48 years of philantrophy

Founded in 1969, the Turkish Educational Foundation (TEF) is a non-profit 501(c)(3) Public Charity dedicated to educating children-in-need in Turkey. Now more than ever, a massive educational campaign is urgently needed to bring enlightenment and hope to the millions of children living in dire poverty.

Our mission is to provide scholarships to children of low-income families for them to continue their education, and to furnish educational materials for schools in villages and gecekondu areas to improve the quality of education. Many of our students are raised in underprivileged families and without TEF's support they would not have been able to continue their education. 

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Let there be light to reach every needy child

The scholarships are based on a need and merit basis, with no religious or ethnic criteria. In its mission to provide scholarships, TEF cooperates with local charitable foundations like Türk Eğitim Derneği (T.E.D.), Çağdaş Yaşamı Destekleme Derneği and Anadolu Çağdaş Eğitim Vakfı (ANAÇEV). These organizations search out likely candidates for TEF’s scholarship program and send profiles of those students to TEF. The TEF board of Trustees select those with good academic record. Each TEF scholarship is one-year long, but students continue to get scholarships until they graduate from high school as long as they stay enrolled and successful in their studies.

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TEF is supported by the voluntary work of its members. This allows TEF to work with minimal overhead and more than 97% of the collected money is distributed to the students. 

Now more than ever, a massive educational campaign is urgently needed to bring enlightenment and hope to the millions of children living in dire poverty. Therefore we started a new campaign – Aydın Bir Türkiye İçin Elele, or Hand in Hand for an Enlightened Türkiye – to step up our contributions and help educate these children. 

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