Education Versus Lost Generation!

Ragad, 15-year-old girl from Haleppo, has been forced to leave her hometown and come to Ankara 2 years ago. Although all the conflicts she and her family has to deal with including waiting in the border for 5 days, she is full of life. She attented a 2-year Turkish learning course, and right now she is a 7th grader. She has 2 sisters and 3 brothers. She smiles and feels proud when saying she has the best grades in her family. “Sometimes I help my father with Turkish” she adds.

“My Turkish friends help me a lot.”

Ragad goes to school in Altindag, Ankara, Turkey. She have great relations with her friends, when she had trouble understanding the classes, her friends help them a lot, she says. Ragad got a certificate of achievement this semester because of her success in her classes. When we ask what is her favorite course, she replies English and adds: “I want to be a translator, and help the people who cannot speak Turkish and English.”

Her family members became so proud when she got a certificate of achievement this semester. And Ragad became so happy when her mother told “You got this achievement even though you did not know Turkish before.”

When we ask Ragad what is the secret of this success, she smiles and replies: “I don’t really have secrets, just don’t be afraid to ask what you don’t understand to your classmates, don’t just sit in there silently. Study until you understand, and most important: don’t feel left out.”

This success story of Ragad happened thanks to your contributions. With your help we had a chance to send her to language courses and supply her with most needed educational materials.

At the beginning of the summer, we received a call from a devoted teacher, Mr. M. Akif Edikli who is working as the coordinator of Temporary Education Center for Syrian Children in Turan Primary School in Kahramanmaras, Turkey. Turan Primary School has around 500 Syrian students and they were planning to arrange Turkish courses for them as the summer holiday starts. In order to improve their Turkish skills and to support their continuation of education, they wanted to create an Activity Class in coordination with school counselors. The activities would consist of counselling, orientation, integration studies including Turkish course. The classroom would be divided into two. In one half, families would be given counselling services while their tiny children can play in the other half of the classroom.

To support this brilliant idea, we started to discuss what can be done and just after a few phone calls between Kahramanmaras and Ankara, we started to work for building a classroom which will be suitable for such activities. With the valuable efforts of Mr. M. Akif Edikli and our Kahramanmaras Office Manager, Cem Ali Hamurcu, and your donations the restoration started first.

As the first step, from the floors to the walls the classroom is renewed. Walls are painted, floors are decorated with parquet strip. An air conditioner is mounted.

After creating a clean and useful classroom, we ordered the equipment which will be used by children. Tables, chairs, carpet, all course materials (such as notebooks, pencils, pens, colored papers, dictionaries etc.)playing rings, hula hoops, play dough, etc. Now, there is also a tramboline in the middle of the classroom!

In a short time, children started to use this classroom in summer period. In the opening ceremony, TRT (Turkish Radio and Television Corporation) staff visited the classroom and made interviews. It is broadcasted in TRT! TRT is the national public broadcaster of Turkey. It owns and operates 14 TV channels - of which 5 are HD - and 19 radio stations covering general entertainment, music, sports, children and news.

So as the donors of such an important activity which will be the first and only one in Turkey, you also made Syrian children’s voice heard all over Turkey again, and gave us change to start this project as an example. So there is no way to thank you enough! 

As we are getting prepared for 2017-2018 School Year, refugee students and out of school refugee children will receive your support to start or continue their education by clearing the hurdle that they face.

Our colleagues in 50 different provinces of Turkey are working so hard to identify the children that have no access to school, the ones that need materials to continue their education and students who need support in order to be registered for the school they wish, as they were successful in the exams.

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Mohammed is starting a new adventure with your help!

During this process, Mohammed (18) applied to our Multi Service Support Center in Istanbul. He is one of the 4 children. His family is still in Syria and his brothers and sisters have no access to education. Mohamed wanted to stop the rot and made his way to Turkey. He studied until university level and attended many classes. He also worked to afford his basic needs (shelter, food, clean water etc.) while he is trying to improve himself to be successful in the Foreign Student Exam. He attended the exams for Atatürk University, Karadeniz University and Uludag University by covering the entrance fees by himself ($80 each) and he deserves to be selected by Uludag University – Construction Engineering by getting 93/100 points in the exam. You helped  Mohammed on his final step to be registered to his school: He needed one last fee ($150) to receive a language certificate from TOMER (Turkish and Foreign Languages Research and Application Center) that shows his Turkish sufficiency. With your valuable donations, we removed his last obstacle and now he can’t wait for the first days in his school!

You supported 8 young students for Vocational Education Centers!

