!
NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Dear reader, For me, and for all of us I think, the field-school has inspired us to see beyond what there is, and into what there could (or should) be. I came into the trip not knowing exactly what to expect, and not knowing much about Turkey or social innovation either. Through travelling and experiencing what there already was, I was able to gain an understanding of a country that I could eventually compare to my own experiences had have a viewpoint on. This trip has been an exercise in reflection, introspection and overall viveka (the ability to view things holistically). We have had conversations you would not normally expect to have over a dinner table or 10-hour car ride, and seen thing both inside and outside ourselves that we never could have planned for. I can safely say that in thirty days I have not only gained a deeper understanding of a country, and myself, but also gained a different perspective on what is possible. We all have the power to make our own success, and that success does not have to be at the expense of others. We hope that through seeing some of what we have seen, and our attempts to put into words what we did experience, you too will be able to see the same spark of inspiration we have found on this trip. Thank you doesn’t seem like enough, but still – thank you Lisa and Attila for your support, disco naps, podcasts and wondrous driving. Sincerely, Neha #teamsalim2013
WHO ARE WE?
NEHA GOYAL INDIA, SINGAPORE Issues of nationality are interesting to me. I’m originally Indian, but have grown up in Singapore – but don’t really feel a connection to either country. Which makes me wonder why nationality is an important concept. Given Turkey’s rich history, it seemed to be an ideal place to gain insight into these issues. I can now safely say if definitely was. Also, I’m intending to concentrate in Business, Entrepreneurship and Organizations (with a focus on organizations) as well as history. So this trip definitely helped me identify my specific interests within these fields.
SUJAY NATSON SINGAPRORE CHRISTINA KATA USA I heard about the Field School by chance – I got an email one day, and after reading the description, I was intrigued. I’m a Middle Eastern Studies concentrator, so I was excited for an opportunity to live and travel in Turkey. But I never thought I’d be able to see and learn so much in just a month.
How can one teach a class on entrepreneurship? Let alone social entrepreneurship. But a field school? That's something new. Why not give it a shot? So I did. I got a lot more than what I expected. We found ourselves in the middle of the Turkish uprising. We traveled across Western Turkey, met numerous social entrepreneurs. We heard the stories of the people. As we come to a close on our journey, I now have a new lens through which I can not only see the world around me but also myself. Thank you Turkey.
LEYLA LEVI TURKEY Sometimes the best way to understand a place is to step away from it. Having lived my whole life in Istanbul and having had my share of frustrations, I too have romantic ideals of affecting positive change. I wanted to find kindred spirits in this place I call home while looking at it through an outsider’s lens—a “yerli yabanci.” Inspired, empowered and happily confused.
!
ATTILA HE BITE ME, MOVE YOUR ###, HADI LIZA, COME ON GUYS WE ARE THREE HOURS LATE, SHE DOESN’T NEED AN EDUACATION SHE NEEDS FIVE MINUTES WITH ME, I TURN HER, YOU SUCK, THE UJAY, WHAT WAS YOUR NAME, BITIFUL PHOTOGRAPHS, I LIKE IT, I LIKE IT, PODCAST, MAGIC HEALING HANDS, I MASSAGE I HEAL, WORLDS BEST DRIVER, GOD DAMN IT SIRI, BEACH WHISPERER, HE IS DOWN SYNDROME, YOU DATE, HE IS NICE GENTLEMAN, IT WAS SO FUNNY, IT’S A SOCIAL INNOVATION I TELL YOU WHY LATER, CAHIT, BITTIK GIBI, THEY JUST WRITE LETTERS TO EACH OTHER
LISA WHOO WHOO DISCO NAP, SUPER DISCO NAP, WHAT HAPPON, LEMON PLEDGE, I TAKE, COME GET, I TICK I TOK, CAN I HAVE IT?, OH OKAY, I SEE YOU GIRL, WE CAN TURN THIS CAR AROUND RIGHT NOW, IT’S LIKE MY MAMA ONCE SAID, IN THE SOUTH, IT WILL ALL BE OKAY IN THE END AND IF ITS NOT YET OKAY ITS NOT YET THE END, MA MA MA MA MA MA , #HASHTAG, OIP LOVIN’, HEEH, BUT ACTUALLY, FALSE, SOME OF MY BEST FRIENDS ARE…, I’D LIKE TO GET MY FREAK ON, I’D LIKE TO GET JIGGY WITH IT, #BUSINESSCARD
THE CO-ORDINATORS
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
!
