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Ebru Uygun, who has suffered from familial Mediterranean fever since her youth, has never allowed this disease to interfere with her work. When she suffered a serious health complication due to familial Mediterranean fever, she wrote a book based on her experience in the hospital. Uygun is also the author of several books on NGO activities. Photo by HÜRRİYET, Levent ARSLAN
According to Ebru Uygun, founder and director of TOÇEV, a non-governmental organisation (NGO) dedicated to improving children’s access to education, the culture of volunteering is not yet developed in Turkey. Although they have many volunteers, Uygun prefers to work with professionals from TOÇEV, which celebrates its 20th anniversary this December. “NGO work is still not considered a full-fledged profession in Turkey,” says Uygun, adding that one of her goals is to raise awareness on this issue as well.
What is the history of TOÇEV?
When I was 11 or 12, I was asked to go to Darülaceze (a historical foundation for the needy) to talk to an older woman who wanted to practice German. But there I met children and became more interested in helping children. When I went to study in Switzerland, I worked at a foreign charity foundation and saw that a lot of financial aid was coming there from Turkey. I was very impressed. At that time, compulsory education in Turkey was only five years. I really envied those who graduated from vocational schools in Europe – seeing a hairdresser, for example, with a high school diploma. That’s how I thought of creating a foundation. I wanted to create the right environment that children deserved. But I also wanted to raise awareness – my goal was not just to help. My family didn’t support me, and in fact, it’s a good thing they didn’t, because it could have remained limited in scale. The foundation reached its 20th anniversary with the complete support of strangers.
How it began?
We started with 10 of my friends (five are still with us) and five children. I first visited the NGOs that existed at that time and found out what I really wanted to do. My purpose was to support children without separating them from their families. I thought that they should grow up with the love of their family. So our goal was to cover all the children’s expenses, from education to health, including mental health, without giving money to the family, because families may not know how to use it properly. We are in touch with the children on an individual basis. We started making money by selling clothes in markets. We started setting the criteria for choosing children and also found out how a foundation worked.
What were the stages you went through?
TOÇEV was founded in 1994. We started to receive press attention when we organised a fashion show with the participation of popular people. In 1996, I became acquainted with HABITAT 2 (the Second United Nations Conference on Human Settlements held in Istanbul). That gave us the opportunity to meet international NGOs. I was saddened that Turkey did not actively fulfil its commitments regarding children’s rights. In 2011, together with TOÇEV, I became the coordinator of the children’s rights coalition. That allowed us to get in touch with UNICEF, which enabled us to gain more knowledge about preparing projects and campaigns.
In 1998, the visit to Tunceli and in 2001 to South-East Anatolia were two important turning points for TOÇEV’s activity in Anatolia. We started a project to renovate schools in villages. In 2005, we started to implement social responsibility projects with private sector companies, for example, first aid or oral hygiene projects. Today we are one of the few NGOs that brings together the state and the private sector. In our 20th year, we were able to reach 5 million children.
In 2010 we started serious institutionalization. We wanted to show that an NGO can also be a place to make a career, as from day one I worked with professionals. If you think big and want to do it full-time, you need to work with professionals. We wanted to raise awareness about NGO culture, a concept that is still not well understood in Turkey.
Can you tell us more about the model you supported for your core mission?
In a way, we help the family by holding their hand. Children start with us at the age of six and we follow them until they finish university. The children grow with us. We are in regular contact with them and organize regular workshops. Their mental development is equally important to us. We try to guide them towards appropriate activities, whether sports or arts.
This requires personalized contact with children.
We have around 1,000 children within this model, but we reach 5 million children with other projects that we carry out.
What do you think is the key to your success?
Making the right observations, spotting the right needs and finding solutions to what is needed and doing it together with the people. It is also important to be systematic, make plans and think long-term. Being genuine in touching people’s lives, being transparent, avoiding exploitation and abuse and finally believing in what you are doing is essential.
What are your general observations on education after 20 years of experience?
There are some positive developments, but there are also some problems that remain the same. When I started, I was worried that compulsory education was only five years. A few years ago, it was finally extended to 12 years. This shows that we are still slow on some things. But there are also some very positive developments. First of all, families are very aware of the importance of education. They come to us with great appreciation, whereas in the beginning, we used to force families to contact us. The State is also much more attentive. When a problem is raised with the State, they give an immediate response, whereas before they would not even let NGO representatives in, let alone listen to them. All our projects are carried out with the Ministry of Education.
What do you think is the most important problem facing education in Türkiye?
My personal obsession is with vocational schools. There are too many universities, but vocational schools are just as important. We have a large, young generation; we should also direct them towards the arts and sports; vocational schools are one way to do that.
What do you think about the development of the NGO concept in Türkiye?
This is a topic that has only recently been developing. We could have moved much faster. We do not have a professional approach to addressing the issue. There is still room for development.
What is the problem?
In Turkey, NGO work is still not considered a full-fledged profession. People see NGO activities as a way to clear their conscience.
What is the situation in Türkiye regarding volunteering?
It has not yet reached the level I would dream of. It is developing slowly. In the United States, for example, an unemployed person works as a volunteer until he finds a job; in Turkey, he sits at home and watches television. This is also due to our education system. We need to instill that culture from primary school.
However, we Turks believe that we are very interested in providing assistance.
The Turks are very helpful, but they are not systematic. That is the problem. We are trying to create such a system.
Who is Ebru Uygun?
Ebru Uygun was born in 1971 in Istanbul. She completed her Austrian high school and then graduated from the Marketing and Economics department at Webster University in Switzerland. She worked as a volunteer for two years at the Christian Children’s Foundation in Switzerland. Upon her return to Turkey, she founded TOÇEV in 1994 and is still the director of the foundation.
She is a board member of the Elpa textile company, vice-president of the Artists Support Foundation, vice-president of the FMF Foundation, and president of the ISIS Education Foundation. She has written four books: “Room with the number 102” (2005), “The Hearts that I Touch” (2006), “Growing Together” (2009)” and “River of Hearts” (2013). “The Hearts that I Touch” was taken over by the Ministry of Education and used in primary schools. She was also an Eisenhower Fellow in 2010.
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