‘Dad, Send Me to School’ named best corporate social responsibility project

ISTANBUL

The “Dad, Send me to School” (BBOG) project has been picked as the best corporate social responsibility project in a study carried out by German GfK research institute and Capital business magazine.According to the traditional “Corporate Social Responsibility Project Research” by GfK and Capital, BBOG became the most successful project in the eyes of the Turkish public.The project, which was initiated by the Doğan Group in 2005 and undertaken by the Aydın Doğan Foundation in 2015, aims to create equal educational opportunities for young girls across Turkey.It has so far built 33 dormitories for girls, established schools in 12 villages and granted education scholarships to over 10,000 girls.By undertaking the construction of five dormitories and giving scholarships, the Aydın Doğan Foundation has been the project’s largest donor.In its 10th year, the BBOG project has had over 300,000 individual donors and reached over 35 million Turkish Liras worth of donations.The BBOG project also carries out other various activities in collaboration with NGOs.To date, these collaborations have included a two-day-long special training session for the administrators of regional primary boarding schools, organized jointly with the Turkish Association of Private Schools, and training seminars for 500 parents in five cities around the theme “My Child and I,” in conjunction with the Mother and Child Education Foundation (AÇEV).Moreover, seminars on hygiene and health, in cooperation with the Turkish Family Health and Planning Foundation, and seminars entitled “Our Body and Health,” in cooperation with Eczacıbaşı, were administered for the girls residing at the dormitories.In order to test the social impact of the project, research was carried out last in 2015, according to Aydın Doğan Foundation head Hanzade Doğan Boyner.“We found out that among the students who stay at the [BBOG] dormitories, the willingness to pursue their education stands at 93 percent while this rate is at 81 percent with other students who are at same age group and share the same demographic characteristics. The research also showed that, among the BBOG alumni, only 5.5 percent become housewives, while this rate hikes up to 38 percent with others who are at the same age group. These results support that we are doing the right work,” said Boyner.The BBOG project has been continuing under the roof of the Aydın Doğan Foundation, which continues to work on various other projects to create social consciousness and awareness, such as the World Girls Conference held on Oct. 8, 2015.This year, the conference, which is organized in partnership with the United Nations, UNICEF and U.N. Women, will have an international scope and concentrate on empowering girls through an extensive and quality education.