HERA WILL EXTRACT TRUFFLE, STUDENTS IN MONETARY NEED WILL STUDY

SÖZCÜ NEWSPAPER

16.05.2023

Journalist: Erdoğan Süzer

EGET Foundation grows mushrooms for a thousand dollars a kilo to provide educational scholarships to students in monetary need. After 8 years of waiting, the specially trained dog Hera will extract the mushroom and the education of thousands of students will not be interrupted.

The Education, Geriatrics, Ecological Agriculture, Tourism (EGET) Foundation, which provides educational scholarships to thousands of poor students, is growing truffles to educate more students in financial need.

EGET planted 415 oak saplings on 22 decares of land in Muğla in 2016 to grow truffles, which sell for around 1,000 euros (20,000 TL) per kilogram. The foundation, which plans to harvest around 15 kilograms of truffles next year, has specially trained a dog named Hera to extract the mushrooms.

Hera’s mushrooms will be exported to various European countries, especially Italy and France, and all the money will be given as scholarships to university and high school students.

EGET Foundation President Özlem Uzman said that tens of thousands of students are unable to complete their education due to poverty, and that the foundation aims to ensure that as many poor students as possible continue their education by providing scholarships.

Calling on philanthropists to support the foundation, Uzman said that nearly 37 thousand students have applied for scholarships so far, that after identifying those in real need, they have given scholarships to 191 students in line with their means, and that 96 students are still receiving scholarships. Explaining that they give 750 liras scholarship per student and that they expect those who complete their education and get a job to repay their scholarship without interest, Uzman stated that they started truffle production in order to provide scholarships to more students and that they will have the first harvest next year.

SOME WORK IN CONSTRUCTION TO CONTINUE THEIR EDUCATION

Özlem Uzman said that the foundation was founded by Safai Özer, who said, “We owe it to these children.” Özlem Uzman said that some students have to work in construction sites and fields in order to complete their education and that they try to contribute to equal opportunities in education through such foundations.

Uzman said, “Among our students, there is a child from a family with 26 children, a student whose father is in prison and is now studying nursing, and a history student who is trying to hold on to life after being found in a garbage dump as a baby. We want to reach all poor children, but unfortunately our limited income does not allow us to do so.”