Post on 10-Jul-2020
KOC UNIVERSITY SOCIAL IMPACT FORUM
I
Prepared by SWOT Team
Balam Bingül
Dila Deneçli
Handan Uslu
İpek Akın
Kübra Berberoğlu
Murat Çetinpolat
Nazlı Akbağ
Sıla Zeka
Advisors
KUSIF Managing Director, Gonca Ongan
KUSIF Assistant Project Specialist, Kazım Yılanlıdağ
*For more information you can contact us: kusif@ku.edu.tr
This report is prepared by KUSIF SWOT Team, to understand
Sarıyer from different perspectives, to be able to get to know the
local area, people who live there, identify community needs and
problems, and see how we could match these needs and problems
with available sources. It is our priority to increase Koç
University’s local impact and create social impact by working with
local stakeholders in Sarıyer, since our university campus is
located in this district.
KOC UNIVERSITY SOCIAL IMPACT FORUM II
TABLE OF CONTENT
1. Information about KUSIF 1
2. Introduction 1
3. Methodology 2
3.1. 1st phase: Preliminary Study 2
3.1.1. Organizing the working group 2
3.1.2. Screening and collecting available data 2
3.2. 2nd
phase: Face-to-face Interviews, Evaluation & Reporting 5
3.2.1. Organizing the working group 5
3.2.2. Choosing organization to have face-to-face interviews 5
3.2.3. Content of the interviews 6
4. General Information about Sarıyer 7
4.1. Social 8
4.2. Economic 8
4.3. Environmental 8
5. Stakeholders in Sarıyer 9
5.1. Governmental Institutions 11
5.1.1. Sarıyer Municipality 11
a) SAKEM (Sarıyer Municipality Women Coordination Center) 11
b) Sarıyer Disabled People Coordination Center 11
c) Micro Credit Center 12
5.1.2. Sarıyer District Governorship 12
a) Sarıyer District Food, Agriculture and Livestock Management
5.2. Non-Governmental Organizations 12
5.2.1. Associations 12
a) Disability Associations 12
KOC UNIVERSITY SOCIAL IMPACT FORUM III
Six Dots Foundation for the Blinds 13
b) Educational Associations 13
Darüşşafaka Education Association 13
Lean Institute Association 13
c) Environmental Associations 14
Kilyos Kumköy Association for Protection of Natural Environment
and Environmental Culture 14
5.2.2. Social Entrepreneurs 14
5.3. Educational Institutions 14
5.4. Other Organizations 15
5.4.1. Small Businesses through cooperatives 15
a) Beekeeping Cooperative 16
b) İstinye Fishery Cooperative 16
c) Sarıyer Neighborhood and Villages Women Farmers’ Cooperative
Agricultural Development 16
5.4.2. Health Institutions 17
5.4.3. Local Media 17
6. SWOT Analysis of Sarıyer 17
6.1. Strengths 18
6.1.1. Ability of Offering Trainings 18
6.1.2. Capacity of Collaborations and Forming Network 18
6.1.3. Potential to Increase Impact on a Local Scale 18
6.1.4. Being Competent & Expert in Their Fields 19
6.2. Weaknesses and Threats 19
6.2.1. Lack of Human Resources 19
KOC UNIVERSITY SOCIAL IMPACT FORUM IV
6.2.2. Lack of Funding for Projects 20
6.2.3. Lack of Communication among Stakeholders in Sarıyer 20
6.2.4. Difficulty of Reaching Small Associations in Sarıyer 20
6.3. Opportunities 21
6.3.1. Awareness and Raising Projects 21
6.3.2. Training Projects for Stakeholders 21
6.3.3. Enhancing Sustainability in Sarıyer 22
7. Conclusion 22
8. References 24
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1. Information about KUSIF
KUSIF (Koç University Social Impact Forum), located in Istanbul at Koç University
Rumeli Feneri Campus, was founded in November 2012 as both “the Research and
Practice Center” and “the Social Innovation Catalyzer”. KUSIF aims to measure,
communicate, and create social impact through education, research and collaboration.
KUSIF works closely with the Research Centers at KU to add nuances of social
impact development & assessment to existing efforts. KUSIF will serve as a platform for
research in various social innovation topics and social impact measurement, especially
about Turkey. Additionally, KUSIF will carry out its own activities in collaboration with
specialists or organizations in different disciplines and backgrounds. Stakeholders of
KUSIF are Koç University (Students, Faculty Members, Staff and Alumni), Social Sector
Members (NGOs, Public Institutions, and Social Entrepreneurs), and Private Ones
(Enterprises, Entrepreneurs, and Intrapreneurs.)
At present, KUSIF has an executive board and as well as a management team
established by Managing Director Gonca Ongan and Assistant Project Specialist Kazım
Yılanlıdağ. Also, other members of management team are Assistant Student Nazlı Akbağ
and Interns Murat Çetinpolat, Sıla Zeka.
2. Introduction
This report is prepared by KUSIF SWOT Team to understand Sarıyer from different
perspectives, to be able to get to know the local area, people who live there, identify
community needs and problems, and see how we could match these needs and problems
with available sources. It is our priority to increase Koç University’s local impact and
create social impact by working with local stakeholders in Sarıyer, since our university
campus is placed in this district.
