On May 10th, on the first day of 10-16 May Disabled People’s Week, our community established a new project named ”HUFT Blue Bottle Cap Project”. Our project aimed to collect plastic caps and deliver them to the TOFD (Turkish Spinal Cord Paralytics Association). As you can see from the website of TOFD, It has been successfully conducting the Plastic Cap Campaign since 2011. The caps received by TOFD are first weighed and then recorded with the contact information of the sender. The caps are then separated from the foreign materials inside and delivered to the contracted recycling company after being weighed again and invoiced. Our project is aiming to collect 1.5 Tons of caps (which is the weight to get an electric wheelchair). We have shared an Instagram Reel video to announce the project and encourage people to collect plastic caps and deliver them to us.
While HUFT’s project was continuing, on June 20th, one of the donors of our Community who doesn’t want to give her name said to Arda Buluç (the leader of the project) that she wants to donate manual wheel-chairs to HUFT as long as HUFT find the people who need a wheel-chair. Thus, on June 21st, Arda created a ”Wheelchair Application Form” (The applications are now closed) and also an Instagram Reel Video to reach the application form to people who are in need. In addition, Devrim Damla Subaşı, one of our members, provided that the principal of Necmi Asfuroğlu Anatolian High School shared the application form in the school’s WhatsApp groups.
On the night of June 21st, there were 8 applications. Arda reported the applicants to the donator. Consequently, the donor ordered 8 wheelchairs. On June 25th, the wheelchairs arrived at the address and wheelchairs were now ready for delivery.
Then, we cooperated with TKV (Development Foundation of Turkey) on filming the project, Mr. Necdet was filming while we were delivering the wheelchairs. Until now, we have delivered 5 wheelchairs to people in need. We’ll share an Instagram reel and a Youtube video with the recordings of first 4 deliver in the following days. We keep delivery records and identify the person if he/she is really in need. There are still 3 more wheelchairs waiting to be delivered. Although the long distances between the locations make the process harder, we have planned the delivery schedule.
”We look forward to helping more disabled people by collecting plastic caps and finding new donors. We are grateful to our donor for making such an amazing donation. Different ages of people smiled to spend their days with fewer obstacles. This aspect of the project keeps us motivated. As human beings we are connected; you can always share someone else’s happiness and there will be nothing wasted, there’ll be only more.” Buluç said.
Notes: The project is associated with HUFT members; Recep Doğru, Başar Özenir, Devrim Damla Subaşı and led by Arda Buluç.
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