Dates: August 2018

Location: Türkiye

Theme: Tackling Socioeconomic Inequalities, Education

In cooperation with Akbank, one of Turkey’s five largest banks, a major social responsibility project was carried out to raise awareness of school-age children with poor socio-economic status and to organize a donation campaign to ease their schooling. Across the country, Akbank donated 70 cents worth of support to Needs Map website for every smiling photo shared on social media. Book and stationery requests entered on the Needs Map platform began to be distributed to those in need with the opening of the schools. The needs of 50,000 students from 141 schools, mostly village schools, from 50 different provinces were met. From Adana to Adıyaman, from Erzurum to Şanlıurfa, from Şırnak to Van; Schools in need were reached in 50 provinces and their demands were fulfilled.In locations where there is no commercial cargo service, the necessary shipments were made by Akbank employees and schools were directly visited for deliveries. At the end of the project, smiles from all over Turkey turned into smiles of children from all over our country. Therefore, Turkey joined hands and made 50,000 of our children smile.