In this regard, KUSIF SWOT Team was organized among KUSIF interns and
assistant students as volunteer civil society coordinators. Members of SWOT Team are
Handan Uslu, Balam Bingül, Dila Deneçli, İpek Akın, Kübra Berberoğlu, Nazlı Akbağ,
Sıla Zeka and Murat Çetinpolat. KUSIF SWOT Team has contacted with stakeholders in
Sarıyer via phone or e-mail, and had face-to-face interviews with many of them.
In this report, first, we will explain our methodology that we have conducted while
preparing the report in two phases. After that, we would like to give general information
about Sarıyer, its history and its sustainability situation regarding environmental,
economic and social aspects. Then, we will introduce you to stakeholders in Sarıyer.
These stakeholders can be grouped as governmental, non-governmental organizations as
associations and social entrepreneurs, educational institutions and other organizations
as cooperatives, health institutions and local media. And lastly, as an outcome, we will
run the SWOT (Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) analysis of Sarıyer. The
main point of these efforts is to be able to understand how we could generate social
impact with stakeholders by creating sustainable programs and stakeholders’ networks in
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the future. As expected, we will organize seminars and courses to be able to pursue these
studies, and to share the knowledge gained during investigation process and field studies.
In addition, KUSIF develops “Community Engagement & Leadership” Track and as well
as a course on “Experiential Learning” to equip its students with tools to create social
impact. This report and the study that we have run, will help also KUSIF to identify its
local partners for field studies for the new course and the track.
KUSIF aims to communicate results and knowledge about social impact creation
through publications, regular events, visionary speaker series and annual symposiums.
This report about Sarıyer prepared by students is the first output of SWOT Team. In
addition, other reports on different topics about social impact issues will be prepared by
the SWOT Team.
3. Methodology
In order to prepare this report, we used the methodology below. The methodology is
structured in two phases to be able to work efficiently. The first phase is Preliminary
Study part where we gather the first information about stakeholders in Sarıyer. The
second part is Interviews, Evaluation & Reporting part where we gather detailed
information about selected stakeholders through interviews, evaluate, and report this
information.
3.1. 1st phase: Preliminary Study
This phase can be classified in two parts. The first part is organizing the working
group which is called SWOT Team, and the second part is screening and collecting
available data. What is covered in this phase is mainly getting information about
stakeholders and their situation. In addition, SWOT Team chose the organizations that
should be investigated more.
3.1.1. Organizing the working group
In this regard, an announcement was made for undergraduate and graduate students
to work at KUSIF as “Civil Society Partnership Development Coordinators" and six of
them were chosen and worked for 2 months between 11th
March and 6th
May 2013 as
team members.
3.1.2. Screening and collecting available data
After the SWOT Team was formed, the list of NGOs and their contact information
was received from Sarıyer Municipality and Sarıyer District Governorship. Other
stakeholders’ contacts were searched on the internet. First of all, SWOT Team studied
out more information about all the stakeholders in Sarıye,r and collected data about their
activities and projects if there was any. According to Sarıyer Municipality, the number of
NGOs established in Sarıyer is 225. (Sarıyer District Governorship claims the number of
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NGOs are 378 not 225, however, since there is no classification of the organizations we
considered the number which was obtained from Sarıyer Municipality). Furthermore, as
you can see in Figure 1, most of the NGOs are either Mosque associations (59 - 26%) or
Sport associations (51 - 23%), which are not included in this report. 83 NGOs (37%)
were analyzed in detail. After that, SWOT Team contacted with the organizations which
are still available to get in touch with, and which are actively working to check the data
on hand from the source directly, associations themselves. At the end of the first phase,
SWOT Team reached 32 organizations among 83 of them by the phone or e-mail. You can
see the list of the organizations we have contacted (Table 1) and NGO distribution of
Sarıyer according to their fields (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Distribution of NGOs in Sarıyer
Source: Prepared by KUSIF SWOT Team based on the numbers available in Sarıyer
Municipality website
Table 1: Organizations which are contacted via phone or mail
Animal Protection Association
(Hayvanların Yaşam Haklarını Koruma Derneği)
Arıköy Environment Volunteers Association
Association of Local People of Sarıyer
Avrasya Sport Association for the Blinds
Bahçeköy Culture Association (Bahçeköy İlim ve Kültür Derneği)
Beekeeping Cooperative
Boğaziçi Environment, Culture Solidarity Association
Çayırbaşı Social Aid, Solidarity and Culture Association
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Darüşşafaka Society/Darüşşafaka Education Association
Derbent Beautification and Solidarity Association
Design and Innovation Initiative for Sustainable Living
Environment Volunteers Association
İstinye Fishery Cooperative
İZEV (İstanbul Mental Disability Foundation)
Kazımkarabekir Beautification and Solidarity Association
Kısırkaya Rural Area Development Cooperative
Kilyos Environment Protection Association
Kilyos Kumköy Associaton for Protection of Natural Environment and Environmental Culture
Koru Neighborhood Association
(Koru Mahallesi İlköğretim Okulu Yaptırma ve Yaşatma Derneği)
Lean Institute
Numune Fishery Cooperative
Rumelifeneri Fishery Cooperative
SAKEM (Sarıyer Municipality Women Coordination Center)
Sarıyer Fishery Cooperative
Sarıyer Local People Association (Sarıyerliler Derneği)
Sarıyer Maden Neighborhood Association
(Sarıyer Maden Mahallesi Çevre ve Güzelleştirme Yardımlaşma ve Dayanışma Derneği )
Sarıyer Micro Credit Center
Sarıyer Posta Newspaper
Sarıyer Neighborhood and Villages Women Farmers’ Cooperative Agricultural Development
Six Dots Foundation for the Blinds
Türkiye Helping Association-Sarıyer
(Türkiye Yardım Sevenler Derneği - Sarıyer şubesi)
Source: This list is prepared based on SWOT Team’s investigation duringMarch, April and May
2013
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3.2. 2nd
phase: Face-to-Face Interviews, Evaluation & Reporting
This phase consists of 3 main parts. The first part is organizing the working group,
new SWOT Team, and the second one, which is a significant part for our report is about
choosing appropriate organizations to have face-to-face interviews. At last, the third part
is evaluating what we have done so far, and preparing “What Sarıyer is About” report.
