Mihriban Pekgüleryüz is the Gerald Hatch Faculty Fellow and professor of materials engineering at McGill University. She was one of the RC alumni who contributed from far away and saw firsthand the difficulties and rewards in raising funds.
Our Montreal community tried to find ways to help. Doctors communicated with the Canadian government officials to organize relief efforts. In the forefront was Dr Selim Sarı. His daughter Prof. Aslı Sarı RC 09 and I collaborate on research projects; she is now an assistant professor of mining at Queens University. Aslı's father is from Adana and Aslı's mother is from Gaziantep. When official avenues failed and we could not raise money, he and I bought two containers ourselves, and they are now at the Malatya Teachers Academy. They were first used for one month for the 8th and 12th grade students who are preparing for high school and university exams. The containers are now being used as classrooms for the official education programs that restarted at the school.
According to the Malatya Ministry of Education, the needs for the school and the region are containers for classrooms, stationery (including educational materials for preschoolers and coloring books), and computers, laptops and tablets.
Published April 2023
