The Sinop Project
I believe in equality and think that everyone should be given equal opportunities. It seems impossible but at least everyone should be given the chance to be equal. In Turkey there are nearly 20 million 6-18 year old children and nearly 3 million of them (almost 15%) are not in school.Village schools are in bad condition. 800,000 students go to schools which are far away from theirhomes. We lose students in traffic accidents as they try to reach education. Me, a bunch of my friends and my school have been working on 'The Sinop Project'. We are rebuilding a bay school that can not be used at the moment and turning it into a culture center with many books, a working space and even some workshops. There are so many unused schools in Turkey and the education sytem is a huge mess. The project may look like a very tiny step, but, one day, it may make it possible for every children to be able to study in good conditions.
Zeynep Koçyiğit
Student at SEV American College
I am Zeynep Koçyiğit, 9th grade student at SEV American College, who is passionate about sailing. I have been sailing for 7 years. As you can tell it is a huge part of my life. Apart from sailing I also like adventure a lot, travelling and visiting new places. For the last 2 years I have been participating in TEDx Club and for the last year I am the president of the Club in our school. I was always fond of expressing myself socially. I think TEDx is a great way to bring people together and start a change in people’s attitudes.
I am a very optimistic person. May be that is because I used to sail in the optimist class... Such a bad joke! However, I never believed in impossible and kept telling myself that someday I will achieve my goal. I believe that we as human beings we are here to make a change and we do make a change. It may be a big one or a small one. We make a positive change for our family, friends, etc.. However I hope I will touch some of listeners’ hearts and make a change for some students just like us. Because they were never given the chance to make a change themselves