3.2.1. Organizing the working group
After the first SWOT Team had completed its own work, a new announcement was
made for undergraduate and graduate students again to work at KUSIF as “Social Impact
interns” and “Team Leader Trainees”. Among the applicants, three team members were
selected in order to work during the summer semester.
3.2.2. Choosing organizations to have face-to-face interview
The next step for the new SWOT Team was to determine which organization would
be proper to have face-to-face interviews. Starting from this viewpoint, the criteria of
choosing the organization to interview were defined. These criteria are;
Field of the organization (such as Disability, Environment, Education,
Agriculture, Fishery, etc.)
Type of the organization (such as Governmental organizations,
non-governmental organizations, educational organizations and other
organizations, etc.)
Willingness to cooperate
Having experience and capacity to develop and run projects
Since the real purpose was to get to know Sarıyer, and examine the whole local area,
these criteria were selected to cover all the part of the local community. Due to the
diversity of the organizations in Sarıyer, we, as SWOT Team, chose the organizations
working on different areas. Another critical point in order to fully comprehend the
community and its needs is to have all kinds of organizations included. In this respect,
SWOT Team visited NGOs, governmental institutions, associations, social entrepreneurs,
cooperatives, health institutions, educational institutions and local media. These two
criteria helped us evaluate Sarıyer to a great extent. On the other hand, some
organizations are not willing to collaborate, in spite of fitting to these conditions;
therefore SWOT Team visited only the organizations which had intention of working with
KUSIF. At last, organizations which have been carrying projects, especially in
cooperation with other organizations, are our priority, because having experience and
capability to develop new projects is important for us. You can see the list of
organizations that we had face-to-face interviews in Table 2.
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Table 2: Interviewed Organizations
Beekeeping Cooperative
Daruşşafaka Society/Darüşşafaka Education Association
Design and Innovation Initiative for Sustainable Living
İstinye Fishery Cooperative
Kilyos Kumköy Associaton for Protection of Natural Environment and Environmental Culture
Lean Institute
SAKEM (Sarıyer Municipality Women Coordination Center)
Sarıyer Disabled People Coordination Center
Sarıyer Micro Credit Center
Sarıyer Municipality Numbering Department
Sarıyer Posta Newspaper
Sarıyer Neighborhood and Villages Women Farmers’ Cooperative Agricultural Development
Six Dots Foundation for the Blinds
Sarıyer District Governorship - Sarıyer District Food, Agriculture and Livestock Management
Rotary 100. Yıl Anatolian High School
Source: SWOT Team’s study based on the criteria to choose stakeholder for interviews
3.2.3. Content of the interviews
The purpose of having interviews with different organizations working on several
areas is to gather information as much as possible. With this purpose, interviews and the
key questions are prepared appropriately. There are some basic questions that we asked
in every interview .Our main questions are about Sarıyer, and what these people think
about Sarıyer in that our focus is able to comprehend Sarıyer. These questions are:
What is the field of your organization?
What are the aims and activities of your organization?
What do you think about the community needs of Sarıyer?
What are the challenges that you are facing in Sarıyer?
What are the statistical data you can provide us about Sarıyer?
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Even though, these are the basic of our questions, in every interview, other questions
were arose depending on the conversation.
In addition to these questions, we also asked specific questions to get to know the
organizations better, especially about their projects. Since one of the purposes of SWOT
Team is to evaluate the opportunities and potential collaborations, we also evaluated the
circumstances of possible partnership.
After each interview, we, as SWOT Team, prepared a detailed report for every
organization. These reports include Strength-Weakness-Opportunities-Threats (SWOT) of
the organizations. At the end, based on all evaluations, “What Sarıyer Is About” Report
has been prepared.