ASHOKA BY NEHA GOYAL
THE ASHOKA TREE In Sanskrit, the Ashoka Tree represents that which is without grief or gives no grief, it is known as the ‘sorrowless tree’.
Mathias, the head of Ashoka Turkey was one of the first people we were able to talk to about social entrepreneurship – as such, for me, our discussion about what social entrepreneurship is and how it works seemed highly theoretical at this point. But Mathias’ ideas about social innovation, in particular about the attributes that ‘make’ a social entrepreneur, became reoccurring thoughts for me throughout the coming weeks.
I would go so far as to way that we all have those definitive moments, but sometimes we choose not to act upon them. Social Entrepreneurs cannot, not, act upon them. In this sense everyone can and cannot be a social entrepreneur, but it’s a full time job.
One such attribute is something Mathias termed the ‘stepping-stone’ moment. Social entrepreneurs tend to start with a social issue, that is generally connected to their identity – to an experience linked to their identity (a definitive experience) that motivates them to work towards their cause. Whether that experience evokes, anger, frustration, sadness, or happiness – the power of the emotion they experience pulls them forwards. From there, they generate a business plan to counter the problem they see in their surroundings. To me – at this point – this seemed a rather simple, vague, wide-ranging idea of social entrepreneurship.
ON ORGANIZATION
This moment gives them a particular aura. As Mathias said, when you are around a social entrepreneur, you can feel it (again another statement I did not, and really could not, understand at the time, but I now can personally attest to). I guess what I’m trying to say is that, social entrepreneurs have had moments in their lifetime where they have not only realized a deep issue within the world that they seek to change, but they have also had the courage to believe they can work towards combating it. !
With that in mind, we went forth to meet our social entrepreneurs. !
Ashoka itself is an interesting organization in terms of its structure. The office follows a coffee-shop model of organization. This means that instead of forming groups at stages of production based around one discipline – for example, design, advertising, accounting – people of all disciplines and positions are on the same level and work together in one team. This creates an edge effect, where disciplines spill over into each other, allowing for several different ways of thinking to collaborate and solve pressing issues. Kind of like talking about research papers in a coffee store. The company itself provides support for social entrepreneurs – financial support to dedicate themselves full time to their venture as well as technical support, in terms of access to a network of several services (consultancies, engineers, designers, similar ventures) that they may need to help them.
It’s a vast, fractal shaped network of connections that they are able to lend their fellows. In exchange the fellows become part of this network, and help further Ashoka too – so that incoming ashoka fellows with similar projects and problems can talk to pre-existing fellows about them. !
!
B-FIT BY NEHA GOYAL
Bedriye Hulya created a chain of gyms to empower Turkish women though the medium of fitness. This may sound like a simple intriguing venture to most – but it is a venture that is closely tied to the cultural fabric of Turkey itself. There is a stigma associated with women exercising in public prevalent in villages around Turkey, and this venture seeks to combat this issue by working within the social fabric to not counter, but alleviate it. Talking to Bedriye was interesting, not only because of what she had managed to accomplish in a short period of time, but because of the insight we were able to gain into the way she – and other social innovators – think about their ventures. For example, when we
“I believe that anyone can be a social entrepreneur” asked how B-fit chooses the women they franchise gyms to, Bedriye replied, “they have to be able to smile easily”, they can’t get bogged down by problems and struggles, “anyone can be a social entrepreneur”. There is an easy-going, problem solving, can do attitude that is eminent in the aura social entrepreneurs seem to have. It’s this lens with which they view they personal challenges and the problems surrounding them that makes them social innovators. Like Mathias said, it’s a conversation we could have for hours – but for now, the energy we gained form hearing Bedriye’s approach to innovation, allowed Mathias’s words to make more sense.
