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IN THIS ISSUE: Letter from the President ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS Financial Update CULTURAL NEWS A Turkish Craft |
| VISION To create
a model for peace and sustainable democracy in the Middle East
by encouraging the growth of Turkish civil society. MISSION To support the education system in Turkey; to strengthen Turkish nonprofit organizations; and to promote cultural exchange. |
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| Friends of Anatolia P.O. Box 20511 |
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| ORGANIZATIONAL NEWS Financial Update: As of the expiration date of Ibrahim Betil's challenge gift, we have raised $11,711 from individual donations, pledges and company matches to be used for general support! In our first newsletter (March 17), we announced that we were at $5,800. We had raised that amount in five months. We doubled that amount in one month since March 17. Our donor roll now consists of donors from over 70 different households and 5 companies. Thank you for your contributions and support! |
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Advisory Council Our Advisory Council is a growing family. We have three new people who accepted to share their experience with us and be our mentors. Please read more about them on our website. |
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| Volunteer Orientation Our next orientation will be held on Sunday, May 29th at 2pm on Stanford campus. Click here for details |
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Updated Brochure We have updated our brochure, please visit our website to see it and feel free to share it with your friends... |
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| Donor Roll for I. Betil Challenge Gift
$1,000 - $2,499 $500 - $999 $250 - $499 $100 - $249 $0 - $99 (*) Includes company match Company Matches |
| Letter from the President Once again, I am very excited to share a lot of wonderful news with you. The biggest one is that $10,000 challenge gift is completed with a $1,711 surplus as a result of your support and contributions. This is a very important achievement for us in terms of building our credibility. Thank you very much! In this issue, you will find the list of all the donors who contributed to this match since it started last October. I also would like to thank our primary donor Ibrahim Betil for giving us a chance at a very early stage with his challenge gift. Fortunately, we were able to prove ourselves. After we pass him the happy news, he sent us a letter to share with you, please see his letter below. Since our last newsletter, we had our 2nd volunteer orientation and we held our 7th official Board meeting. We started the nominations for the next Board term and recruited three more Advisory Council members. We also completed our search for an insurance plan, continued with the preparations for our fundraising dinner, and finalized the project plan for the Dibekduzu Elementary School. This will be available to you on our website very soon. The next big thing we will work to achieve is the May 21st Fundraising Dinner. It is a great opportunity to bring our friends together and to have fun, but our main purpose is to better communicate what we are doing and to raise funds especially for the Dibekduzu School Project. We are expecting 125 people to attend and hoping to raise $5,000 to $10,000 as well as finding a new challenge gift just for this event. I guess this column will not be enough to tell you all the great things that our wonderful volunteers are striving for. Thus, please visit our website for more updates and continue to support us. Warm Regards, Demet Yezgi As a personal note, I will be leaving my job at Stanford University to better serve to the community by going back to school. I will be starting a masters program in Nonprofit Administration at the University of San Francisco next fall. This will also give me a chance to spend more time for Friends of Anatolia. I would like to clearly communicate that I am not being compensated for my services and I will not be in the future. I prefer to stay as a volunteer and a donor as long as my dear husband continues to support me:) |
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Dear Friends of Anatolia, Ibrahim Betil |
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May 21st Fundraising Dinner You are cordially invited to attend the "Youth for Anatolia Support Dinner." Come, join us for a night full of Turkish food, music, and dance to support a great cause! For the event details and to purchase your tickets click here. |
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| Together for Dibekduzu
Bridge to Turkiye Fund (BTF) is proudly supporting the Dibekduzu School Project by raising funds from its Virgina, North Carolina, and Washington D.C. chapters. With the spirit of April 23 Children's Day, BTF would like to be the principal donor for school supplies and personal needs of the students at Dibekduzu Elementary. We would like to thank them for their efforts.
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Bridge
to Turkiye Fund (BTF) is a grassroots charitable 501(c)(3)
Organization established in 2003, which is primarily focused
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Photos of Life in Anatolia
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FOA Banner We have designed our first web banners. If you would like to use one of these on your website, please e-mail us.
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CULTURAL ARTICLES A Turkish
Craft Ebru is the traditional art of painting on the surface of water, called Turkish marbling in the West. A rectangular container is filled with water, some organic chemicals are added to increase the density. Then, dye is dripped on the water and given patterns. Finally, a piece of paper is laid over the surface of the water to absorb the dye. When the paper is peeled off the surface of the water, you have the colorful cloudy patterns transferred from the water surface to the paper. Traditionally, these papers were used in bookbinding or in calligraphy.
The word ebru either comes from the Persian word ebri (cloudy) or the old Turkish phrase ab ruy (face of the water), it happens to be a popular Turkish female name as well. You can find more information and examples of the Turkish art of ebru here. |
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Troy If you have not read or heard of the Iliad or the Odyssey by Homer, you must have heard of Troy, the Brad Pitt movie. Troy is the city which could only be conquered with use of a sneaky, tricky gift—the Trojan horse. Did you know that this legendary city is located in the Turkish province of Canakkale?
Troy—also called Troya, Troia, or Truva—is a 4000-year-old settlement. The German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann discovered the settlement site in the late 19th century. Troy is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and excavations by an international team of archeologists continue. Visitors can see remnants from various layers of the city, as well as the model of the infamous Trojan horse! |
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| Did you know that Anatolia... Is the birthplace and home of St. Nicholas - popularly known as Santa Claus. Is where Noah's Ark Landed - at Mount Agri (Ararat) Eastern Turkey. Has historical relics pertaining to three of the world's major religions - Christianity, Judaism, and Islam. |
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| Dish of the
month Cigkofte—literally
raw meatballs—is a specialty of Sanliurfa. Bulgur (cracked wheat)
is kneaded
with chopped
onions and water
until it gets soft. If you are a vegetarian, a no-meat version also exists, using scrambled eggs instead of meat. This vegetarian version is a specialty of the Siverek district of Sanliurfa. |
Then
tomato and pepper paste, spices and very finely ground beef are
added. The raw
meat is treated
with spices while kneading the mixture. Lastly, green onions,
fresh mint and parsley are mixed in. | _________________________ |
| Why Learn Turkish? Learn modern Turkish and you will be able to communicate with: * More than 65 Million inhabitants of Turkey ** A few million people indigenous to Northern Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania and other parts of the Balkans *** A few million members of recently founded Turkish communities in Australia, Belgium, Britain, Germany, Holland and other western countries. Reference: A. C. Pollard and D. Pollard "Teach Yourself Turkish" 2002. |
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Thanks for reading our FRIENDLY NEWS. Please share your feedback with us! |
Friends of Anatolia is a tax-exempt nonprofit organization
under section 501 (c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code.