4. General information about Sarıyer
We, as SWOT Team would like to present background information about Sarıyer
from various sources. In this part, you will learn different characteristics of Sarıyer,
starting with its general characteristics and historical background. And then, we will try
to provide you some statistical data and information which were picked up from Sarıyer
Municipality, and give you a clear vision about the current situation in Sarıyer.
Sarıyer is one of the oldest districts of Istanbul. Sarıyer whose first known name is
Simas which means “Holly Mother” is northernmost district of Istanbul on the European
side of the Bosphorus. Sarıyer is a rare place that you can see both lush forest and
amazing sea at the same time. The district occupies an area of 151 km2
which consists of
the villages on the European side of the Bosphorus from Rumelifeneri, down through
Tarabya, Yeniköy, İstinye, Emirgan to Rumelihisarı with 27 neighborhoods and 8 villages
which are known as Kumköy (Kilyos), Demirciköy, Garipçe, Gümüşdere, Zekeriyaköy,
Kısırkaya, Rumelifeneri and Uskumruköy (1)
.
In the history, Sarıyer had never been a popular location till 1453. In this year, the
Ottoman Empire attempted to get immigrants settle down to district. In the 16th
and 17th
centuries, Rumeli Hisarı and Yeniköy became important villages and improved during the
18th
century with increasing population. So far, Sarıyer which used to be a small summer
village kept improving and on May 15, 1930 Sarıyer became a district. On 18 October,
2012, Maslak and Ayazağa which are important financial centers of Istanbul became
neighborhoods of Sarıyer. There are almost 4500 businesses in Maslak and more than
2000 in Ayazağa. Now, with this change, Sarıyer which used to be a fishing town within
forest, and having a coastal line on Bosphorus is now a business center as well as a
natural beauty.
In present, Sarıyer is a big district with its schools, hospitals, museums and many
other institutions. According to Sarıyer Municipality, there are 6 museums in Sarıyer
which are Sadberk Hanım Museum, Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum, Ural
Ataman Classic Car Museum, Rumeli Hisar Museum, Serpuş Museum and Maslak Kasrı.
According to Sarıyer District of National Education, there are 89 schools in Sarıyer.
(1) Sarıyer Municipality www.sariyer.bel.tr
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33.184 students are having their education, and 1.393 teachers are working in these
schools. In addition, there are 5 public and private universities in Sarıyer; Boğaziçi
University, İstanbul Technical University, Işık University, İstanbul University Faculty of
Forestry and Koç University. Besides that, there are 3 big public hospitals, some major
private hospitals, and many small to medium scale medical institutions. The public
hospitals are İstinye Government Hospital, İsmail Akgün Government Hospital and M.
Sabancı Baltalimanı Hospital. Also, Sarıyer is a multi-faith place that you can find
mosques, churches and synagogues at the same time.
To be able to state the current situation in Sarıyer, we will idescribe the district from
3 different points of views; social, economic and environmental aspects of sustainability
as mentioned in the Sarıyer Development Action Plan prepared the Sarıyer Municipality
(2).
4.1. Social
Sarıyer which used to be a small town, still has been showing the characteristics of
its history. Like in small districts, strong family bonds, neighborhood culture and
solidarity are social strengths of Sarıyer. As a result of this culture, it is easy to find many
solidarity associations in the district. Other than this, Sarıyer has a socially and
culturally rich city population. From unofficial sources, we may say that there are
Turkish Greeks and Gypsies. On the other hand, there is a high unemployment rate in
Sarıyer. Also, although Sarıyer has an important historical place, cultural and social
activities are insufficient.
4.2. Economic
From the economic aspect, agriculture, fishing and mussel hunting are important
income sources for the local people. Moreover, some of small producers or fishermen
have local brands to sell their products in the districts to a lower price. However, the
promotion of brands is not sufficient enough and local brands are not known as much as
they should have been. Also, Sarıyer is a promising place for tourism sector and the
employable young population rate is getting higher and higher to run this kind of sector
in the area. Unfortunately, there is no sector diversity in Sarıyer and the main sectors are
particular ones like fishery and agriculture. Therefore, it is hard to build a new sector in
the area.
4.3. Environmental
One of the most glamorous parts of Sarıyer is its unspoiled environment. Sarıyer, as
a natural habitat, has wide green areas with a biological diversity. This biological
diversity includes species of seaside ecosystem and long coastline. Another, important
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environmental feature of Sarıyer is non-existence of industrial wastes since there is no
industrial establishment in the area. It is important not to forget that economical features
of Sarıyer as a fishery and agriculture area, is the results of arable areas and productive
fishing areas.
5. Stakeholders in Sarıyer
We believe that each district in Istanbul has different stakeholders depending on
their particular situation. For instance, in Sarıyer there are no industrial associations,
but there are many small associations and cooperatives. At first, we would like you to
give you a general picture of stakeholders in Sarıyer.
