EGET FOUNDATION SUPPORTS STUDENTS WITH ADDED VALUE FROM AGRICULTURE

News Source: Ekonomim

EGET Foundation, which was established to provide scholarships to university students at risk of dropping out of education, called for more contributions to university and high school students in the coming period.

ANKARA – Özlem Uzman, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Muğla-based Education Geriatrics Ecological Agriculture Tourism-EGET Foundation, said that they have demonstrated a good example of social entrepreneurship for Turkey and the region with initiatives such as transforming ecological agricultural products into high value-added cosmetic products, truffle cultivation, lavender distillation and obtaining high quality olive oil through scientific methods. Stating that EGET’s sole purpose is to provide scholarships to students with the revenues generated and that they have continued to provide scholarships since 2015, Uzman reminded that economic conditions, rent problems and looking at students as rent-seekers in small provinces risk increasing the number of students at risk of dropping out of education. The expert stressed that the public sector should develop special programs for these students and that support for civil society organizations should increase.

Özlem Uzman met with a group of journalists in Ankara. Underlining that many successful young people are disconnected from university education due to economic difficulties, Uzman noted that he and Safai Özer, who passed away on March 9, 2022, established a foundation in 2015, which directs all its income as scholarships to students. Explaining that the foundation aims to generate regular income through nature-friendly activities in the fields of ecological agriculture, geriatrics and tourism, Özlem Uzman said, “Rather than a non-governmental organization that tries to survive only by requesting donations, we preferred to establish a structure that creates its own revolving capital with the projects it develops and the investments it makes, and to be a -social entrepreneur- in its current definition.”

Fully organic certified lavender turns into high quality cosmetics

Noting that the projects carried out are not only the first of their kind, but also examples that can generate high income for farmers and operators, Uzman reminded that although all kinds of aromatic plants grow in Turkey, around 300 million dollars worth of cosmetic plant oil is imported annually and there is a deficit of around 170 million dollars in this field.

Özlem Uzman reminded that they have created an exemplary social enterprise that transformed a simple lavender plant into a high quality cosmetic product by installing a distillation unit in the field as a full organic product certificate holder and said, “Armutçuk Agriculture In addition to lavender seedlings, we have developed the idea of producing pure lavender oil cosmetic products from our own lavender oil for higher value-added products. This is how the EGET TEN brand was created.” The expert explained that the products are offered for sale under the supervision of the Ministry of Health with all the requirements.

Özlem Uzman underlined that, as in the case of lavender, there is an example where many value-added products can be produced that can increase the income of farmers.

Stating that the initiative for the production of truffles, which are among the most expensive foods in the world, started in 2015 and that oak saplings inoculated with truffles were planted with the support of Muğla Sıtkı Koçman University, Uzman explained that the development of the first products is expected and that they hope to obtain truffles with a kilogram price of 1000 Euros in 2024.

He explained that EGET MEMECİK AND EGET ELA and EGET KUZLUK, which are obtained from memecik, hazel and kuzluk type olives from olive producers in the region as a result of fresh picking and cold pressing with scientific methods, and that EGET KUZLUK received a silver award among 700 brands in the Olive Japan competition in 2020, and EGET MEMECİK received a silver award among 702 brands in 2023.

Online scholarship evaluation for the first time in Turkey

Reminding that the outputs of all activities are directed to education scholarships, Özlem Uzman said that the applications of the scholarship recipients are received online and that they are automatically ranked with the software developed by EGET in line with the determined criteria, so that they want to reach the fairest result. Uzman said, “With our software, which we call the Scholar Selection and Evaluation System BUSED, we have the opportunity to process, evaluate and report thousands of data accurately, easily and quickly in accordance with the criteria set by our Education and Scholarship Commission. We can also make this system available to similar organizations for a fee.” Özlem Uzman stated that EGET currently provides scholarships to 96 students, and the total number of students receiving scholarships has reached 191, and said, “The problem of young people who fail, who cannot start their education, who drop out of education because they do not have enough financial support is much bigger than you think. Every year we experience great sadness during scholarship applications. Although we are still a young foundation, 36,448 students have applied for our scholarships in seven years. We believe that these numbers should be taken into consideration in terms of showing the economic difficulties that students face.”