Gymnasium “Obolon” has been taking part in the Turkish-Ukrainian educational programme “Shoulder-to-shoulder in education” (“Eğitimde el ele”) for four years. Our Turkish partner school is Ilhami Ahmed Örnekal Ilköğretim Okulu in Istanbul. Turkish and Ukrainian students and teachers study culture of both countries, exchange visits. Besides, Ukrainian students started to study Turkish two years ago.

The international association of Turkish and Ukrainian businessmen (Mr. Ercan Bekar, the head of the association) restored and equipped a modern Turkish Study for our students. The Ambassador of the Turkish Republic in Ukraine Mr. Erdoğan İşcan opened the Turkish Study on September,17, 2008.

In May 2008 a group of eleven students with the headmaster Tatyana Zubchenko and teachers visited our Turkish partner - school in Istanbul. At the Istanbul airport we were warmly met by the headmaster Mehmet Ali Güngör and teachers of Ilhami Ahmed Örnekal Elementary School. First, we visited our partner - school where we met the host families. We liked the school and a small well-groomed garden in front of it. After the acquaintance Turkish and Ukrainian students planted some snowball trees, brought from Kiev, in the school garden as the symbol of our friendship. Our students lived in the host families where they found new friends, learned more about Turkish culture, traditions and improved their knowledge of Turkish. We were lucky to be present at the celebration of the Commemoration of Atatürk and Youth and Sports Day on May, 19. We were very proud of carrying our Ukrainian flag on the stadium during this celebration.

During five days of our stay in Istanbul we visited such historical places as Hagia Sophia Miniatürk, the Topkapı Palace. We had an unforgettable cruise along the Bosphorus .

We also visited the private school Doğa Kolejı where our students took part in the international festival performing Ukrainian folk dances and songs, speaking about Ukraine in Turkish.

It was a short visit during which we managed to feel the warm hearts of the headmaster Mehmet Ali Güngör, teachers, students, parents of our Turkish partner İlhami Ahmed Örnekal Elementary School.

In October 2008 we were glad to meet our Turkish partners in Kiev. We did our best to make their stay pleasant and unforgettable.
We hope to continue our cooperation with our Turkish partners within the framework of the educational programme “Shoulder-to-shoulder in education”.

Deputy headmaster, Nelli Kozhevnikova