Like all the other districts, Sarıyer has governmental and non-governmental
institutions. On the other hand, fishery and agriculture are two important economic
income sources for Sarıyer local people; therefore, it is not surprising that there are
many agricultural and fishery cooperatives, which is peculiar to Sarıyer . Other than
these, educational organizations are quite important for Sarıyer due to the five different
universities in the district. It is also important to add health institutions and local media
to this context as stakeholders. As general, we grouped the stakeholders of Sarıyer in 4
main titles; governmental, non-governmental, educational and other organizations, as
you can see on Figure 2.
However, we were able to contact only some of them. Now, in this part, we introduce
you the stakeholders that SWOT Team had interviewed from governmental,
non-governmental, educational, and other organizations.
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5.1. Governmental Institutions
The main governmental institutions in Sarıyer are Sarıyer District Governorship,
mukhtars, and Sarıyer Municipality. Among them, we contacted with Sarıyer
Municipality and Sarıyer District Governorship. From Sarıyer District Governorship we
contacted Sarıyer District Food, Agriculture and Livestock Management; and, we
collected information from some mukhtars by the phone. From the Municipality, we had
interviews with SAKEM (Sarıyer Municipality Women Coordination Center), Sarıyer
Municipality Disabled People Coordination Center and Sarıyer Municipality Micro
Credit Center.
5.1.1. Sarıyer Municipality
SAKEM (Sarıyer Municipality Women Coordinator Center), Sarıyer Disabled People
Coordination Center, and Micro Credit Center are governmental centers under the
control of Sarıyer Municipality, which aim to work with various socially and
economically unprivileged groups in Sarıyer such as women, disabled people, and small
business mostly run by women.
a) SAKEM (Sarıyer Municipality Women Coordination Center)
SAKEM is an organization which helps women in Sarıyer to make them feel safe and
literate. SAKEM was founded one year ago as a department of Sarıyer Municipality. The
most appealing part of SAKEM is that they have already taken part in many projects, and
worked with other organizations in a short time (AÇEV- Mother Child Education
Foundation, Mor Çatı-Women’s Shelter Foundation). Besides that, SAKEM has been
working on women in Sarıyer, and probably has the most accurate and qualified
information about the general situation of women in Sarıyer.
b) Sarıyer Disabled People Coordination Center
The organization’s interests are mainly about disabled people, as its name referred.
Like SAKEM, this organization has very accurate and qualified information about
disabled people living in Sarıyer, and develops projects for them. At this point, there are
two important functions or duties of the organization: “Improving the accessibility for
disabled people” and “Creating awareness”.
Accessibility is a priority for disabled people, because every other thing like having a
social life, having a job starts with it. By the help of the new laws, there are some legal
arrangements for old and new buildings which regulate the life standards for disabled
people. Therefore, this organization tries to raise awareness on this new law, and support
making appropriate changes in the buildings according to the laws. This is not an easy
task to do as there are a lot of existing buildings, but, at least the new ones could be built
based on increasing the life standards of disabled people.
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Besides the accessibility, another significant problem for disabled people is that
other people usually do not care them. The community intends to stay away from disabled
people, and ignore them. In this regard, Sarıyer Disabled People Coordination Center
has aimed to change this situation, and create awareness, so that disabled people can
have a better place in society.
c) Micro Credit Center
Another important organization working with grass roots women is Micro Credit
Center helping women to establish new small businesses. It gives 1.000 TLs to each
woman who has attended its training, and also has a very systematic plan to give credit
and collect payments. So far, with the help of these systems almost 500 women in Sarıyer
have had their own establishments.
Another good side of the organization is that while collecting payments, it creates an
internal network by gathering these women, helps them work together and support each
others.
5.1.2. Sarıyer District Food, Agriculture and Livestock Management
All cooperatives in Sarıyer are controlled by the Sarıyer District Food, Agriculture
and Livestock Management. That is why, as they represent government, this organization
is an important stakeholder to collaborate with when working with cooperatives. The
organization is very open to submit projects for funding, and work in collaboration to
increase the capacity of cooperatives in Sarıyer.
5.2. Non- Governmental Organizations
Non-governmental organizations are important for Sarıyer like in any other district.
As you can see, we grouped non-governmental organizations as associations (disability,
educational and environmental associations) and social entrepreneurs.
5.2.1. Associations
Associations are one of the main sources which could be the drivers of social impact
creation in a community. Knowing this, SWOT Team has contacted with many
associations who work on different fields to be able to fully comprehend the associations
in Sarıyer. The main fields of associations that we had interviewed with are disability,
education and environment. These selected associations could be representatives of other
associations in Sarıyer.
a) Disability Associations
Like every other community, people in Sarıyer are also concerned about disabled
people in their district. However, the governmental and non-governmental efforts are
independent from each other. In this regard, we interviewed with not only governmental,
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but also, non-governmental disability organizations. You can find the information about
governmental institution (Sarıyer Disabled People Coordination Center) above under the
title of “Governmental Institutions”.
Six Dots Foundation for the Blinds
This foundation has a great importance as the first rehab center for the blind in
Turkey. It offers a basic training which lasts nearly 5.5 months, and for those who have
taken this training, offers massages training for 1 year to help disabled people to find job.
