Mission and Legal Regulations
Welcome to Bodrum Herodotus Third Age Academy
H3A is a welcoming association for shared learning, shared activities and shared interests.
Joining H3A and participating is a great way to broaden your horizons and make friends from diverse nationalities and backgrounds.
Our groups are led by volunteers who share their particular knowledge, skills, experience or interest with other members.
We are a welcoming cooperative that was created in 2010 as the first organization of its kind in Turkey. Its members represent many backgrounds and nationalities and generally have completed their careers but want to stay active, to meet and collaborate with interesting people, to travel locally and regionally and to continue learning in what they think of as a third and vibrant age of life. The organization relies on member volunteers to organize and to run all of its programs and activities. Lectures and presentations are typically in Turkish or English and translation is often provided.
If you are interested in belonging to an active and welcoming organization in which you can develop and share talents and interests, consider joining H3A. For information about how simple and inexpensive it is to join, please click on HOW TO JOIN. You can learn more about us through attending talks and joining in our Sunday walks. These two activities are open to non-members.
Read on to learn more about the Third Age, Herodotus, H3A’s mission and values and how it is run.
The Third Age constitutes the fastest-growing age group in the world. Physically active and mentally alert, third-agers have moved beyond mainstream working lives while retaining and often increasing their eagerness to learn and to stay engaged in active and stimulating communities.
The first University of the Third Age (U3A) was founded in France during the early 1970s as a space where people would meet purely for the pleasure of learning – no qualifications for enrolment, no certificates awarded at the completion of the courses and no age limits for participation. A self-help approach was adopted: members could be teachers as well as students; classes were held in libraries, private homes and schools; membership fees were minimal; timetables were flexible; and courses ranged from academic subjects to arts and crafts and physical activities. U3As provide social opportunity to bring together like-minded people and the movement has spread throughout the western world.
Why Herodotus?
The name honours the “father of history”, born in Halicarnassus (modern-day Bodrum) 2,500 years ago, who travelled widely and wrote his book The Histories based on his experiences and discoveries.
Bodrum’s H3A: The Pioneer Third-Age Movement in Turkey
In March 2010 the Herodotus Third Age Academy was legally constituted as an association operating under the relevant law. Unable to use the word university because of local restrictions, the founder named the organization the Herodotus Third Age Academy, H3A for short.
The aim of H3A is to create and strengthen social and cultural ties, as well as solidarity between our members. Our association is based entirely on voluntary work, which is carried out at all levels of management and membership, encouraging among other things the self-learning concept
Objectives and Values
The Herodotus Third Age academy (H3A) is a welcoming cooperative for sharing skills and interests and strengthening social and cultural ties.
It was founded in 2010 and modelled on the University of the Third Age which by then had become a world-wide phenomenon.
It is a non-profit organisation with a social basis enabling people who have retired from full-time work to fill their time with worthwhile activity linked to learning.
H3A is a place where members meet purely for the pleasure of discovery with no qualifications required for enrolment, no certificates awarded, no limits on age and where membership fees are kept to a minimum.
H3A Members
- Work as a cooperative for sharing skills and interests and strengthening social and cultural ties
- Contribute to the organisation and administration of the activities
- Support people in the local community where possible
- Respect all nations, creeds and all religious beliefs and maintain political impartiality
- Show respect, good will and tolerance to fellow H3A members