SOS Children in Turkey
Turkey is situated at the crossroads of Asia and Europe. It is both strategically and culturally very important. It was the centre of the Ottoman Empire until the 1920s when a secular republic was established by Kemal Attaturk. Economically, Turkey has developed but still has a large foreign debt.
The charity began negotiations regarding the construction of an SOS Children’s Village in Turkey in the 1970s. It was, however, in 1987 that an agreement between a private Turkish children's foundation "Türkiye Korunmaya Muhtac Cocuklar Vakfi" (Foundation for the Protection of Children) and SOS Children was signed. A suitable plot of land was found in Bolluça, about 20 miles from Istanbul, and the construction work started in autumn 1988. In spring 1992, the construction was completed and the first children moved into their new home.
After the severe earthquakes in August 1999, SOS Children's Village Bolluça built more family homes to help more children in need. In early 2001 the renovation works on the SOS Children's Bolluça site started.
A little SOS Nursery School for 30 children opened in 1992 on the site of the SOS Children’s Village. It has two classrooms and gives the children the opportunity to make friends, play educational games, and prepare for primary school.
An SOS Youth Home for older boys in Istanbul opened in 2001. Here, the boys can learn to take responsibility for their own time, budgets, schoolwork and employment, which will help them become independent and self-sufficient.
At present we support over 125 children in Turkey through one SOS Children’s Village, one SOS Youth Home, and one SOS Nursery School.
One of the SOS mothers at Bolluça went to visit one of her grown-up children for a few days. Her children were missing her very much and decided to surprise her by baking a pastry filled with minced meat, which they knew was her favourite. After the preparations in the kitchen, preparing the filling etc. they started to make the dough. Because this is a pastry filled with meat, they had to use salt with the flour. But they got a bit mixed up and used sugar instead of salt. While waiting for their mother, they laid the table and cleaned the house.
The mother herself was very happy to see the clean living-room, the nice table and of course, her children! So it was time to take out the wonderful smelling pastry out of the oven. The mother distributed it and they started eating. After the first bite she of course recognised what was wrong, but ate the whole thing without mentioning anything to the children, so as not to disappoint them. Because it’s the thought that counts!!!
Local Contacts
SOS Children’s Villages Turkey
Garanti Mh. Toprakkale Sk.
Ufuk A Apt. No 34 D.9
34337 Etiler/Istanbul
Turkey
Tel. +90-212-257 0911 fax +90-212-257 3919
Email: soskdit@superonline.com
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