Award program, my biggest reservation was to stay in nature. I've never had such an experience before. But since childhood, I always wanted to take pictures of animals found in nature. I took this photo in the Balçova Therapy Forest, where our school held first test walk. This photo actually changed my perspective on animals. I was always scared when I saw a spider or any kinds of insects until I took this photo. But what I felt when I saw this spider was that it was protecting its eggs, in a way, its children. In short, this test walk was actually a source of motivation that made me think that I could do the nature walk in the program as it helped me in terms of not scaring me from animals.

Participant