The organization cooperates with İŞKUR and Ministry of Family and Social Politics to
arrange trainings and investigate job opportunities. Apart from this, awareness is a
problem for this organization, too. Even the trained disabled people cannot find job
because of the prejudgment. Six Dots Foundation has organized seminars and
conferences to show other people (especially the human resources departments of
companies, since this department usually is in the charge of hiring employees.) that
disabled people can work as well as other people do.
b) Educational Associations
There are only few associations which are working on the field of education.
Luckily, one of the most important, and a very active organization, Darüşşafaka Society,
which is also working on education field as Darüşşafaka Education is located in Sarıyer.
Darüşşafaka Education Association
Darüşşafaka Education Association is an essential part of Darüşşafaka Society
which is a well-known and highly organized non-governmental organization.
Darüşşafaka Education Association offers great academic opportunities for orphan
children whilst trying to adapt them into social life. Especially, the student clubs of the
Association are quite active and arrange many events during academic year. In that
point, there can be a great opportunity for Koç University student clubs to cooperate with
Darüşşafaka Education Association and for KUSIF to be a mediator between them.
Lean Institute Association
Lean Institute Turkey was established in 2002 in Sarıyer, Istanbul. Lean Institute
is an international organization and the its establishment placed in Turkey. Institute’s
main aims are to develop company growth and stakeholder satisfaction, engage
educational activities and develop Lean Projects for companies. According to Head of
the Lean Institute, Yalçın İpbüken, the organization works with 25% of the best 50
production company in Turkey.
Lean Institute has well qualified staff that might be helpful to train KUSIF interns
on project management and project writing. During our interview with the institute they
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said that they were willing to cooperate with Koç University and the other organizations.
In this regard, KUSIF can be a mediator between the institute and other stakeholders.
c) Environmental Associations
In Sarıyer, the number of local environmental associations neighborhood
associations) is more than twenty five, which is at least ten percentages of all
associations in Sarıyer. Therefore, local environmental associations are important for
both our report and social impact creation in Sarıyer. One of the most significant
associations among local environmental associations in Sarıyer is Kilyos Kumköy
Association for Protection of Natural Environment and Environmental Culture. But, of
course, they always need support regarding human resource.
Kilyos Kumköy Association for Protection of Natural Environment and
Environmental Culture
The most important part of this association is that having a project with the name of
“Protecting Sarıyer Sand Lily(3)
”. Project was run by the associations with collaboration
of Sarıyer District Governorship and Istanbul University Faculty of Forestry. The
association could manage to get EU grant funding with this project. This clearly shows
that the association has enough knowledge, capacity and experience to develop and run a
project. President of the association, Güler Sönmez, could be also considered as a social
entrepreneur.
5.2.2. Social Entrepreneurs
Social entrepreneurs are generally forgotten parts of the society, yet their social
impact should not be ignored. Although, there are not a certain number of social
entrepreneurs who work about Sarıyer, we know that many social entrepreneurs work
according to our unofficial data. To be able to know them better, we had an interview
with Pınar Öncel who is co-founder of Design and Innovation Initiative for Sustainable
Living. She stated that Sarıyer has a great potential to improve and create social impact,
but people are not aware of what they can do in order to maintain sustainability. There
are many opportunities and potential projects in Sarıyer, yet social entrepreneurs should
lead, and help the lower class of the community. For instance, Pınar Öncel, a social
entrepreneur living in Sarıyer, has a project on local food supply in Sarıyer where local
producers and residents of Sarıyer could be linked. KUSIF has also intention to support
this project through students conducting preliminary studies with local cooperatives.
5.3. Education Institutions
Education is one of the most important components of the community, so that we
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gathered information from student clubs which work with educational institutions in
Sarıyer. KU Student Clubs mostly work with primary schools and young children. Among
our SWOT Team Murat Çetinpolat will be the President of Volunteers Club at Koç
University for fall 2013. Therefore, we have firsthand experience on public primary
schools in Sarıyer. Education area is very promising for our potential projects and
collaborations. Nevertheless, we realized that educational organizations, especially
governmental schools and high schools, are not always easy partners. The basic reason
behind this is that Sarıyer District of National Education is over-protecting and very hard
to develop collaboration on legal basis.
KUSIF is interested in working especially with public high-schools to create impact
through education with students and other teachers. That is why; we have already started
a pilot education program with 100th Year Anatolian High School teachers. This
collaboration will increase its impact step by step, and will be scaled with the
participation of other public high schools in Sarıyer.
Other educational institutions are universities, and there are five universities in the
borders of Sarıyer which is a big asset for the district. Universities are not only education
institutions but also resources to improve their district, and as well ascreate social
impact. Since, as KUSIF, we represented the Koç University, we did not contact with
other universities at this stage. As a university, we know that we should contribute to
create social impact in Sarıyer.
5.4.Other Organizations
This part consists of 3 main titles which are cooperatives, health institutions and
local media in Sarıyer. Cooperatives are the main ground to investigate small businesses,
and communicate with them. After that, you can see “Health Institutions” and “Local
Media” parts.
