The Biga Center Being Used!

Merhaba arkadaslar,


A very nice update from Biga this week. Ayfer Baykal wrote me to say that the center was used this week for a four-day training in which the center teachers and volunteers attended trainings given by a representative of KEDV/FSWW (the Foundation for the Support of Women's Work). Training topics included community registration, methods of creativity-based early childhood education, and course offerings that benefits families. I was excited to see pictures of the women using the space. Even as the final phases of the building process are still being completed, they are already getting to work and creating a community of support.

Ayfer Ablam also updated me on the building process: this week the ceiling covering was completed and the building hooked up to both water and gas lines. The yard has also been cleaned up and a fence has been constructed around it. This week work will continue on installing a central heating system, putting in the kitchen sink, laying down flooring, planting a garden, and connecting the building to electric lines. The next step after that is moving in!



This week the center volunteers will attend a KEDV conference in Ankara with other leaders from women and children's centers around Turkey. I'm looking forward to hearing about what they learn when they return home to Biga!


Thanks for following!



all my best,


Jill

1. Trainings in the center

2. Cleaning up the yard

3. The new ceiling

Work Continues in Biga, Inside and Out!

Dear Friends,

First of all let me thank all of you who contributed to my "Birthday Wish" on Facebook Causes. With all of your help my goal of $500 has been long-since surpassed...we're at $660 and counting! Along with about $430 I raised by selling Turkish scarves at local farmer's markets this will more than cover my trip back to Biga for the center's opening ceremony. All extra money will of course go directly to the center.

I also wanted to let you all know that, while work is moving along in Biga, things are taking longer than expected and we are delaying the center opening until this winter. Because I am now on a student's schedule I can only go during my breaks so, as we are going to miss my fall break November 1, I'll have to wait until my winter break in early February. At any rate the center's schedule is certainly not dictated by my own, as soon as the building is finished, the center will be up and running! As I mentioned in my last post, the function of the opening ceremony will be to ganer community support and celebrate local supporters, as well as to bring attention to the great services the center will offer.

Now for some updates!

As usual Ayfer Baykal writes me regular updates with the successes and the challenges of the center. The most recent successes are the following:

• The outside path, stairs and platform were donated by the Biga municipality.
  
  
• The electrical work was completed.



• The ceramic tiling in the kitchen and bathrooms was completed.



• The interior painting was completed




• Ordinances for connection to public water, natural gas and electricity have been filed.



• This week, the ceiling will be completed.
  
  

However, things have also been moving slowly due to some difficulties with getting local donors to follow through on their promises. The Bikad women had a really promising meeting with the Biga Chamber of Commerce and Industry, however, and are expecting some great support to come out of that relationship. They have promised their concrete financial support and a follow-up meeting on that front will happen this week.

Please feel free to email me with question and comments about the project...I love hearing from you and sharing this wonderful journey with the people who made it happen.

all my best,

Jill

1. Putting on a fresh coat of paint inside the center:

2. The finished tile floor:

3. More painters at work:

4. Working on the center steps:

5. The completed front walk-way and steps:

6. The Bikad women exploring the space with the workmen:

:)

Work Continues in Biga!

Dear Friends,

The women of the Biga Women and Children's Center are continuing their hard work! This week the center was fitted with ceramic tiles in the bathroom and kitchen. Additionally, the future teachers and and volunteers (the lifeblood of the center!) will this week have completed 500 surveys of local families to find out how they might best use the center. In the meantime they are anxiously awaiting an answer from a local firm that might supply some state-of-the-art siding for the outside of the center.

In other news, I am once again fundraising...this time to get myself over to Turkey for the opening ceremony the first week in November! This ceremony will represent the culmination of all of the work done up to this point, as well as the financial resources invested in this worthy project. It will function as a symbol and public showing of our support for these women's work, and for the right of each child in the Biga community to have early childhood education. Our hope is that this ceremony will earn the center respect and legitimacy in the community, as well as spark the interested and earn the trust of potential patrons of the center.

