Empower 1000 Rural Students Every School Year

Dear Friend,

Today, I am reaching out to you with great news about the BTF’s 2013 Boots4Kids project…

Following what has been both extremely rewarding and busy season, 2013 is finally behind us! This year’s project was a little bit different compared to previous years… This year, we continued to support our core focus group - financially challenged students who are in need of boots and socks for the coming winter- but we also included the children who were the victims of 2011 Van Earthquake to our project scope. I would like to use this opportunity to provide you some important details around what we have done for Van; and then to provide you a general update and the overall summary for the 2013 project.

We’ve got to know the situation in Van from an online newspaper (T24)… The article at T24.com was reporting that there was still number of families living in the container homes in Van following the 2011 Earthquake. According to the article, these families were not only under the imminent threat of the harsh winter conditions of Van but at the time they were also in danger of losing their container homes due to much expected evacuations… We knew we had to take an action; and had to include the kids to the scope of 2013 Boots4Kids project... After contacting the reporter, Hulya, we were put in touch with Gundem Cocuk Dernegi (GCD). GCG was the source of the information that she used for her article; and we partnered with GCD for the Van portion of our 2013 project.

Gundem Cocuk is a non-profit organization, which was founded in 2005 in Ankara, advocates for equal rights for all children and for the children rights. Since their foundation they have made the UN’s “Convention of the Rights of the Child” part of their bylaws. Their mission, therefore, was and is in parallel with ours. GDC representative, Onur, notified us that there were around 500 children continue to live in the container homes under extremely difficult conditions. And, this information set the scope for Van project: 500 pairs of boots and socks for 500 kids before December 31^st!  

And, with the support of friends like you we successfully sent 500 pairs of boots and socks to Van before the end of December. In other words, thanks to your contributions, 500 New Year presents were delivered to their owners right on time! So, thank you!

Including what was sent to Van, in 2013 we delivered 1,819 pairs of boots and socks to 24 schools.

I would like to thank you for being part of this year’s project and providing support to the children in need. Here is to a successful year and a project! I’m sure 2014 will be a fantastic year for Boots4Kids!

Kindly,

Hande Uzun

Boots4Kids Project Leader