Turkish student makes ‘paper cranes’ to help quake victims

UNITED KINGDOM

A 15-year-old Turkish girl living in the U.K. has initiated a project to raise money via workshops on how to make paper cranes with an aim to build a school in Türkiye’s quake-hit province of Hatay and help quake victims as much as possible.

Dila Kaya, born in the western province of Izmir and studying in the U.K. for the last two years, has launched a project called “Let’s Fold and Fly! 1000 Cranes for Türkiye.” With the participation of both foreign and Turkish students in London, Istanbul and Izmir, Kaya makes houses and cranes out of origami paper.

Kaya puts these house figures and cranes they make inside the books they collected for the quake region and shares the income with quake victims.

Teaching origami art for a small fee to the participants of her workshop, Kaya also aims to open a school in the southern province of Hatay.

Kaya stated that on Feb. 6, after the quakes, she heard that a big bazaar for charity was organized in England.

“We wanted to participate with my friends. Money was collected by selling pastries and clothes. We decided to create a workshop. We taught children how to make cranes and houses out of origami,” she said.

Explaining that cranes are of great importance to her, Kaya said that these birds represent hope, peace and love. As they are also migratory birds, Kaya pointed out that she likens cranes to the Turks living abroad.

Holding workshops in Istanbul and Izmir as well as London, Kaya noted that the bazaar in England was of particular importance for her as Prince William of Wales and Princess Kate Middleton came for a visit and made a generous contribution.

“The bazaar we organized, the work we did with the support of the Turkish teenagers, provided some healing for them as well. There were many people who lost their relatives and whose houses were destroyed. They could not visit their hometowns because they had a school here,” said Ela Kaya, her mother

Ela Kaya also pointed out that as it is impossible for students to get proper education in containers and tent classrooms, her and her daughter’s biggest goal is to save money to open a school in the disaster zone.