Our colleagues in Adana Life Skills Development Center organized an event to introduce Vocational Education Centers operating under Ministry of National Education that aim at improving the vocational training in Turkey, people’s access to the vocational education and also promote their access to labor market by improving their vocational skills. There were two main requirements for application: A1 Level Turkish and being graduated from at least middle school.

After the event, our refugee students applied to us for help. We contacted Çukurova University TOMER and found out that they can get a certificate which shows that their Turkish level is A1 or higher. After our Turkish teacher who is working at Adana Life Skills Development Center has done a research regarding the system, 8 students are selected and they are supported with your valuable donations ($30 each) in order to afford TOMER Enrollment Test that will define their Turkish Level. After the exam, 4 of them deserved to be registered to the Vocational Education Center. We will also follow others for Public Education Centers.

What’s next?

The Office Manager of our Kahramanmaras Office received an invitation and called us directly! According to invitation, the support of our Association is expected by the authorities of Temporary Education Center in Kahramanmaras. They are planning to create an extra classroom in which Syrian students can get extra Turkish courses during the summer and weekends. With your valuable donations, we started to create the classroom together. Air conditioner is ready, so are floors. Necessary equipment is being prepared. The details? You will read them in our next report and we will share pictures and videos from the opening ceremony and first classes…

We will keep you updated! Thank you so much again and again!

Nicah, born in Aleppo in 2000, is one of the four school-aged children of Berkut family. Her family fled to Turkey 6 years ago for their lives and to reach a safe place.

With the support of their neighbors in Adana, Nicah continued her education. She kept on running after her dreams.

Our path with Nicah crossed in our Life Skills Development Center in Adana. She was ambitiously attending the classes on YÖS (Foreign Student Exam). Her aim is to study as much as possible to be selected by an university in Turkey.

‘All of my grades at school is more than 90/100. I was successful at pilot tests. I attended every single class at Life Skills Development Center and extra classes as well. I am dreaming of being a teacher to help young students on their route. I want to study in Çukurova University, Ankara University or Galatasaray University. There is only one last obstacle to realize my dreams: the Admission Charge for Foreign Student Exam. I consulted one of my teachers in Life Skills Development Center…’

She consulted us, and an idea popped into our heads! We called our friends in Adana Multi Service Center and Istanbul Life Skills Development Center. We decided to share your valuable donations with successful students in need.

Same as Nicah, Hasan is also one of our most ambitious students. He never miss any class. He is the oldest of 5 children, making his living by working in gardens and farms picking oranges and lemons. He is dreaming of being a medical engineer or veterinary.

‘Without this opportunity, I would have missed the exams since I don’t have enough money for application. I will get into university and become the role model for children like me!’ says Hasan.

In a short time, 29 students like Nicah and Hasan applied for support. They managed to apply for the universities they dream of. They are attending exams nowadays and we are following them in this process.

With your help, these students will be studying in outstanding universities of Turkey such as Galatasaray University, Middle East Technical University, Bogaziçi University, Hacettepe University, Çukurova University etc…

We worked on supporting children and youth to keep going to school in many provinces in Turkey with your donations before. We felt that it would be wonderful to remove last obstacles of these bright young students through university. Now it’s time to wait and celebrate their success and to share the results with you afterwards.

Thank you, thank you again! 

With your priceless donations, we set our course to Sakarya and planned to organize a new event for our children who are already in the first days of semester break.

After having a long and challenging semester, the children were feeling relaxed and they were enthusiastic about attending to various activities. So we called their family and invited them to our ‘surprise activity’ at our Sakarya Multi Service Center.

We Were Surprised Before the Children!

We ordered 65 bags full of stationeries. Before children, we were also surprised with what we saw in the bags: Notebooks and pens were doubled and there were additional pastels in the kit. ‘This is a contribution from our store...’ said the owner of stationery store, ‘… as a humble addition to the meaningful donations for your meaningful project!’ 

Reward for a Long Semester & Motivation for the Next One

Children visited our office with their family the day before and they became very happy with what was waiting for them. After seeing our friends who were welcoming them at the desk with the gifts, they made their way to our playground. Having checked their new stationeries, they started playing games with our friends. 

Mohammad, 8 years old, expresses his happiness saying, ‘I am very happy with my gifts. I will use all these staff in the second semester, and my sister, Hoda, who is 4 years old, will also be thrilled with painting notebooks and pastels!’

Fatima seemed to be very happy with her new pink bag, and she also promised to share all of these with her friends too! 

At the end of the day, everybody felt the same happiness, hope and relief… We and the families are grateful for your supports, and children are already waiting for the second semester to start! 

Together, we are stronger! 

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