‘Hanging Clothes’ delivered to poor families in Turkey’s Diyarbakır

DİYARBAKIR

An initiative named “Hanging Clothes,” which aims to deliver clothing to poor families in the southeastern province of Diyarbakır, has been started over social media.

Four young Turkish social media users who met via a social network have started to gather clothing to deliver to those in need. Clothing that has been gathered in one place hangs on ropes in a different neighborhood of Diyarbakır every week.

Ahmet Eliçin, who is a part of the campaign initiative, normally works as a welder in Diyarbakır. Eliçin said the feeling of sorrow he felt when he saw the perishing children of poor parents was his motivation for the campaign.

“When I saw the kids who were cold outside, I had the idea to make a group on social media. I shared this with my friends and they said they would support it. We have already collected clothing in the district of Sur. Today, we are collecting clothing in the park. In fact, depending on the donations of clothing we receive, when we have collected enough clothing, we deliver the clothing to needy families that day,” he said.

Eliçin also said they received messages requesting clothing donations from the Aegean province of İzmir, the Mediterranean province of Antalya, the Marmara province of Kocaeli and the capital of Ankara.

“We hang the clothing from trees in the parks and we especially want poor families to benefit. We will continue to do this as long as we receive clothing donations. We are thinking about different methods for aid in the future. On Tuesday, a teacher from Tekirdağ contacted us. He will send us his stationery materials and we will distribute it to students in the Sur district,” he added.

Şahre Akıncı, a high school student who supports the campaign, said she was informed about the campaign by her friends.

“I was very impressed with the campaigns at schools in villages. We wanted to do a campaign like that. There are a lot of poor people in the province. So, I want to contribute to this campaign so they will benefit from this project. I will bring more clothing for women children. It has made me very happy that my friends have done such a thing,” she said.

Hevidar Bozkuş, another organizer of the campaign, said the campaign started two months ago.

“When we saw that needy families were cold, we were very uncomfortable and we came up with this campaign. We made a page on social media and we started collecting clothing. The first donations were from Ankara, İzmir, Kocaeli and Antalya. This is our fourth event. We come from different places and we will continue to hang clothes on hangers as they arrive,” said Bozkuş.

Ayşe Ernekon, a local of Diyarbakir, said she was very pleased with this campaign.

“My husband is very sick. My son is in jail. So, we need help. This campaign is very helpful. I am very grateful to the organizers of this campaign,” she said.