Empower 1000 Rural Students Every School Year

Greetings from  Bridge to Turkiye Fund

Hope and celebration may arrive in different forms in different parts of the world... In cold weather, they arrived as winter boots and in spring, they arrived as colorful sneakers at village schools in Turkey...

April 2017 is BTF's second season for sending sneakers and fifth season for sending winter boots to underprivileged school kids in Turkey. This past winter we sent 1177 boots to 30 village schools. With your support last year, volunteers at BTF managed to send 1,568 sneakers to 30 schools. This year, with your increased support, we increased the numbers. We sent 1,865 sneakers to 36 village schools as part of our 23NisanGifts4kids project. As we had explained in our report last year, we sent sneakers to underprivileged schools in Turkey as 23NisanGifts.  April 23rd is a national holiday in Turkey as it is a National Sovereignty and Children’s Day. It is celebrated nationwide and by tradition kids receive gifts in celebration of this day. BTF volunteers decided to start a campaign last year for the first time to make this day extra special for the school kids who live in underprivileged areas. It became widely successful among donors and volunteers... As a result of this campaign, Sneakers4Kids came to life and this year we renamed it as 23NisanGifts4Kids. We combined Boots4Kids and Sneakers4Kids projects on GlobalGiving platform and participated in Little by Little campaign.Two projects together are part of our ongoing campaigns at BTF to reach underprivileged school kids.

With two projects combined, this year BTF has delivered 3,042 pairs of shoe-wear to the kids who are in need in Turkey.

 We received letters from teachers which are full of gratitude and we received photos of children who are looking happy and hopeful...We thank you from the bottom of our heart for creating such an impact in the lives of so many young children who have otherwise no means of having new winter boots or new sneakers as their families cannot afford such items for their children...

Our donors like you are the reason for those village schools kids in Turkey to be hopeful and happy...You are the reason for them to celebrate 23 Nisan as hopeful, self confident kids because they feel that somewhere in the world there are people like you love them, value them and remember them to send gifts...

We are looking forward to send you an update about what we are planning for new school year in September 2017...

Have a wonderful summer...

Links:

• Search for Bridge to Turkiye Fund on Medium

Greetings from Bridge to Turkiye Fund,

Thank you from  the bottom of our heart, 2016-2017 School Year has been warm and happy for kids living in rural areas in Turkey. How did this happen? Because of donors like you, volunteers at Bridge to Turkiye Fund managed to deliver 1177 boots to 30 different village schools in Turkey as well as 1073 coats as part of our boots4kids and coats4kids projects..

Since our last report, we kept delivering boots and coats to village school kids who were in desperate need of warm clothing. We heard back from our teachers and students. They wrote letters and the students drew artworks sending their gratitude. The saddest part was to hear that these kids and their teachers felt they were forgotten and helpless before we reached them. Below is one of the letters that is written by one of our teachers,

"Dear Bridge to Turkiye Fund volunteers, thank you so much for sending us new boots and coats. I wish you could have seen my students when they were fully clothed in their new coats and boots. The smiles in their faces were priceless and their eyes were looking at me hopeful and full of gratitude in a long time..

Bridge to Turkiye Fund, this picture of happy kids is your creation and your art work. Thank thank you a thousand times. You made us feel that we are not forgotten, you made us feel that we matter... As I am writing this letter to you, I am crying but this time my tears are the tears of happiness... My students and I are sending our love and the respect for the work that you do for us and for many other kids who are in forgotten areas of Anatolia..."

Because of donors like you, we manage to reach the schools in the remotest parts of Turkey and continue to give hope and deliver happiness.. Our teachers and students give us hope and make us keep going every time we hear from them.They open their hearts and send us the most meaningful gifts when they send us their letters and happy photos..Every time they reach us they make us push the boundaries to reach out to more kids who are less fortunate but deserve a chance like any other kid in another part of the world.. And the dream lives on...Thank you dear donor for making these dreams come true and make us deliver happiness...

Last but not least, thank you to Global Giving for giving us this platform to reach many more donors...

Links:

• Search for Building Bridges on Medium