Rising For Women One Educated Girl At A Time
2428 BTF Empowerment Scholarships and counting…
20 year old Ozgecan Aslan left home on February 11, 2015 to go to school, never to come home again…Ozgecan was a psychology student at Çag University in southern province of Mersin, Turkey. Three days later her body was found in a river bed. Aslan died after she reportedly resisted an attempted rape by a bus driver. Her hands were cut off in an apparent attempt to hide DNA evidence under her fingernails. The initial autopsy report showed the young woman was stabbed to death, and later, her body was burned.
The murder of this young woman sparked outrage in Turkey and the international communities and drew attention to the increasing number of violent incidents against women. To honor Ozgecan Aslan’s memory and continually serve as a reminder of the terrible cost of ignorance, Bridge to Türkiye Fund (BTF) established a memorial fund in 2015. With the generous support of our donors, Ozgecan Aslan Memorial Fund has been providing scholarships for eleven (11) young deserving men and women from her native region of Tarsus, Turkey. We are truly thankful for all our donors in supporting girls education.
BTF Ozgecan Aslan Memorial Fund in the news : Voice of America, Association for Supporting Contemporary Life (ÇYDD), Hurriyet, Sozcu, TurkishNY
According to World Health Organization one in three women experience sexual or physical violence. Turkey is one of the countries where violence against women occurs with alarming frequency. There is a strong correlation between violence against women and literacy.
Violence against women and girls is one of the most prevalent human rights violations in the world. It knows no social, economic or national boundaries.
According to 2017 World Economic Forum Global Gender Gap Report , gender parity is fundamental to whether and how economies and societies thrive. Ensuring the full development and appropriate deployment of half of the world’s total talent pool has a vast bearing on the growth, competitiveness and future-readiness of economies and businesses worldwide.
The Global Gender Gap Report benchmarks 144 countries on their progress towards gender parity across four thematic dimensions: Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational Attainment, Health and Survival, and Political Empowerment.
The education–specific gender gap could be reduced to parity within the next 13 years.
On current trends, the overall global gender gap can be closed in exactly 100 years across the 106 countries covered since the inception of the Report, compared to 83 years last year. The most challenging gender gaps remain in the economic and health spheres. Given the continued widening of the economic gender gap, it will now not be closed for another 217 years. However, the education–specific gender gap could be reduced to parity within the next 13 years. The political dimension currently holds the widest gender gap and is also the one exhibiting the most progress, despite a slowdown in progress this year. It could be closed within 99 years. The health gender gap is larger than it stood in 2006.
Gender equality, women’s rights and women’s empowerment can have a catalytic effect on the achievement of sustained peace, development and human rights. The achievement of gender equality requires an inclusive approach — a solidarity movement that recognizes the crucial role of men and boys as partners for women’s and girls’ rights.
Inspired by the demonstrated belief that “education is the best investment we can make for social change” Bridge to Türkiye Fund (BTF) has established a memorial fund to honor Ozgecan Aslan’s memory. 100% of donations contributed for the Özgecan Aslan Memorial Fund are supporting eleven (11) young deserving men and women with financial needs from her native region in Turkey since 2015. Scholarships for the Ozgecan Aslan Memorial Fund are awarded on the basis of academic merit to students from low-income families and is coordinated through Association for Supporting Contemporary Life (ÇYDD)-Tarsus branch.
The intent of this special fund is to keep Ozgecan’s name alive, continually serve as a reminder of the terrible cost of ignorance, and provide educational opportunities for young men and women who need financial support to pursue a path to education. BTF believes that providing scholarships to low income students is an effective means to reduce gender disparity and discrimination.
BTF had launched a similar campaign, Be the Light for Soma Children after one of the worst mining tragedies that claimed the lives of 301 miners in Soma, Turkey in 2014. The campaign reached $147,000 in donations and provided 45 students, who lost their fathers and affected by the disaster, with 4 years of educational scholarships through Turkish Education Association (TED) and Association for Supporting Contemporary Life (ÇYDD)
Power of a Community - Turkish American’s Strong Message on Social Giving Day: LET GIRLS ACHIEVE!
On November 28, 2017 Turkish Americans gathered on Facebook to make a difference, raising $84,500 funds on Giving Tuesday to support 140 socio- economically challenged girls, from different parts of Turkey, empowering them through educational scholarships, the first generation from their families to go to college.