5.4.1. Small Businesses through cooperatives
There are many small businesses in Sarıyer, and it is not realistic to contact with
them personally and collect data. The best way to communicate with small businesses is
through cooperatives which are very common in Sarıyer, since fishery and agriculture
are income sources for Sarıyer. Many small businesses are gathered under different
cooperatives. There are twelve cooperatives in Sarıyer. 4 of them are agriculture
cooperatives;
Sarıyer Neighborhood and Villages Women Farmers’ Cooperative Agricultural
Development
(3) Kum zambağı - a low-growing spring herb of the lily family with narrow linear leaves and
fragrant white salverform flowers, which is native to northern Turkish coasts of Black Sea
16
Kısırkaya Village Agricultural Development Cooperative
Gümüşdere Village Agricultural Development Cooperative
Sarıyer Women in Neighborhood and Villages, Agricultural Development
Cooperative
and 8 of them are fishery cooperatives;
İstinye Fishery Cooperative
Rumelifeneri Village Fishery Cooperative
Rumeli Kavağı Fishery Cooperative
Numune Fishery Cooperative
Sarıyer Fishery Cooperative
Kireçburnu Fishery Cooperative
Yeniköy Fishery Cooperative
Garipçe Fishery Cooperative
a) Beekeeping cooperative
The cooperative aims to produce and sell natural honey in Sarıyer. However, local
people of Sarıyer do not tend to use local product because of the lack of the
advertisement. After talking with the Beekeeping cooperative, we understand better the
importance of Pınar Öncel’s project to link the local producers and local people in
Sarıyer, creating mutual benefit.
Despite being small, the organization has many projects waiting to be run. The
biggest problem of the organization is that they have no qualified staff like project
specialist. Maybe the collaboration of the organization with KUSIF will help them
overcome this problem.
b) İstinye Fishery Cooperative
İstinye Fishery Cooperative is one of the 10 fisheries cooperatives in Sarıyer. İstinye
Fishery Cooperative is established of small fishermen compared to other big
cooperatives like Rumelifeneri Fishery Cooperative which supplies 30% fish demand of
Istanbul. İstinye Fishery Cooperative’s members are 33 small fishermen. Main purpose
of the organization is economic profit through sustainable fishing. The motivation behind
this purpose is that fishery is an important income source and yet fishermen cannot rely
on this income because there are fishing ban in certain times of year. At last, we should
not forget that as long as the fishery improves, Sarıyer improves. That is why, promoting
and developing sustainable fishing in Sarıyer is important.
c) Sarıyer Neighborhood and Villages Women Farmers’ Cooperative Agricultural
Development
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Sarıyer Neighborhood and Villages Women Farmers’ Cooperative Agricultural
Development was established at October 2nd
, 2012, as the result of Sarıyer Women
Entrepreneurs efforts. The most important success of the cooperative is the project,
named “Supporting Entrepreneurs Women of Sarıyer in Agriculture”. This project was
run by the cooperative with the support of Consulate of Sweden. For the project,
Consulate of Sweden has granted 10.000 Euro. The cooperative is one of the most active
cooperatives, working on women farmers in Sarıyer. Therefore the organization can be a
good potential partner to develop projects.
5.4.2. Health Institutions
Like all the other organizations in Sarıyer, we, as SWOT Team, contacted with some
of the sixteen health institutions in Sarıyer, especially private ones. As stated before in the
methodology part, we followed our standard procedure, and try to contact via phone and
mail. However, most of the medical centers in Sarıyer are unlikely to cooperate with
other organizations. The general idea about co-operating or collaborating with other
organizations is thought as if it required for them to share personal information of
patients, even though we have never asked personal questions. In that point, we realize
that there is a low chance to work with health institutions in Sarıyer in immediate future.
On the other hand, we contacted with important public hospitals, Baltalimanı and Istinye.
However, we could not set a result of collaboration, or learn what they do. Even though
hospitals could play an important role on public health projects, at present, they are not
active as stakeholders for social impact creation in Sarıyer.
5.4.3. Local Media
Local media in Sarıyer can be defined as local newspapers and internet newspapers.
In Sarıyer, there are four main local newspapers working actively. On the other side,
there are many internet newspapers and its number is increasing day by day since there
is no regulation or control on publishing internet newspaper. To be able to get more
qualified information, we have talked to founder of Sarıyer Posta Newspaper, Levent
Pehlivanoğlu. Like many other people living in Sarıyer, Mr. Pehlivanoğlu said that the
biggest problem of Sarıyer is the lack of communication and they, as Sarıyer Posta
Newspaper, are trying to strengthen the local network and communication.
6. SWOT Analysis of Sarıyer
First of all, SWOT is a methodology for us to evaluate the information we got from
different sources. SWOT is the abbreviation of Strengths - Weaknesses - Opportunities -
Threats. Running a SWOT analysis of an organization, a project or a community, gives a
much clearer idea about what is actually happening, and what the situation is. With this
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purpose, to be able to give you a clearer vision and indicate the community needs, we
prepared a SWOT Analysis of Sarıyer District. As the name refers, this part consists of
strengths, weaknesses and threats, and opportunities of Sarıyer.