I will be using facebook causes (where this all started!) birthday application to try to raise the additional $500 needed to get me to Turkey and back. Please spread the word!

all my best and thanks for reading,
Jill



Pictures:

1. Center volunteers sorting through piles of donated items for the center:

2. Center volunteers in what will be one of two children's classrooms:

3. Men at work on the center:

4. Ayfer ablam and Omer Kucuk meeting about the building plans:

A Floor in the Works!

Dear Friends,

Apologies for the delay in updates! While our friends in Biga were taking a well-deserved break and celebrating Seker Bayrami, I was moving into my graduate school housing in Princeton, NJ. I'm all moved in now, and started intermediate Turkish today! Wish me luck :)

And meanwhile, in the realm of much more important things, the center has a floor in the works. The cement pouring was delayed for a few days but now has been poured and is drying. Tomorrow ceremic tiles will be fitted and set in the bathrooms.

Here are some move pictures from the field:

As ever, many thanks and all my best,

Jill

We have a roof!

Dear friends,

I write you today with very happy news! Our center has a roof:

Today and tomorrow, the plumbing and central heating systems are being installed. On Wednesday the alum cement will be poured and then will be given two to three days to dry. These few days when work can't be done come at a fortuitous time, coinciding exactly with the Seker Bayrami, the religious holiday that marks the end of Ramadan in Turkey.

For my Turkish-speaking readers, this quote, take from an email to me from Ayfer Baykal, expresses the excitement of the women today: "Cok heycanli, o kadar mutluyum merkezimiz bitiyor, Jill!"

All my best,

Jill :)

Biga women already at work as building continues

Dearest friends,

I received an email from my good friends in Biga yesterday letting me know that the roofing materials have finally arrived! After weeks of waiting and being in constant contact with the factory and distributer, the sandwich panels arrived Thursday. In two days time the roof will be finished and work inside the center can commence. The roof has been the missing linchpin in the building process this summer, as any interior work requires protection from the elements.

In the meantime the women have already been hard at work. The group of teachers and volunteers that will be life-force of the center have been walking around the neighborhoods closest to the center, telling people about the center's functions and goals, and asking local women what they would use the center for. Their main purpose is to survey local families on their greatest needs and challenges, as well as the ways they could use the center to find solutions. Would they be likely to enroll in a women's savings group, or would they be more interested in the practical value of sewing lessons and the use of the center's sewing machines? How old are their children, and would they be interested in entering them in preschool or daycare? Would the family potentially use this as a social space?

1. The roofings supplies in front of the center:

2. The survey team hard at work!

Thanks for reading!

:) Jill

The Plan!

Dearest friends,

As I mentioned in my last post, we met with our builder Omer Kucuk in my last few days in Biga to draw up a realistic building schedule.

Here is the result:

August 25: Arrival of the roofing supplies
August 26: Installation of the roof
August 27: Installation continued
August 28: Installation of the plumbing system
August 30: Installation of the alum flooring
August 31: Installation continued
September 3: Ceramic flooring
September 4: Ceramic flooring
September 5: Water installation
September 7: Ceiling construction
September 8: Painting interior walls
September 9: Assembling the windows
September 10: Electric work
September 11: Natural gas work
September 12: Natural gas work continued
September 13: Assembling the bathrooms
September 14: Assembling heating system
September 15: Assembling heating system continued
September 16: Outside siding installation
September 17: Outside siding installation continued
September 18: Outside siding installation continued
September 19: Platform stairs
September 20: Assembling the garden tiles
September 21-23: Organizing the garden
September 24: Arranging the kitchen appliances/furniture
September 25: Finishing any incomplete work
September 26: Furnishing the building

As you can see, with this schedule the center should be finished within a month!

I'll be updating you as the plan plays out...:)

all my best,
Jill