Everything is for children

The Aydın Doğan Foundation has in recent years taken on the mission to improve girls’ education. The foundation was established 21 years ago in order to make objective and true information accessible, to help society solve its problems in a free and fair way and to invest in improving the quality of education.

The foundation aims to contribute to the development of the economy and provide qualified labor for it by supporting education. Of course, this can only be done if young girls become productive individuals in society.

Last week, the foundation’s chair Hanzade Doğan Boyner opened the conference room and the student center, built by the foundation, in a high school in the eastern province of Erzincan from where Doğan Group Founder and Honorary Chairman Aydın Doğan also graduated.

Doğan Boyner said our need for education was infinite. “I believe the private sector, individuals with opportunities, foundations and the civil society must join hands with the support of our government,” Doğan Boyner said.

Aydın Doğan Foundation has been among the biggest supporters of “Dad, Send me to School” (BBOG), which is Turkey’s biggest education campaign that started in cooperation with the Doğan Group and the Association for Supporting Contemporary Life (ÇYDD) in 2005. The BBOG presented exemplary success to the world, in terms of solving a social problem with the government and its collaboration with the private sector and civil society. In an area like education, we cannot make progress unless everybody takes on the responsibility.

We can say the Aydın Doğan Foundation has done more than its share. As a part of its campaign, the BBOG has founded five of the 33 girls’ dorms up until now, and is continuing to support these five dorms. The foundation has had a dorm built for students in Erzincan and has made donations to the Credit and Dormitories Institution.

On behalf of the dormitories founded by the BBOG, the foundation is preparing education packages to help girls staying in the dormitories prepare for university. Training is being organized to help students’ development and to help them make the right career choices. Dormitory directors and teachers are also being provided training.

Female students studying law and engineering and who are accepted into a four-year university degree after staying in the BBOG dorms are being granted university scholarships. An executive is appointed as a mentor to the students who study in these fields and receive support in their career development for the entire year.

Besides, this year they organized the “Young Leaders Summer Camp” in an effort to support young women from universities to get prepared for the professional life and become strong leaders in the future.

Every year in the week of May 19, the most successful three students staying at the BBOG dorms meet their role models who will shape their careers during the “Success Brings Me to Istanbul” excursion.

Two primary schools and six high schools were built by the foundation across various places in Turkey.

Thanks to these works lasting for years, thousands of children’s lives have changed.

Maybe if it weren’t for these dorms, those girls would have been forced to get married or would not have been able to receive any education. The works of the foundation has cleared the way for many young people.