BTF Friends of CYDD Giving Circle chats with Prof. Dr. AYŞE YÜKSEL
Friends of CYDD Giving Circle” is an affinity community established between Bridge to Turkey Fund (BTF) and CYDD that seeks to strengthen each other’s network of philanthropic resources for the benefit of girls’ education in Turkey. The result is an increase in opportunities for raising funds to empower girls through the gift of education.
“Friends of CYDD Giving Circle” focuses on supporting girls who face life adversities that interrupt their education. Every year the community provides education scholarships to eligible applicants throughout Turkey. Scholarships are funded by the BTF network of donors in the United States and are entrusted to CYDD in the form of BTF Empowerment Scholarships and Mentorship Project. This year BTF is supporting 690 scholarships and 173 mentorship students with over $300K Grant funding. CYDD awards the scholarship funds to eligible applicants and oversees overall progress on the ground for the period of the award.
Let’s now meet CYDD’s President Prof. Dr. AYŞE YÜKSEL and learn more about CYDD and its projects.
Q. What is CYDD?
The Association for Supporting Contemporary Life is a non-governmental organization, working voluntarily with its competencies and experience with the aim of protecting and preserving Atatürk’s principles and revolutions. It aims to reach contemporary society via education for today’s people and to carry Turkey beyond the present.
Q. What is CYDD’s most active project?
The most active ones are “You Can Light a Candle Too” — the university scholarship project — and “I have a Daughter in Anatolia, She will become a Teacher” for High school scholarship projects .
Q. How many Scholarships have been provided by CYDD to date?
So far 36,005 university and 89.650 high school students have graduated. Every year on the average 8000 university and 9000 high school students are given scholarships.
Q. How are CYDD Scholarships awarded and monitored?
Scholarship applications made to our 114 branches are assessed based on the success of the students and the financial needs of the applicants. Students are asked to provide proof of their transcripts, and demonstrate their family’s financial situation. The scholarship budget of the association is allocated to the lowest income applicants. The branches are all responsible for their scholarship students and in addition to scholarships, they organize programs and educational activities to help the personal development of their students. If the student is successful, the scholarship is continued until graduation.
Q. Why are CYDD scholarships unique?
CYDD scholarships are unique because they are non-refundable grants. The sole aim of CYDD in giving scholarships is to reach a contemporary society through well-educated contemporary youth. Our scholarship students become teachers, doctors, and nurses in various parts of Turkey and enlighten the people around them. While giving scholarships, our aim is to expect them to become responsible individuals following the footsteps of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
High school scholarships given to girls help them to continue their high school education and move on to the university, and to be independent young women and overcome the gender inequality they face. Our main expectation is that they become strong and educated women who will in turn educate their own families and have a powerful standing in society.
Q. How does the Mentorship program work?
The aim of the Mentorship project is to develop self-confidence and career awareness in CYDD scholarship university students in their 2nd, 3rd and senior years. It is our goal to help them become self-managing individuals with the support of CYDD alumni and volunteers, and to develop awareness of the importance of volunteering in CYDD Alumni. The project started in 2012 with 5 CYDD branches and a limited number of mentor and mentee pairings. It has currently surpassed our 1,000 pairings target. During 2019–2020 a total of 32 branches are taking part in the project.
Q. How much are the scholarships?
The university scholarship is 2500TL and high school scholarship is 1400 TL for the 2019–2020 school year.
Q. Are there any other projects besides scholarships?
There is a school out there!
Since 2005, we have supplied educational tools, classroom equipment and clothing mainly to village schools and primary schools, as well as certain high schools. We have helped maintain several schools. We have so far supported 601 schools in their various needs.
Let a thousand flowers bloom and a thousand ideas grow
We supply books, book shelves and complete libraries according to the needs of village schools, primary schools, regional boarding schools and high schools.
With this Project we have so far supported 3,600 schools, and sent 378,279 books.
With the book campaigns which we organized in the year 2000, we have donated about 5 million books to these schools.
Q. What would you like to say BTF Donors?
Thanks to your donations, with BTF we are changing the lives of 690 students in different parts of Turkey .
When in 1997 District Officer Siirt Pervari sent us letters from 17 girls asking for our help to continue their education, we campaigned to raise awareness of our volunteers and to support these girls. In their letters, most of the girls said they wanted to become teachers. We found this so meaningful that we named our Project “I have a daughter in Anatolia; she will become a teacher”.
Since the start of our Project, the many individuals and corporations who supported us have always had an important place. We want to thank you in the name of our association and our scholarship girls, and wish our cooperation will continue to grow
BTF supports 690 Empowerment Scholarships with 38 CYDD Branches:
BTF supports Mentorship Programs of 173 students with 9 CYDD Branches:
We hope that you can continue supporting our work with girls’ and boys’ education and the Mentorship programs benefiting our students.
BTF donors can support our programs by donating through the “Friends of CYDD Giving Circle” community platform.
You can support us by visiting the following web pages.
https://www.bridgetoturkiye.org/friends-of-cydd-giving-circle/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/friendsofcydd/
On behalf of CYDD and the students we support, again thank you very much for support!
TOGETHER, WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
AND YOU CAN HELP!
Bridge to Türkiye Fund (BTF) is a US based, volunteer run, charitable non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization. Contributions made to BTF are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by IRS. BTF’s tax identification number is 58–678580.
