THE NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS OF CAPPADOCIA

Writer: Ayça Olcaytu İşçen
July 2007

Although they are very busy with their daily lives, the thirteen members of the Cappadocia Rotary Club create time and resources to bring help to the furthest corners of Cappadocia. Some of them are hotel, agency, restaurant or museum owners, while the others are engineers, journalists, insurance salespeople or financial advisors but they all have one mutual connection: being a Rotarian. This mutual interest gathered them under the name of 'Cappadocia Rotary Club' established in 1993.

The ever first Rotary Club was established in Chicago, USA in 1905. The club took the name of Rotary International in 1922 and is today established in 200 countries with more than 32,000 clubs and 1.2 million members. The members, whose slogan is 'Serve others before yourself', have been fighting against famine, illness and lack of education with the help of approximately 70 million dollars in donations a year.
The club's description of rotary is an establishment that is created by businesses and professional people throughout the world for the purpose of serving society, recognizing the worthiness of all occupations and supporting the advancement of international goodwill and peace in the world.
Established in 1954, the Ankara Rotary Club is the first Rotary Club in Turkey. Today there are 230 clubs and 8,000 Rotarians in Turkey. After an invitation from Saadettin Eraslan, Murat Sarıkaya, who was already a Rotarian, thought that his personal charity activities would be more beneficial in a large-scale organization with a strong network and joined the Cappadocia Rotary Club in May 2005. He worked on many projects when he was the president of the organization between 2006-2007 until he passed the presidency to Nebil Tahincioğlu on the 30th of June 2007. The presidency in the clubs lasts for one year enabling other views to be represented and the responsibility of the presidency to be shared. Cappadocia Rotary Club and Çark Rotary Club have together organized a youth camp for 20 young people aged 18-20 from 18 different countries such as Bulgaria, France, Sweden and Egypt in the summer of 2006. The activities in the camp included ceramic classes, trekking through the valleys, and museum tours, aiming to teach these young people about Cappadocia and establish friendship amongst them.
The club has also established a Rotary Society Unity in Aktepe Village of Avanos which provides scholarship to 16 primary school students from the village. In conjunction with the Oran Rotary Club, they raised a $14,000 matching donation from Japan, in order to meet the needs of the village. They are aiming to transform this village into an exemplary community by providing water facilities, establishing computer and chess rooms, and refurbishing the school's garden and village square. They are also providing scholarship to 16 university students including one disabled student. They have purchased medical equipment worth $16,000 for the Ürgüp State Hospital, soundproofed a class for the hard of hearing in Nevşehir Damat İbrahim Paşa Primary School, and constructed fountains that carry clean water to many schools. The club is planning to organize a summer camp for autistic people, which will be the first in Turkey, and continue helping the excavations in the Sobessos antique city during 2007-2008.

Previous services
The club has previously provided English classes for 22 policemen from the touristic parts of the region, helped the local schools, created a Rotary forest with 4,000 trees, campaigned for infantile paralysis vaccinations, organized concerts, provided 238 women with seminars about health, law, domestic communication and worked with the Maltepe Rotary Club to aid excavations in the antique city of Sobessos.

For further information: www.cappadociarotary.com, www.rotary.org

Not: Bu yazı Peribacası Kapadokya Kültür ve Tanıtım Dergisi’nin Temmuz 2007 sayısında yayınlanmıştır. Derginin telif hakları ile korunmaktadır. Hiçbir şekilde kopyalanamaz.
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