LAVENDERS TURNING INTO SCHOLARSHIP HAVE BEEN HARVESTED - MUĞLA NEWSPAPER

Source: Muğla Gazetesi

The Education, Geriatrics, Ecological Agriculture, and Tourism (EGET) Foundation, which pioneered lavender production in coastal regions, completed its fifth lavender harvest at the Armutçuk Agricultural Enterprise. The harvest festival, as in previous years, was held through a collaborative effort with the participation of volunteers.

The lavender seedlings were harvested with sickles to prevent them from being affected by the exhaust fumes of cutting machines, ensuring the oil is pure and of high quality. This will result in a higher quality oil for distillation. Beyond proving that lavender can be grown in coastal cities, the EGET Foundation also contributes to raising awareness in this field by facilitating the domestic production of lavender oil, a product currently imported into Turkey.

“Muğla has a cosmetics brand that provides hope to low-income students.”

Safai Özer, one of the founders and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the EGET Foundation, reminded that the EGET Foundation allocates all its income to providing scholarships to low-income university students, saying, “We are utilizing the lavender we grow at our Armutçuk Agricultural Enterprise in many ways. Our primary goal in our activity, which started with the sale of lavender seedlings, was to produce higher value-added products. We had lavender oil produced in the distillation facilities established by the Muğla Metropolitan Municipality. Our country is an importer of almost all plant oils, especially lavender. While thinking about how to utilize lavender oil, we developed lavender-based cosmetic products. This is how the EGETTEN brand was born. Muğla is not just a tourism and agricultural city. Muğla also has a cosmetics brand that provides hope to low-income students and offers a benefit that the people of Muğla can be proud of: like the income EGET earns from its other activities, it provides scholarships to low-income students.” "It is happening," he said.

“The pandemic has greatly affected people, and we will see its effects.”

Özlem Uzman, one of the founders and chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Foundation, also emphasized in her assessment that all the Foundation's income is converted into educational scholarships, and stated the following:

“For the fifth time, we have harvested our lavender with good and incredibly sensitive people. Thank you very much to everyone. EGET Foundation is a foundation that has dedicated all its focus and all its income to providing scholarships to low-income students. We are only 6 years old; but we have managed to provide scholarships to 111 students as of 2020, much faster than foundations with much longer histories. We sell our lavenders, both as seedlings and in pots, wholesale and retail. In addition, we produce lavender-scented cosmetic products, from shampoo to toner, from solid and liquid soap to cream, from cologne to face wash gel, using the lavender oil and water we obtain. All of these products are produced under the supervision of the Turkish Ministry of Health. Our initiatives support companies, farmers, cooperatives, and local businesses in our country.” "They are setting an example for their administrations. The pandemic has caused income loss for many households in our country. Due to income deprivation, more students than ever before are at risk of dropping out of education or being unable to attend the schools they have been accepted to. We are working to reach more students. In this context, our country's youth need the donations of compassionate citizens even more than ever before.”

-EGET Foundation Scholarships: For the first time in Turkey, scholarship applications at a foundation are evaluated electronically. EGET Foundation, from its establishment and even before it had any income, launched its scholarship program with its own capital. With the funding of the foundation's founders, a computer program was created to evaluate and rank scholarship applications completely objectively, for the first time in Turkey. The foundation selects the young people it will award scholarships to through this program, and they are asked to document their declarations during the application process.