A SEASIDE VIEW: Giving their all
Güncelleme Tarihi:
by Hasan Bayrak
Oluşturulma Tarihi: Aralık 20, 2008 00:00
DİDEM - Bayram has come and gone and now the British community is gearing up for the Christmas and New Year festivities. Along the same lines as Bayram, giving is an important part of their culture, as much as it is in ours.
Giving, however, can be done in one or two ways that may raise a few eyebrows in and around the tea-houses of Didim.
For one, members of Didim's community and animal lovers are planning to strip down and go for a swim in the chilly Aegean off the Altınkum coast on Dec. 26 as a fundraising event.
The brave-hearted volunteers will each swim for five minutes before racing out onto the sand and into the nearest and warmest place. The event will help raise money to feed Didim’s stray cats and dogs through the winter.
It has been organised by the Didim Friends of Animals Charity and some big local names will take up the challenge, including the council’s vet, Ali Durmuş, and lawyer Attilla Camcı.
Meanwhile, the ever energetic members of the group Women in Turkey have just given their all in front of about 300 people with a very British pantomime, "Snow White and the Seven Mustafas."
This was not just a chance to tread the boards and show off their talent, but to raise money for a "Well Women" clinic to serve the community in Didim.
On the night, the group was given a major boost with the news that the BSK Hospital Group that has a hospital in Aydın, would donate a YTL 25,000 vehicle to serve the clinic. Meanwhile, regulars at the local Pyramid Bar held a special charity auction night for two-year-old Mehmet Erhan Koç who requires urgent eye surgery.
Mehmet, and his mum and dad, Sultan and Erkan, were kicked out of rented accommodation by their landlord and forced to live under a sheet on the streets in freezing weather for three days before big-hearted residents pitched in to help.
Some members of the British community learned the boy needed urgent eye treatment in Aydin and set about raising money. After the charity night, a total of YTL 1,400 was collected.
The boy has now been assessed by medical staff at Aydın’s Adnan Menderes Hospital and underwent surgery this week. His family have since been housed and his father has been given a job at the bar and were full of praise, humbled by the generosity.
John Key, who co-organised the auction night, said, "Regulars at the bar got to hear about the child’s plight and that of the family and the ball started rolling from there.
"It also shows, that with all these events, the majority of British people are kind and caring, and want to become involved in their local community. Certainly in Didim, they want to put back into the community they now live in and call home.
"British people are always giving to charity and good causes back in Britain. It is in our nature to help and in small ways that is what we are doing here in Turkey."
The foreign community also gave quite generously to aid the plight of a disabled man living in Didim whose life was had been changed by osteoporosis. Another British group, "Chatty Chicks," have helped to raise proceeds for needy Turkish families.
The British community is showing its Turkish brothers and sisters that they do care, even in rather novel ways, such as the dip in the Aegean, and are giving back to society, and we should all take heart from their endeavors.
After all, therein lies the true nature of man, giving your all is surely better than constantly taking.
For one, members of Didim's community and animal lovers are planning to strip down and go for a swim in the chilly Aegean off the Altınkum coast on Dec. 26 as a fundraising event.
The brave-hearted volunteers will each swim for five minutes before racing out onto the sand and into the nearest and warmest place. The event will help raise money to feed Didim’s stray cats and dogs through the winter.
It has been organised by the Didim Friends of Animals Charity and some big local names will take up the challenge, including the council’s vet, Ali Durmuş, and lawyer Attilla Camcı.
Meanwhile, the ever energetic members of the group Women in Turkey have just given their all in front of about 300 people with a very British pantomime, "Snow White and the Seven Mustafas."
This was not just a chance to tread the boards and show off their talent, but to raise money for a "Well Women" clinic to serve the community in Didim.
On the night, the group was given a major boost with the news that the BSK Hospital Group that has a hospital in Aydın, would donate a YTL 25,000 vehicle to serve the clinic. Meanwhile, regulars at the local Pyramid Bar held a special charity auction night for two-year-old Mehmet Erhan Koç who requires urgent eye surgery.
Mehmet, and his mum and dad, Sultan and Erkan, were kicked out of rented accommodation by their landlord and forced to live under a sheet on the streets in freezing weather for three days before big-hearted residents pitched in to help.
Some members of the British community learned the boy needed urgent eye treatment in Aydin and set about raising money. After the charity night, a total of YTL 1,400 was collected.
The boy has now been assessed by medical staff at Aydın’s Adnan Menderes Hospital and underwent surgery this week. His family have since been housed and his father has been given a job at the bar and were full of praise, humbled by the generosity.
John Key, who co-organised the auction night, said, "Regulars at the bar got to hear about the child’s plight and that of the family and the ball started rolling from there.
"It also shows, that with all these events, the majority of British people are kind and caring, and want to become involved in their local community. Certainly in Didim, they want to put back into the community they now live in and call home.
"British people are always giving to charity and good causes back in Britain. It is in our nature to help and in small ways that is what we are doing here in Turkey."
The foreign community also gave quite generously to aid the plight of a disabled man living in Didim whose life was had been changed by osteoporosis. Another British group, "Chatty Chicks," have helped to raise proceeds for needy Turkish families.
The British community is showing its Turkish brothers and sisters that they do care, even in rather novel ways, such as the dip in the Aegean, and are giving back to society, and we should all take heart from their endeavors.
After all, therein lies the true nature of man, giving your all is surely better than constantly taking.