Bridge to Türkiye Fund’s Boots4Kids and Sneakers4Kids Deliver Happiness to Kids in Turkey

Vicdan Babaloglu Akyurek
Building Bridges
Published in
3 min readJun 22, 2016
Günyurdu Elementary School kids got their new sneakers

2015 was another successful year for bringing happiness to village school kids in Turkey. How did Bridge to Türkiye Fund(BTF) achieve this? By delivering 1602 boots and 1568 sneakers to underprivileged kids in Turkey. We reached to 60 village schools in total in 2015–2016 school year.

Ortaköy Elementary School Kids got their new boots

Since our last report, we kicked off a new campaign in April to send sneakers to underprivileged school kids in Turkey as 23NisanGifts. April 23rd is celebrated as a holiday in Turkey as it is a National Sovereignty and Children’s Day. Not only it is celebrated nationwide as National Holiday but also by tradition kids receive gifts in celebration of this day. BTF volunteers decided to start a campaign to make this day extra special for the school kids who live in underprivileged areas in Turkey; and as a result Sneakers4Kids have come to life.

Sneakers4Kids has been widely popular among BTF volunteers as such that donors and all the circles raised the needed funds in a week (a pair of new sneakers including tax and delivery is only $10) Our campaign has reached to 27 village schools and we sent 1568 sneakers to underprivileged kids in Turkey.

A student from Boyaci Village Elementary is happy after he got his new sneakers

With two projects combined, this year BTF has delivered 3,170 pairs of shoe-wear to the kids that are in need in Turkey.

Esentepe Kindergarten students showing their new sneakers

One of our teachers sent us a letter after his students got their new sneakers. We would like to share this heartfelt letter with you:

Today, we received 23 Nisan sneakers that are sent to our kids by BTF and delivered them to the students in class.They were all so very happy. One of our students took off his and put them in their original bag because he did not want them to get dirty. Some of our students were dancing in class because they were extremely happy. Each of our students are saying thanks to BTF. We thank everybody at BTF and send our love to everybody who helped with this project.” Adem Çoban, Kerem Şahin Elementary School.

Our teachers and students motivate us every time they reach us with their generous words and warm hearts. We work to make their dream come true! And, every day we are pushing boundaries to reach out to more kids who are less fortunate but deserve a chance. Together, we can make it happen! Together we can deliver happiness! Thank you for your continued support and generosity!

Kilicgedik Elementary students’ new sneakers arrived

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