By Chris Elliott….
We are going through very difficult times and Social Media Pages are playing a good part in bringing people together although I did see one person giving another person a lecture on why she should not seek to arrange food parcels for the needy, so it was very refreshing to receive the following news of people working together.
Readers mail …
From Karen Zorlukasap …
Hello Chris
Social media being the way most expats are communicating with the outside world at the moment, there had been lots of posts lately about what was being done in various villages by way of donations to assist those who needed support. Yusuf my husband was tagged in a post on Tuesday evening (31st March) asking what Ozankoy Village was doing, or what could be done.
We had wondered ourselves about a “Help Yourself” table in our “Best Butcher” butcher’s shop car park so that evening we made some calls about what permissions were needed to arrange a food bank donation centre and spoke to Salahi who has recently taken over the Ozankoy Sports Club and asked him if we could use his premises which is central and there`s parking and plenty of room.
He agreed and offered to take the donations in as well. So on the first evening, we made a plan.
On Wednesday (1st April) we sorted out the permissions needed and the police put us in touch with the village committee who are working hard to keep the residents of Ozankoy safe and in their homes. The committee arranges food shopping, pharmacy goods and medicine to be delivered. They came and met with us and discussed what could be done, how to achieve the giving of support in the most beneficial and joined-up manner. It was an extremely productive and helpful meeting.
That night I posted on our Helping Facebook pages click here and on Thursday morning Ozankoy answered with lots of bags of donated foods etc. There will be non-food items needed, specific to family circumstances, such as nappies and medicines and the village committee will let us know where and when they are needed. The people of Ozankoy are ensuring those needs can be met too as and when they arise.
In a country rather defined by its red tape and laid back attitude, a lot was achieved in a day. Here we are. I`m late in sending you this as I was caught up with some head scratching in the village as to what else could be done to support this effort – result – there`ll be a lot of fruit picking happening in gardens today (Friday 3rd April) and being dropped off at the Sports Club
Thank you for sharing our news,
Karen
For other news from Ozankoy Village please go to for their Facebook page click here
