ISTANBUL, TÜRKİYE: For Songül, a 2019 high school graduate, the first thing that comes to mind when she thinks of the Koruncuk Foundation is family. “This place is my safe haven. No matter what I experience outside, I always know that I’ll be okay here,” she said.
While public education at all levels is free in Türkiye, other supplementary costs such as transportation, stationeries and school meals are to be borne by students or guardians. Sometimes this proves difficult and they have to drop out.
In Türkiye, the number of children excluded from the education system has surged by 38% in the past year. According to the Turkish Statistical Institute (TUIK), 720,000 girls dropped out of school and 230,000 girls below 18 were forced into marriage between 2016 and 2022.
Figen Samuray, President of the Koruncuk Foundation noted that girls in Türkiye are more prone to be out of school because of societal norms including early marriage. The Koruncuk Foundation villages have been providing a safe haven to girls like Songül since 2019 through its free housing and education support program for girls.
Currently, one hundred and twenty five girls reside in their two villages, known as Koruncukköy’s and over the past three years, 36 girls from these villages have been accepted into universities.
Aysun, a Mechanical Engineering student, who is one of these 36 girls said, “I can divide my life into ‘before Koruncuk’ and ‘after Koruncuk.’ After graduating, they provided me with scholarships and internship opportunities for my university education.”
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The Koruncuk Villages
Established in 1979, the Koruncuk Foundation began running two housing campuses in 2019; Bolluca in Istanbul and Urla in Izmir, to give disadvantaged girls access to free housing, meals, transportation stipends and all round support for their educational pursuit. The Bolluca campus serves girls aged 10-14 in middle school, while the Urla campus focuses on girls aged 14-18 in high school.
“Initially, local homes were rented in certain districts, and families were supported. Later, one of our founders donated the land where our current campus in Bolluca, Istanbul, is located; the village has been managed in coordination with the Ministry of Family Affairs,” Samuray told The SolutionsPaper.
To reach out to potential beneficiaries, announcements are made on social media and partnerships with government institutions, other non governmental organizations and school teachers are leveraged to extend their reach.
However, a guardian must apply on behalf of the child as the foundation does not have the authority to take on any child unilaterally. Phone interviews are then conducted by the foundation, followed by field visits, providing insights into the girl’s educational and family life.
The foundation doesn’t demand the girls maintain any standard of academic success as a requisite for continued stay at the villages, but Samuray says the girls are high performers despite this.
The Koruncuk Foundation also provides psycho-social support through its Family Support Unit, helping strengthen families, improve parenting skills, and offer resources to families in need.
“We stay in touch with families and conduct an annual visit. We aim to make these visits more frequent. We also bring these children together for an annual vacation, allowing them to connect with each other,” Samuray said.
Boarding capacity remains a problem
Samuray noted that the two Koruncukköy facilities currently house 125 girls but expansion is needed to accommodate more as the foundation recently reserved special quotas for areas in Türkiye that experienced an earthquake in 2024.
“These children attend different schools; our children in Bolluca alone go to 16 different schools. With transportation, meals, and other needs, we are essentially the parents of many of these children, each with individual observation files and trauma histories. They all require specialized attention. Increasing numbers could compromise our quality, so we aim to enhance support for children staying with families, where we can closely monitor their situations,” she explained.
Samuray added that the foundation’s plans to expand its middle school housing facility in Bolluca by adding a high school facility. She also discussed the future of Koruncukköy graduates, explaining that the foundation now offers a one-year university preparation support to those who do not gain immediate admission but still wish to attend university:
“For those who want to learn a profession, we cover the vocational course fees, and once they are accepted into a university, we continue to provide scholarships until they graduate. Our primary goal is to help them stand on their own two feet,” she said.
Credits
Editing: Beti Baiye, Chinonso Kenneth
Ahmetcan Uzlaşık is a freelance journalist based in Brussels. He earned his Bachelor's degree in International Relations from Middle East Technical University and continued his education in European Studies at the same institution. He further enhanced his expertise by completing the "Journalism in Europe" MA program at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and is an alumnus of the European Journalism Institute. His primary research interests include EU foreign policy, Turkish foreign policy, and EU-Türkiye relations.