Scholarship campaign launched for quake survivor students

Nuran Çakmakçı- ISTANBUL

The Turkish Educational Foundation (TEV) and the Turkish Education Association (TED) are launching a massive fundraiser campaign in collaboration with the National Education Ministry to give scholarships to thousands of quake survivor students.

In the aftermath of the major earthquakes, many non-governmental organizations took action for young people in the region as there are more than 350,000 university students in the zone and about 21 percent of the population between the ages of 0-17 residing in the affected provinces.

Thus, TEV and TED are mobilizing and launching an important project called “Deprem Geleceğimizi Yıkmasın” (Don’t Let the Earthquake Destroy Our Future in English) under the coordination of the National Education Ministry.

TEV General Manager Banu Taşkın said that one out of every five students at the elementary level has been affected by the disaster.

She stated that about 2,573 scholarship holders affected by the disaster were provided with 3 million Turkish Liras ($160,000) worth of housing aid in addition to their monthly scholarships.

Approximately 2 million liras ($105,000) were allocated for emergency support to 1,300 students.

Around 94,243 applications were received for the four-month TEV Disaster Scholarship program between Feb. 28 and March 7.

Selçuk Pehlivanoğlu, president of TED, said that all TED institutions are now also serving as aid collection centers.

He stated that TED delivered 43 trucks of aid to the zone collected by their employees, students’ parents and volunteers.

Nearly 1,500 quake-affected students were transferred to TED schools as guest students, with books and clothes provided and with no tuition fees.

Accordingly, Pehlivanoğlu stated that the annual scholarship cost for a student is projected to be 13,250 liras (700$) for 2023.

“We are collaborating with brands, companies and artists to create this scholarship resource. We have a long way to go, and we invite everyone to support us,” he said.

Those who would like to support or apply for a scholarship can visit www.ted.org.tr.