!"#$%&'()*%+,-."+#/)01"2+#$( The first thing I noticed about the hospital was the silence. Compared to Providence hospitals, in which the hallways are always crowded and there's a steady hum of medical devices and conversation, the university hospital in Istanbul was eerily quiet. There were few, if any nurses around; only a few families milled about in the waiting rooms, their children running up and down the dim halls and pressing their hands against display cases of old medical tools and pharmaceuticals. The doctor I came to speak to arrived quickly and ushered us into her office. Dr. Selma Karabey has a shock of short gray hair and a warm smile. After offering us tea and swapping stories about the Gezi Park protests, she asked about my research project on healthcare access in Turkey and offered her perspective on the changes wrought by the AKP over the last ten years. The healthcare system in Turkey was in dire need of a change. The poor had been relegated to certain under-performing hospitals, while those with means were able to access better hospitals and higher quality doctors. The AKP worked to change that by consolidating the various healthcare plans under one enormous umbrella; they also expanded healthcare access to the poor via a free health insurance program known as the YeĹ&#x;il Kart (Green Card) system. This was a good change, stressed Dr. Karabey.
However, there have been downsides. Before, there were many community-based health centers in Istanbul where family and general practitioners could meet regularly with their patients. Also, doctors who worked at public hospitals were able to subsidize their pay via private practice after their shifts. Now the community health centers have been shuttered, and the government has forced medical practitioners to abandon their private practice if they work in public hospitals. This has resulted in many talented doctors moving to private hospitals in search of better pay, leaving under-performing doctors to staff public hospitals. Additionally, the pay-scale system has shifted: quantity of patients is stressed over quality of patient care. Visits to the hospital can now take hours, and patients are lucky if their over-worked doctors spend more than a few minutes speaking with them. This has resulted in lower-quality patient care and higher levels of stress for medical practitioners. In short, Dr. Karabey joked, Turkey is shifting from a Canadianstyle healthcare system to an American one. It is not all bad, though. The fact that so many poor families now have access to decent healthcare is wonderful, Dr. Karabey stressed. Furthermore, the government is responding to doctors' concerns: there's talk of re-instituting the community-based healthcare centers to reduce overcrowding at the hospitals. The medical system in Turkey is in the middle of a massive transition, and medical practitioners will continue to strive for a system that serves the needs of patients and doctors alike. Christina Kata
!
!
!"#$%&
Environmentalism is a topic that continues to attract much attention around the world. Most environmental organizations that were formed in Turkey mainly focused their efforts on conservation. Buğday, however, took a different approach. Buğday is a non-governmental organization (NGO) that promotes a different lifestyle for people. Instead of focusing on the environment, it focuses on the mindset of people. Buğday believes that convincing people to live their lives more ecologically is a more sustainable way of conserving the environment as opposed to direct conservation works.
Buğday has come a long way from where it first began. Buğday means 'wheat' in Turkish. Buğday was first started about 2 decades ago by Victor Ananias as a restaurant/wholesale store offering local and organic food, which also served as a space for like-minded, environmentally conscious people to meet, gather and share their ideas and visions about ecological living. The Buğday movement evolved into an association officially in 2002, under the name 'Buğday Association for Supporting Ecological Living'.
Its main areas of work are in organic agriculture, ecological living, agro-biodiversity, ecoagro tourism and urban agriculture. With far reaching networks and activities, Buğday plays an active role in promoting ecological living in Turkey. Even from Buğday's Çamtepe Ecological Center, it can be seen that the organization practices what it preaches. The center is built based on permaculture architecture, making use of materials from the region and affecting the surrounding environment in the least way possible. Güneşin and Victor were the initiators of the Bugday movement. After Victor passed away, Güneşin has been coordinating the movement's events and has continued spreading awareness for ecological living across Turkey. With a background in biology, she had worked with numerous environmental NGOs prior to Bugday. While doing work for one of these environmental NGOs on the field, she met Victor, who proposed his idea for ecological living that was unique from what the other environmental NGOs were trying to do. Güneşin was hooked to the idea and the two of them began working on what would evolve into a full-fledged organization that now coordinates ecological events and programs all across Turkey.
We spent four days in Dedetepe, an ecofarm under BuÄ&#x;day. While there, we managed to get a taste of what ecological living entails and be immersed in it ourselves. Being able to converse with volunteers from around the world, Dedetepe gave us some unique perspectives and experiences of the volunteers at the farm. Dedetepe is just one of many ecofarms around Turkey. BuÄ&#x;day also runs numerous farmers' markets in towns to promote organic and locally grown foods. We visited one of these in Seferihisar. All in all, BuÄ&#x;day continues to lead the way in changing people's lives for the betterment of the environment in Turkey. Sujay Natson