As the Community Involvement Program Office, our aim is to encourage our students to develop community-focused thinking and action skills through the projects they participate in during their time at RC, and to apply these skills beyond their high school years as responsible and active citizens of Turkey and the world. We also believe that our mission continues after our students graduate, and therefore, it is also our aim to bring our current students together with alumni volunteers or founders of NGOs in sustainable projects.
The Mission of MEDAK is to provide the necessary support structure for medical personnel to operate on the ground zero of natural disasters, civil disturbances and rural SAR situations by handling the logistic and coordination needs of the said medical personnel in the field as well as providing the training and off-the-field support for them to acclimate them to the conditions. http://www.medak.org.tr
MEDICAL RESCUE ASSOCIATION OF TURKEY - Aral SÜRMELİ RC’11, FOUNDING MEMBER AND TREASURER OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
RC 2011 graduate Dr. Aral Sürmeli is a founding member and the vice-president of the Medical Search and Rescue Association of Turkey (MEDAK: Medikal Arama Kurtarma Derneği). He started with CIP projects at Robert College 10 years ago and for the past 6 years has been conducting field study on vulnerable groups’ access to health services and their right to health. In recent years he has especially been working with refugees in Istanbul and the border cities. In short, he provides support for the vulnerable groups’ health, their right to health, and access to health services in the world.
What kind of education do we dream of? An education where the happiness of the children is the first priority, with plenty of games, interdisciplinary, with applied work, intertwined with nature, in collaboration with parents, valuing differences, democratic, valuing the children’s social and emotional development as much as their academic achievement, personalized according to the individual interests and needs of the students, supporting the continued development of the teachers. http://www.kodegisim.org
VILLAGE SCHOOLS EXCHANGE NETWORK: KODA (KÖY OKULLARI DEĞİŞİM AĞI) – Mine EKİNCİ RC’09
“I am Mine. I graduated from RC in 2009, then I studied Political Science and International Relations at Boğaziçi University and completed my graduate studies at Harvard University’s Education Policies Department. For the past two-and-a-half years I have been working on and researching Education in Rural Areas.
KODA is a brand-new social venture with a team of currently close to 50 volunteers and a group of village teachers from various regions of Turkey. While village schools are usually brought up because of their needs only, we, at KODA, believe that they possess big opportunities for quality education: small class sizes, schools located in natural settings, the physical closeness of the parents to the school, tight relations between teachers-students-parents, etc. At KODA, while taking into account the differences and the needs of the schools, we want to make it possible to realize an alternative education at Turkish village schools, as appropriate for the rural conditions, and centered on children.”
The purpose of PAYDA is to create a civil society movement of professional organization and management skills, with the goal of creating projects that will have a long-term impact, and thus, thanks to the lasting bridges established among our people, to increase social interaction and social modernization. http://www.paydaplatformu.org/
PAYDA Sharing and Solidarity Platform Association (Paylaşma ve Dayanışma Platformu Derneği) - Peri Ataman Holden RC’79
“I have been working as a volunteer at PAYDA for the past 9 years. My primary goal is to financially and morally support young people, especially young girls who need financial support, to help them develop and gain confidence, starting from primary school until they graduate from the university, until they have built a career and can stand on their own two feet. To provide the support they need, as much as I can, to become productive members of society and of their families. With this purpose, I have been working in Mardin area for 9 years.”
