İ L K Ö Ğ R E T İ M O K U L L A R I N A Y A R D I M V A K F I EDUCATIONAL FUNDS for ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS
ODTÜ PTT, PK 15, 06531 – Ankara TURKEY Tel: 90 312 210 1887. Fax: 90 312 210 79 61 www.ilkyar.org.tr [email protected]
Being a child... It is hard to be a child,
especially if you are living in an
underdeveloped area of a developing
country… You are tempted to believe there is nobody out there to hear you,
there is a great distance and long roads
between you and the rest of the world… This reality is felt even deeper and
stronger at boarding schools (YBOs, that
are “Boarding District Schools for
Secondary Education”); because children there are those who struggle to continue
their education in schools that are
sometimes over a huge mountain,
sometimes at distances that are hard to
travel due to the tough weather conditions
(Most of the YBOs are based at small
villages or towns, that are quite far away
from the city-centres). Yet, they also are
children who have their own dreams, as
have the children of the rest of the world.
Then, how these children who live in
areas started to be forgotten will make
their dreams come true? Who will
encourage them to follow their dreams?
All of these are the main questions that
ILKYAR considers as basic, and by
visiting YIBOs, ILKYAR has been trying
to find answers to these questions, and
encourage the children to ask new
questions. Books are the tools for
ILKYAR. It perceives the books as the
main tools to reach the children and to
have their imaginations expanded. How a
book affects the imagination of a child?
Through a committee composed of the
foremost authors of children’s literature, literature teachers and volunteers who are
interested in literature, the books that are
best for the children are selected. The
priority in these books is given to the
ones that inspire them to think, provide
enthusiasm and energy and carry them to
new worlds. Therefore, the fact that, “the World can be big and yet small at the
same time” could be realised. So that the world of these children will be enriched
and they will understand the presence of
other worlds and feel the energy for
reaching to and embracing those worlds.
Only founding libraries that are consisted
of books matching the above mentioned
sensitivities, is not sufficient for
ILKYAR. In order to increase children’s interest for literature, and to illustrate
how a poem, a novel or a story can affect
a person’s life, ILKYAR organizes literature activities. Through the
communicated literature, sometimes it
demonstrates that the dark clouds around
them could turn into sunshine; sometimes
it shows that a child can go to space;
sometimes it conveys that it is not hard to
dream and follow those dreams. It
explains that, on earth there is ever so
many children as themselves, and with
the assistance of even a single book that
they read regarding other worlds, it is
actually achievable to reach other
children.
It emphasizes that, the people who
make outstanding, world-shaking
discoveries and inventions are not
those who aimlessly waste hours in
front of the television, but in fact the
ones that succeed to think up new
dreams as they live among books day
and night. It enables children to touch
books per se and organize their own
libraries themselves feeling and
getting to know each book one by one.
ILKYAR encourages children to
write. Asking the questions, “how does an author write?”, “could you be an author?” it persuades them they could do the same. By giving them
pencil and a piece of paper, or
encouraging them to picture a story in
their minds without the need for paper
and communicate that story, it gives
an opportunity to try for those
children who are reluctant to write.
And the children start to express
themselves; sometimes they tell the
story of a shepherd at their home-
town, sometimes the self-tailored
story of “snow white and seven dwarfs”, and sometimes their individual tales that belong to
thousands of different children as the
“Tales of the 1001 Nights”. It is told them that, each of them has distinct
ideas and that is the reason they are
unique and special; and as long as
they imagine without restraint, they
could write whatever they please. And
they themselves realise this too.
They appreciate that authors are
people who extensively contemplate
and imagine, which is made possible
only by thorough reading; and they
share this comprehension with
ILKYAR. Since ILKYAR values the
need of continuation, just visiting
YIBOs, founding libraries there and
introducing books and authors to
children does not suffice ILKYAR.