In one single day, our global community of donors — volunteers — advocates came together to enable a brighter future for many girls, being their true hero’s. We exceeded our own internal goals, and humbled by the support from 1062 fellow supporters on Facebook’s Giving Tuesday campaign. Total of 80 leaders from our US giving circles rose to the leadership occasion and sought wide-spread support from their friends to make this campaign a huge success, we thank them from the bottom of our hearts.
2428 BTF Empowerment Scholarships and counting…
Counting on YOU…
Empowered, educated, healthy, and safe adolescent girls possess a better complement of tools to make the transition into adulthood and engage productively in the economy as adults. And yet, global attrition rates are extremely high. Over 62 million girls around the world are not in school, and half of them are adolescents. Investing in adolescent girls, particularly through education, benefits not only girls and their families, but entire communities and economies.
By contributing to BTF Empowerment Scholarships, you will help make a difference in the lives of a rural young woman.
$50 provides a scholarship for one university student in Turkey for 1 month
$600 provides a scholarship for one university student in Turkey for 1 year
We invite you to make a one-time contribution or become a monthly sponsor for a university student at https://www.bridgetoturkiye.org
Our history of supporting low income students with the gift of education dates back to 2004. Since its inception, with the generous support from our donor base, BTF Empowerment Scholarship Program had reached 2428 annual scholarships and of those 100 were awarded to male students. During the 2017–2018 academic year BTF continues to provide more than 709 scholarships to low income university students.
As an all volunteer organization, we are very proud to share that we have sent over $3 Million to children’s education and health programs in Turkey, all with your trust and grassroots support. Please continue to introduce BTF to others in your circle of compassion who, like you, would like to invest in Turkey’s future.
If we don’t educate our girls, we basically lose 50 percent of our workforce…
In an interview, BTF’s generous supporter and BTF Honorary Board Advisor, 2015 Nobel Prize Recipient Dr. Aziz Sancar said: “ We in Turkey need to give equal opportunities to our girls, and that means to emphasize their education, because in rural parts of Turkey many parents do not send their girls to school at all or stop after elementary education, if we don’t educate our girls, we basically lose 50 percent of our workforce. I always thought this was unfair.”
BTF Empowerment Scholarships provide economic assistance to underprivileged university students in creating better futures for themselves, their families and communities. These scholarships are vital to keeping the youth in school.
Still counting on you…
According to the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative, while Turkey has made significant progress in reducing the number of out-of-school girls in the past few years, large numbers continue to dropout in high school. For many of these girls, education ends prematurely due to poverty. Therefore, these scholarships are vital to keeping girls in school. While we can’t fulfill all the population education gap, we can grow every year by improving our reach, increasing our united voice for action among our friends & communities to further invest in this cause.
Ultimately, BTF Empowerment Scholarships will help a new generation of men and women leaders serving as positive change makers in society where every young girl and boy would have the same opportunity to succeed, the chance to live out their dreams.
If you have an opportunity to give back, please consider “empowering a girl”. She will forever be grateful for this gift and be able to achieve her dreams against all odds. That girl will soon become a teacher, a doctor, scientist or an engineer. She will multiply her investment and pay back in a big way.
EQUALITY IS THE SOUL OF LIBERTY…One empowered girl at a time, one scholarship at a time, together with your help, we must be the change we wish to see in Turkiye and in the world…Light the path to education one girl at a time… Because a candle looses nothing by lighting another one…
By contributing to BTF Empowerment Scholarships, you will help make a difference in the lives of a rural young woman.
Since 2003 we have bridged $ 3 million in funds through BTF4Kids Projects, all with your help and trust…We are truly thankful for all our donors in supporting girls education.
$50 provides a scholarship for one university student in Turkey for 1 month
$600 provides a scholarship for one university student in Turkey for 1 year
We invite you to make a one-time contribution or become a monthly sponsor for a university student at https://www.bridgetoturkiye.org
Honor a friend or a loved one with a Memorial/Tribute Donation:
https://bridge2turkiye.wufoo.com/forms/memorial-donation/
Support A Rural Student’s Dream For A Future…
Bridge to Türkiye Fund is a UN Accredited NGO
On July 26th 2016, Bridge to Türkiye Fund (BTF) has been granted to the United Nation-accredited Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) in Special Consultative Status to the United Nation Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Consultative Status to the United Nations ECOSOC is the highest status granted by the United Nations to NGOs and granted upon recommendation of the ECOSOC Committee on NGOs, which is comprised of 19 Member States.
Bridge to Türkiye Fund (BTF) is a 100% 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 58–2678580.
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