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The Mehmet Zorlu Foundation, which bears the name of our Group's founder Hacı Mehmet Zorlu, continues to contribute to the social and economic development of our country by planning and carrying out activities in the areas of education, culture, and sports that are aimed primarily at young people in line with the Zorlu Group's philosophy of "investing in the future".
Support for education
As it does every year, in the 2005-2006 academic year the Mehmet Zorlu Foundation provided gratuitous scholarships for a total of 623 children, including some whose parents are employees of group companies.
Support for War of Independence veterans
Since April 2004, the Mehmet Zorlu Foundation has been providing special material support to the surviving veterans of the Turkish War of Independence (1919-1923), whose numbers have been declining steadily over the years due to advanced age. Only three such veterans are known to still be alive.
Support for the needy
The Mehmet Zorlu Foundation never forgets those who are in need of substantial amounts of monetary and material support. A large number of needy people are the recipients of foundation-provided assistance in the form of health care, food, clothing, and fuel.
Foundation-built and supported schools
The Mehmet Zorlu Foundation provides scholarships and builds schools so as to lighten the public burden of educating individuals who will be beneficial to their families, their country, and their nation.
The Mehmet Zorlu Foundation continues to increase its support for the construction efforts of educational institutions needed to ensure that the young people who are the future of our country will receive the superior education they need.
Before the incorporation of the Mehmet Zorlu Foundation, the Zorlu Group financed the construction and operation of two schools:
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Hacı Mehmet Zorlu Multi-Program Lycee (Babadağ-Denizli, 1991)
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Saide Zorlu Anadolu Business Professional Lycee (Avcılar-İstanbul, 1998)
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Since its inception, the foundation has completed:
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Saide Zorlu Professional College (Bahçeşehir University, İstanbul, 2003)
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Hakkı Dereköylü Fine Arts Lycee (Denizli, made ready for the 2003-2004 academic year and turned over to the Ministry of National Education)
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In November 2004 the foundation initiated the construction of a 32 classroom primary school in Serdivan-Adapazarı to help mitigate the need for schools in that earthquake-stricken region. This school, named after Mehmet Zorlu, was completed in time for the 2005-2006 academic year. Turned over to the Ministry of National Education, 800 pupils were admitted to it in September.
The Zorlu Group subsidiary Vestel has to date donated 125 satellite receivers to 125 schools located all over the country.
The Afife Jale Theater located in the Ortaköy district of İstanbul was rented from its owner, TOBAV, under a five-year lease that was turned over to the Mehmet Zorlu Foundation with the stipulation that the theater be used for children, young people, and amateur theatrical productions.
Two hundred basketball backboards were donated to schools around Turkey to support that sport.
Support for Pakistan earthquake victims
The Mehmet Zorlu Foundation donated a total of 15,000 blankets, comforters, and sleeping bags to various aid campaigns launched to help the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan.
Zorlu stands by young designers
TAÇ, the Zorlu Holding Textile Group's world-class brand, is supporting young designers with the "You design one too" quilt cover pattern design competition that it has been organizing for four years. Intended for students in the textile design departments of university fine arts faculties, the competition is held to encourage creative designs that can lead to new fashions in home textiles.
TAÇ, the Zorlu Holding Textile Group's leading brand, gives young designers a chance to show off their talents in the "You design one too" TAÇ quilt cover design competition that it has been holding for four years. The objective of this competition is to give participants a chance to develop their free-thinking artistic creativity and to support the strengthening of design as an activity in the home textiles industry.
The Textile Designers' Association and the Home Textiles Manufacturers and Businessmen's Association also support the competition with awards and prizes for qualifying entries. Winners will also have a chance to visit the Heimtextile Frankfurt Fair, the world's biggest home textiles trade fair, as a guest of the Zorlu Textiles Group. In addition, the authors of five projects selected from among the competition entries will be awarded scholarships by the Mehmet Zorlu Foundation. The first-place design will be specially manufactured by TAÇ and distributed to . at the award ceremony. Students whose entries qualify for prizes will also have a chance to become a member of the Zorlu Holding Textile Group Design Team, renowned for its production of original and creative patterns.
Vestel stands by Turkish athletics
The "Vestel stands by Turkish athletics" social responsibility project has been continuing since 1 May 2004 in line with the primary goal of increasing the interest that Turkish young people take in athletics. The project's stages have been organized on the basis of the four-year cycle of the Olympic Games, which provoke widespread national and international interest in athletics. The first stage of the project was completed with the 2004 Athens Olympics. The second will be completed with the 2008 Beijing Olympics. No specific completion date for the entire project has yet been set.
Athletics are widely regarded as a benchmark for all other sports ."Vestel stands by Turkish athletics" is a social responsibility project consisting of integrated sponsorships and support activities undertaken for the purpose of fostering an interest in athletics across a broad cross-section of Turkish society.
The first project undertaken by Vestel in athletics was its sponsorship of national athlete Süreyya Ayhan in 2003. The Company launched its "Vestel stands by Turkish athletics" social responsibility project on 1 May 2004. Vestel's sponsorship of Süreyya Ayhan increased the popularity of athletics in Turkey and it was immediately followed up by a large number of integrated social responsibility projects aimed at further enhancing the popularity of athletics and bringing the sport up to international levels of proficiency in Turkey.
Since 1 May 2004 our activities under this social responsibility project have been extended to embrace all of Turkish athletics. These activities are aimed at strengthening and promoting athletics in all branches and at encouraging Turkish young people to take an interest in the sport by providing them with exemplary role models.
At the completion of the first stage of the project, six athletes sponsored by Vestel were included in the Turkish national team and represented our country at the 2004 Athens Olympics. One of these athletes, Eşref Apak, was awarded a bronze medal, the first Olympic medal in athletics brought home to Turkey by a Turkish athlete in 56 years.
The 17 athletes supported by Vestel in 2004 in international competitions brought back a total of 38 medals (12 gold, 9 silver, 17 bronze) and they also broke 20 Turkish national records in the process.
As part of the "Vestel stands by Turkish athletics" social responsibility project, since 1 May 2004 the Company has also undertaken the printing of 3,200 copies of an athletics statistics book and 2,000 copies of a university sports activities book that it distributed to sports clubs, provincial directorates of the Ministry of Youth and Sports, the media, universities, and libraries. In early August, Vestel's athletics website went into service at www.vestelatletizm.com.
All these efforts have noticeably increased the interest taken in athletics both by the media and by the public at large with the result that large numbers of young people have been encouraged to become involved in athletics on an amateur or professional basis.
Activities under the "Vestel stands by Turkish athletics" program are conducted under five main categories:
Education
Informatics and communication
Student athletics
Competition sponsorships
Individual athlete sponsorships.
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