With the belief that each child is
special, ILKYAR wishes to follow
these children to witness what they
achieve in time. That is why, it
exchanges letters. It aims to reinforce
the brotherhood and sisterhood that
has formed between the volunteers
that visit YIBOs and children, with the
help of exchanged letters. More than
5000 letters are written every year to
the children that continue their
education at YIBOs all around
Turkey. The books they read, the
short-assays they write, their dreams,
thoughts and aims are shared through
these letters.
ILKYAR believes in change, the
progressive change of even one child
is a reason for happiness. As a matter
of fact, throughout their education that
we keep an eye on, children share
their success with ILKYAR through
letters.
ILKYAR realizes motivation of
children to continue their lives with
greater energy as its initial aim. And
in order to convince that they too can
write and they can have fields of
interest as well, it publishes a
magazine named GÜNIŞIĞI-SUNSHINE that is composed of
articles, poems, literature and work of
art produced by children from YIBOs.
ILKYAR aims to assist the children to
feel happiness and greater energy to
do better by allowing them to see their
own work published. It organizes
competitions in this magazine;
sometimes short-assay competitions,
sometimes interview or article-writing
competitions. By giving new books as
awards, it aims to develop even more
motivation for those children who are
able to write as a consequence of what
they have read.
This magazine aims to reach every
single YIBO all around Turkey, and in
turn it is intended to get across that,
these children can accomplish
successful work not only in their own
school, but also among all other
schools.
When they visit a YIBO, in order to
be able to comprehend them and to
convey that they are indifferent, the
volunteers share the same
environment with the children
throughout the whole period they stay
at those YIBOs. Instead of staying at a
much comfortable hotel elsewhere,
they stay in one of the dormitory
rooms that are allocated for the
volunteers, breathing the very same
air. Before they fall asleep, the
volunteers read tales and stories to the
children.
Sometimes through a story of the
white whale, sometimes through the
succeeded exam of a lazy student,
sometimes through the story of a
white butterfly, and sometimes
through the figure of Pollyanna or
Jane Eyre who cope with difficulties,
they explain the reason of their
presence there as an ILKYAR
volunteer, what changes and
progressions the children themselves
might accomplish if they love to read
stories, once more before they go to
sleep. The dreams they see during
their sleep, about the likelihood of
lives and worlds getting better and
beautiful are considered as the signs
that they will follow their dreams in
their future. ILKYAR demonstrates
that they can make this come true, not
only through best wishes, but also
through real stories.
ILKYAR aims to build up interest
and excitement among children, and
realizes books as the basic power for
this purpose. ILKYAR has an aim
that can go ad infinitum: Not to leave
any YIBO unattended… Considering that children will change every 3-4
years, as visiting all the YIBOs are
completed, the loop will start all over
again; and from east to west, north to
south every children at each YIBO
around Turkey will be visited, to tell
them how important it is to be friends
with books.
ILKYAR adopts this saying as its main principle: there should be no children left that do not read.
About İLKYAR
İLKYAR is a voluntary foundation which functions with donations and
the voluntary work of many
volunteers. The primary aim of the
foundation is to raise both financial
and labor sources in order to reach
children all around the country and to
hand them books and the love to read
these books. Much of the
organizational work is done in the
center of the foundation; but when it
comes to meet with the children every
single member of the foundation
displays great effort and enthusiasm
in the projects they are involved in.
These projects basically carry the
intention of meeting primary school
children under difficult
circumstances, especially in rural
areas with no or limited access to
books and educational resources, and
bringing them books.
The whole school is presented with a
library containing many different
kinds of books provided by the
donators; hundreds of new books, all
of which are in accordance with their
ages and grades, are distributed to
each and every child at the school. In
the two or three days that are spent
with the children in their own schools
various activities are carried out with
an aim to introduce them with basic
sciences and help them gain reading
habits. The children are often amazed
with the interesting things they learn
and the attention-catching
experiments they watch. They get
involved in literature sessions with
children’s books of famous authors, the world classics and every type of
children’s books.
