Empower 1000 Rural Students Every School Year

Greetings from Bridge to Turkiye Fund,

Boots4Kids project continues to deliver happiness and warmth during this holiday season...

You made happiness and warmth possible for these kids with your continued support of Boots4Kids Project. Thank you from the bottom of our heart...

In 2017-18 School year, we are happy to report that, 890 boots have been sent to 18 village schools in Turkey and 890 grateful school kids are running to their schools in their warm boots....

Our Boots4Kids and Sneakers4Kids projects deliver boots in winter and sneakers in spring to kids who are in need of financial aid. Your donations and ongoing support make these project possible. By the time you receive our letter, more kids will be delivered new boots as well as happiness and hope... More kids will be smiling in villages in Turkey... New boots not only warm little feet and hearts but they also give them self esteem and self confidence... Most of these students in rural areas usually walk miles to school every day. Their families are not able to afford winter boots and coats for their kids. By the time these students reach school, their little feet and hands are already too cold to hold anything in class. Teachers  go through heartbreaking time in these villages and when they hear from us, they also become hopeful and motivated to do more for these kids...That is why your donations are so vital for them...

We would very much like to continue delivering hope, happiness and warmth to more school kids and their teachers... We are counting on you to make their hopes and dreams come true...

Thank you for allowing us to deliver happiness, hope and warmth to village school kids and their teachers in this holiday season...

Thank you Global Giving for making it possible to reach our donors...

Happy Holidays and love from Bridge to Turkiye volunteers...

Greetings from Bridge to Turkiye Fund,

Thank you from the bottom of our heart, the school kids that you supported last year were off to a good start...You not only warmed little feet but you also warmed little hearts by making them realize that some people on the other side of the world are thinking about them and care about them to send boots in winter and sneakers in spring...You not only made them warm and happy but you also gave them self confidence...In this new school year, new students and their teachers are looking forward to hearing from you again...

2017-2018 School year in Turkey is starting on September 18, 2017. Since our last report, the volunteers at Bridge to Turkiye Fund are getting ready to send new boots to schools starting in the end of October.

Last year, BTF has delivered 3,042 pairs of shoe-wear to school kids in Turkey. With your continued support, we are planning on sending new winter boots to our students who are not as fortunate as some of their their peers. We have contacted our partners in Turkey. The new boots will be ready to warm feet and will continue to deliver happiness again...We are already receiving letters from our teachers and looking forward to delivering winter boots to our students...We are counting on your continued support...

For $15 dollars you could support a child's winter shoe need for the coming winter. Will you join us again in our efforts to deliver happiness and give hope?

Links:

• https://medium.com/building-bridges
• https://bridgetoturkiye.org/our-mission-vision/

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

Greetings from Bridge to Turkiye Fund,

Since our last report, fall semester has begun and we have been receiving letters from the teachers at village schools in Turkey.

So far 570 boots have been sent to 15 schools. In 2016-17 school year,  your support has had helped us warm little feet and hearts. This winter, group of small kids are smiling at a village school in rural Turkey because you, the donor chose to reach them...

As you know, Bridge to Turkiye Fund's Boots4kids project delivers boots to kids who are in need of financial aid. Your donations and ongoing support make this project possible. By the time you receive our letter, more kids will be delivered new boots as well as happiness... More kids will be smiling somewehere in a small village in Turkey... New boots not only warm little feet and hearts but it also removes one more obstacle in students' effort to continue their education and give them self esteem. Our students in rural areas usually walk miles to school every day. Their families cannot afford to get winter boots and coats for their kids. In winter, by the time students reach school, their little feet and hands are already too cold to do anything in class. We receive hearbreaking letters from our teachers quite often...Below is one of the letters written by teacher Elif :

 "We had another snow storm yesterday. By the time my students came to school, their hands were ice cold and some students were crying because their little hands and feet were hurting. They all gathered around the wood burning stove that we have in our class to get warm. I was telling them not to burn their hands by getting too close to the stove. On days like this, I feel so helpless... I want to help my students get a good education and make them dream a better future but if I cannot help them with their basic needs I don't know how I am  going to be able to teach them reading, math and social sciences...I heard from one of my colleagues in another part of Turkey that your organization sends boots, coats, hats, gloves and scarves to village schools. We would be grateful if you could help our school as well..."

We communicated with her and told her that help is on the way. We delivered 30  boots, coats, hats, gloves, and scarves to these students as well as happiness and received a heartwarming letter from the teacher. As volunteers, her heart warming letter and photos of happy students were our prize that day like any other day at Bridge to Turkiye Fund...

In the coming months and years, we would like to continue delivering happiness and hope to more school kids in Turkey. We are counting on you to make our dream come true...

Thank you for allowing us to make kids happy and give them hope...

Thank you for your support and dedication to this project...

Happy holidays and a new year...

Links:

• Search for Building Bridges on Medium