BOOKS ARE ON THEIR WAY TO ANATOLIA!
Young students all around Anatolia will finally be able to have their library thanks to the ‘Yürüyen Kitaplar (Walking Books)’ Project by Izmir University of Economics (IUE) İlgi'siz Student Community. IUE students purchased one thousand books for each school and delivered as part of the project that is funded by the Ministry of Youth and Sports and co-supported by the Ministry of National Education and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism. Students of Izmir Economics, who witnessed the joy of young students in rural schools of Denizli, Gaziantep, Düzce, Amasya, and Samsun until now, are getting ready to establish libraries in Sakarya and Bilecik next week. The club will also be visiting the schools in Bingöl, Elazığ, Diyarbakır, Hakkari, and Şırnak in the near future.
Rıdvan Şengül, the President of IUE İlgi’siz Student Club, a freshman at Department of Sociology, stated that they were in collaboration with the university student clubs of the cities they’ve visited, and described the ‘Yürüyen Kitaplar (Walking Books)’ Project in following words:
“We are told by the Ministry of National Education about 5 – 6 school names in the cities we plan to visit. We contact each of them and find out about their needs. We try to determine the school with the most needs and also take down the names of other schools for other projects. We are a club of 300 students and visit each city in a group of 35 people. We try to determine the books that are suitable for elementary school students. We purchase one thousand books for each school. We are organizing activities as clown shows, wall painting activities, and soccer games with students, live music, and handing out toys to kindergarten students when we visit their schools. Our purpose is to establish a İlgi'siz Student Club library at schools in the remote areas of all 81 cities.”
Free Izmir trip to bookworms
Şengül stated that the village children were shy at first but warmed up quickly and even sent thank you letters to them. He said that children competed to read the most number of books, and they would be hosting two of the kids at Izmir for a weekend trip. Şengül also stated that they would be exhibiting the pictures they took at the villages they’ve visited on April 21 – 25 at an event called ‘İlgisiz Fest’.
