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 ilkyar@ilkyar.org.tr

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