Happiness Volunteers was founded in Istanbul, Turkiye in June 2022 by Engr. Aya Akili. Aya hold a masters in engineering management and is a certified project manager who speaks Arabic, English and Turkish. She has been volunteering international and locally for more than 10 years when she started her own NGO: Happiness Volunteers. Now, Happiness Volunteers has 8 destinations and more than 38 programs enhancing the lives of orphans and communities in less than a year since launching.
"We thrive to make the world filled with happiness volunteers and create a sustainable positive impact in communities ". The founder Aya Akili
As an experienced English teacher, it meant a lot to me that Happiness Volunteers encouraged me to apply my knowledge and creativity with a team in creating and teaching a 10 day English workshop for the young refugees. The other teachers and management staff spoke English, Turkish and Arabic (I only speak English!) and together we stayed focused on our goal of supporting the refugees through English instruction- which can make such a difference in their future! Good staff communication and a class of 20 motivated students made teaching fun and rewarding to me and the students. Including lesson preparation time, the project took about 3-5 hours per day. A great and unexpected benefit of volunteering was the cultural and travel activities that Aya organized for us after the work was done- we visited mosques and museums, took boat rides on the Bosphorus Straight, and ate Turkish, Yemenese, Iraqi and Syrian cuisine!