Visits to the schools in different
regions and cities of Turkey leave
incredible traces both on the
children’s and the volunteers’ minds.
The foundation’s center gets flooded with letters from the children after
each visit to a different school in a
different city. Many volunteers keep
on exchanging letters with the
children for years. Seeing the sparkle
burning in the eyes of children and
the joy and excitement they get from
reading their new books; witnessing
the amazement and enthusiasm when
they learn many new things motivate
every single individual in the
foundation to work harder and to
reach many more children. Helping
children to gain reading habits and
become “book lovers” in a country where reading rate is pretty much
below the world reading rate medium
is what we have been struggling to
succeed. Introducing even a single
child with his/her first and the very
best friend, namely a book, will make
dreams come true.
Historical Background
The roots of İLKYAR lie in the EFES (Educational Funds for Elementary
Schools) organization, founded by the
Turkish Student Association at
Princeton University (New Jersey,
USA) in 1978. The aim of the
organization is to stimulate
educational activities in rural schools
by giving financial support to found a
basic library in these schools. The
center of the organization first moved
to the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology (Boston, MA, USA) and
then to Michigan State University
(East Lansing, MI, USA).
Twenty years after its original
establishment, in 1998, EFES was re-
founded in Turkey with the name
İLKYAR (Aid Foundation for Elementary Schools). The home of
the pious foundation is located in
Ankara.
Within its fourty years of history, the
organization has donated (as of
december 2016) more than 500,000
books to schools and 200,000 books
to students. Other than books toys
presented to schools so that more than
200 toys room has been established.
Blackboards, sets of encyclopedias,
computers, telescopes, overhead
projectors, microscopes, TV, video
sets to schools located in the rural and
underdeveloped areas. Stationery,
shoes and clothing have been
distributed to children of these
schools. Special gifts (some
notebook, computers and bicycles)
have been delivered to successful top
students.
Mission, Goals and Objectives
The mission of ILKYAR is to create opportunities for students in rural and underdeveloped areas to commit themselves to their education.Our goal is to help the students in rural areas gain motivation for continuing their education, to leave no village schools without books, to organize programs for teachers working in rural areas. The objectives of İLKYAR are to increase the number of schools visited and supported with books, to reach more teachers and students to host them in special programs and summer schools, to promote all kinds of advertisement activities to raise funds for ILKYAR, to collaborate with other related organizations to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of ILKYAR, to increase communication with donors to gain even more benefactors via social channels and positive word-of-mouth.
İLKYAR. Collaborate with other related organizations to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of İLKYAR.
� Increase communication with
donors to gain even more
benefactors via social channels
and positive word-of-mouth.
Memorial Library
Reading and writing are lifelong habits. Once you fall in love with reading this love will keep going with you lifelong. Children have a tremendous capacity of learning. Reading is the best way of learning new ideas. When a child starts learning, he will begin asking questions. The more questions he asks, more he will learn. This is the basic of science; asking questions and seeking their answers. But that is not all; almost everyday in their life, children should keep reading and writing. This keeps children’s minds fresh and sharp. As children read and write, their knowledge, skill and experience will improve in every aspect of their life. Children will improve their capacity to endure difficulties of life and succeed. In this direction, İLKYAR have become a mediator to set up memorial library in village schools. The organization has set up 598 memorial libraries all over the country (as of december 2016).
Impressions by Children Some Part of Children’s Letters
“She said some books will come to you from America. Me and my friends were so happy, while sitting in my desk, I felt as I was lifted into the air. I couldn’t stand still. Our teacher read a story from one of those books and I felt a little bit calm. Our teacher read the names of the books. They were very beautiful. I liked them very much.” ***
“We arranged the books together with our teacher. All of us took one book. I don’t know the others but I liked my book very much. I will read more books. I finished two and started the third one and I will read more. The books are very exciting. When I heard that they came from America I was very curious.”
