Scholarship From The Infield – 10-July-2020
Education, Geriatrics Ecological Agriculture Tourism (EGET) Foundation, one of the youngest foundations in Turkey, was established 5 years ago to ensure that low-income students are not cut off from university education.
In order to increase and sustain the income of the foundation, they bought 22 acres of land in Muğla Menteşe district and established the Armutçuk Agricultural Enterprise. They made farmers plant lavender. They produced shampoo, soap, tonic and cologne from lavender oils under the brand EGET TEN. Beehives placed around the lavender fields yielded honey, while the olive oil they produced won an award in Japan. Worm fertilizer, lavender seedlings, flower seedlings and peat production were not enough, they started to grow truffles with the slogan “Food for the rich, scholarship for students”.
10 THOUSAND LIRAS A KILO
In order to be able to give scholarships to more young people, the days are counting down for the first harvest of truffles, which are considered among the most expensive foods in the world, called black diamonds and cost up to 1,300 euros (10 thousand liras) per kilo. Taking this initiative of the Foundation as an example, Muğla Metropolitan Municipality established a 10-acre truffle plantation. The foundation sells seedlings over the internet to farmers who want to plant lavender and to those who want to grow lavender on their balconies. Safai Özer, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of EGET Foundation, explained how far they have come in 5 years as follows: “Every contribution to our foundation, every product purchased is a support for students to hold on to life. EGET Foundation transfers all its revenues to education scholarships. For this, we are developing methods to increase the income of both the foundation and our farmers.”
25 THOUSAND APPLICATIONS IN 3 YEARS
Özlem Uzman, Founder of the Foundation and Chairperson of the Board of Directors of EGET, stated that the loss of income during the pandemic was great and said “The problem of young people who fail, fail to start their education, and drop out of education because they do not have enough financial support is much bigger than we think. Every year we experience great sadness during scholarship applications. We are a foundation that has not yet spread across the country and despite our limited announcements, more than 25 thousand young people have applied for scholarships in the last three years. As we see the answers to the questions in our software, we feel great sadness for the students that we cannot help, that we cannot afford. This year, due to the pandemic, low-income people, workers and farmers have suffered great loss of income. The unemployment rate has risen. We are afraid that in the coming years, there will be many students who will not be able to go to university and will abandon their education. Each and every one of us has a responsibility to keep our young people in educational institutions.”