LET'S EMPOWER GIRLS BY SUPPORTING THEIR EDUCATION

Dear donor,

On February 6th, Turkey was shaken by two powerful earthquakes which destroyed 11 cities in southeastern Turkey where CYDD has 8 local branches and 3600 scholarship students. About 12.5 million people were affected and 3.5 million of these were children below age 14. Many families surviving the earthquake lost their houses and their personal belongings and had to move to other towns to stay with relatives or in temporary accommodation offered by municipalities, hotels, boarding houses.

High school education in the earthquake region was stopped until end March as many schools were destroyed but schools in other regions recommenced in a fortnight. The students who moved to other towns with their families started applying for support to CYDD branches in those towns.

We said we will help people heal their wounds and as our main focus is on education, we felt obliged to meet the new demand for scholarships from hundreds of students who have lost their homes, computers, books and personal belongings. We decided to give them scholarships until their graduation and also technological support.

An SMS campaign “We will heal wounds thru education” was started but we need your support now more than ever to reach as many girls as possible.

Thank you,

Dear donor,

CYDD has been supporting girls from disadvantaged families all over Turkey with high school scholarships. These girls are from everywhere, from remote villages in the east, to families living in big cities but who have migrated from eastern towns.

We have a story for every one of them but today we would like to write about some 100 girls we support from Hakkari and Yüksekova. Some of these girls are in their senior class and we provided them with notebook computers so they can attend free online CYDD courses given in Istanbul to prepare them for the university exams. Providing notebooks is not enough because nowhere in Yüksekova (except Yeni Mahalle) there is internet infrastructure. So we have to rely on phone companies and buy prepaid mobile hotspot cards to connect to internet through a mobile phone. Most families own a single mobile phone and one girl recently said “ I will make sure my mother will not leave home with her phone when it’s time for my online course.”

Some of the girls we support from Yüksekova are also members of a successful cross country skiing team with medals and have trainings every day after classes. With their trainer who also was a former CYDD scholarship girl, they ski for 15km every day if there is snow and when there is no snow on the ground they train on short skis with rollers. These girls all study hard to finish high school and go on to university with the support of CYDD and our valuable donors.

We hope to report to you next year this time, the success in the university exams of these senior year students who study in difficult conditions but keep up their hope thanks to our joint support.

Kind regards,