“Your books are very beautiful. When I read them I saw that they are beautiful. They are so beatiful I’ve never read such books before. There are very beautiful stories in them. I love reading books very much. We loved your books. So much. We are reading them with our friends. I’ve never seen such beautiful books before. Beautiful stories, poems, tales.You made us happy. Thank you.” ***
“In short time, I attained the educational level I should be at. Now I build up on my aims. I know that I should read books as you said and I should study harder in order to reach the occupation I want. Thus I study in the way it should be and I read lots of books. I take your advises because I know that only in this way I can achieve. I do not know what kind of difficulties are waiting for me in terms of education.”
“I have never forgotten the time we spent here together. You made us very happy. I had read nearly all of the books you had brought us and I had summarized them separately. Now, I read several books. Our Turkish teacher is trying to make us get reading habit. When I read book, I improve myself. Previously, I used to give up reading a book since I used to get bored when I did not understand what is mentioned in that book. Now I have also got the habit of choosing books.” ***
“Dear teacher, as I want to express here, I drew a lesson from the things you had told. Now I read books at my leisure time and in this way, I enrich my vocabulary. By the way, I am a student of 8/C.”
“With your visit here everything has changed. The desire and cheer of all of my friends and mine for life have blossomed. Now everyone eagerly reads the books you have brought us. All of the books are more excellent than one another. Thank you for all of these. You are very warm hearted. Believe that I am writing whole-heartedly what I feel. ***
“Dear Elder Brother Arda I could not forget you after I came back from Ankara. Anyway, it is impossible to forget the excellent and plentiful things experienced. I am going to study hard to experience the same things with you. You fired my enthusiasm for reading. I hope you are doing well. I am so happy to meet you that I cannot express myself with words. Thank Uncle Hüseyin very much for his founding this endowed charity. Though I feel such beautiful things deep inside, I cannot express them. Thank you very much for your help to make me gain the enthusiasm for reading.”
“Thank you for your help. And we hope that you continue to help us. We will love you as long as you help us. I will study and I will have prestigious position. At every step, I will remember you since every book, I read, is a step for me. I believe that as long as you help us, I will take these steps one by one. Now I read books and I do not waste my time by playing futile games. Each book you donate means an individual who is integrated into the society. I am able to pass on the knowledge I get from the books I read to my friends. I am able to make myself useful for the people around me. I make my siblings love reading. I believe that I become a useful person. I will love reading more as long as you help. Previously children used to play marbles. After books and computers came to our school, children ceased to play marbles. They use computers and read books. Our teachers give us homework. Whenever we cannot do our homework, we go to the library. There we find how we can do our homework. When we get bored, we play computer games and read story books. I want to bring more books to our library.”
Abidin OLMUŞ
“Dear İLKYAR members, Thank you for your help and we hope you continue to help us. I think your help is like a brotherly hand which is stretched from west to east with a spring spreading culture. This spring will flow among us for long years and it will be a sign of our brotherhood. Some of our friends had not seen any computers and had not read any books before you sent us but now we can play computer games and read books. I believe that all of us will be beneficent people in the future. With my friends I used to go to other districts and cities to be able to write our term papers before your help. Some of my friends could not afford to do so. Our siblings could not read books. They used to play football in leisure time but now they read books. Now I can understand better how much it is important to read books. It will enable me to be useful firstly for myself and then for the society. Reading is a spring of culture. The more I read, the more I will bring the waters of this spring to people around me. Every book you donate means a useful person for the society. In the future, you will harvest the trees that you plant now. When I have a prestigious position, I will not forget your help. We read. I love reading. The more I read, the more I love you and I will not forget you. We hope you will continue to help us. Thank you on behalf of my school, my friends and myself.”
Aslıhan CIBRANCI
I HAVE COME TO READ I have come to live with flowers of love in my hand With tears of hope in my eyes With fairies of ILKYAR in my dreams I have come to read I have come to be born for the new day To warm up everywhere The beauties of my morrow I have come to submit life I have come to be light To be water brightening the trees To be powder glorifying the world I have come to read
To find the life in İLKYAR