6.1. Strengths
This part of the report is prepared to analyze and evaluate strengths and potential
capacities of Sarıyer and its stakeholders. Currently, Sarıyer carries social and economic
importance with its stakeholders. For example, while looking at economic side, Sarıyer
district has Maslak which is an important financial center in Istanbul. Looking at social
side, Sarıyer has universities and non-governmental organizations that have the potential
to create social impact. Besides Sarıyer’s impact as being an important district, the
stakeholders also have their own strengths and competencies regarding of their interests
and fields. Shown as below, the strengths of Sarıyer and its stakeholders are divided into
four categories to illustrate in a better way.
6.1.1. Ability of Offering Trainings
Most of the stakeholders in Sarıyer offer important trainings regarding of their
fields. These trainings basically aim to improve Sarıyer in various ways. As an example,
Six Dots Foundation for the Blinds offers a training that helps blind people find a job,
informs local people about disabled people, their conditions and rights. In addition, Lean
Institute organizes workshops are directed to small business and companies about
writing projects and project management to increase their capacities. Moreover, Nelih
Akay in Sarıyer Neighborhood and Villages Women Farmers’ Cooperative Agricultural
Development arranges training that aims to increase young citizens’ participation in the
decision making processes with the help of Habitat Youth Association.
6.1.2. Capacity of Collaboration and Forming Networks
Having social networks and partners are the significant instruments to both running
projects and knowing other partners in Sarıyer. Based on interviews with stakeholders, it
is possible to say that the stakeholders are willing to collaborate with Koç University and
other organizations. For instance, Darüşşafaka Cemiyeti has a good network with their
benefactors. SAKEM and Sarıyer Neighborhood and Villages Women Farmers’
Cooperative Agricultural Development have also powerful networks with governmental,
non-governmental organizations and cooperatives. Also these two organizations have run
their projects and activities with the help of their networks and partners. We could say
that there are potential networks in Sarıyer to create social impact.
6.1.3. Potential to Increase Impact on a Local Scale
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The stakeholders in Sarıyer contribute to advancement of social entrepreneurship
and goals for scaling social impact in the most effective and timely manner by moving
community needs closer and encouraging people in their fields. For example, Sarıyer
Municipality Micro Credit Center has reached almost 500 grass-route women, helped
them build small businesses, and give 600.000 TL as credit in total. In addition,
social-purpose organizations like Six Dots Foundation for the Blinds assist disabled
people with finding a job, providing services and facilities such as transportation vehicle,
giving financial support, free holiday for both them and their family. Moreover, the
governmental organization, SAKEM, plans to prepare literature workshop, recreational
activities, and also visit new mothers who gave birth for supporting them by giving
training about mother and child health. We believe that there is a potential to increase
positive impact on a locale scale. Besides, KUSIF could support these stakeholders to
measure their impact.
6.1.4. Being Competent & Expert on Their Fields
It is important to mention that having comprehensive knowledge in working areas
facilitates detection of problems and finding solutions. In this respect, the local
stakeholders have enough information about Sarıyer in their own fields. For example,
SAKEM is highly aware of women rights and the situation of women living in Sarıyer.
Also, Sarıyer Municipality Micro Credit Center has qualified information, statistical
analysis about economic conditions of women in Sarıyer. In addition, many of
stakeholders have curiosity about making new projects in their fields. For example,
Beekeeping cooperative tries to develop new drugs made from the milk bee.
6.2. Weaknesses and Threats
Besides the strengths of stakeholders in Sarıyer, weaknesses of Sarıyer are equally
important to determine. As we discussed above, although there are strengths of the
stakeholders in Sarıyer, there are also weaknesses of Sarıyer that need to be improved. In
this part of the report, the weaknesses to be improved are divided into 4 groups as shown
below.
6.2.1. Lack of Human Resources
While interviewing with the stakeholders in Sarıyer, we recognize that they have
problems about finding qualified human resources to write and develop projects for
funding. For instance, Beekeeping Cooperative, despite having plans of the projects; has
no qualified staff such as project specialist to put these plans into practices. Moreover, in
Sarıyer Neighborhood and Villages Women Farmers’ Cooperative Agricultural
Development, Nelih Akay talks about the lack of having a permanent team to work with,
20
about youth projects. Also in Lean Institute, the number of qualified interns is not
sufficient enough to train staff.
6.2.2. Lack of Funding for projects
Finding financial support and in-kind contribution are essential factors to manage
projects efficiently. At the end of face-to face interviews, we concluded that regardless of
the size and type of organizations, funding issues are the biggest challenge faced by
organizations. For example, as governmental organization, SAKEM’s budget is limited,
and it is a challenge for them to be able to continue their project, and they need to rise
their funding. In addition, Sarıyer Municipality Micro Credit Center reaches women in a
large scale, helps them to build small businesses, and give credits. In this regard, this
organization needs financial help to support these grass-route women. Another example
from non- profit organizations, Kilyos Kumköy Association for Protection of Natural
Environment and Environmental Culture needs continuous financial support to overcome
funding problems to execute their projects.
6.2.3. Lack of Communication among Stakeholders in Sarıyer
The stakeholders in Sarıyer frequently encounter communication problems among
themselves. This situation leads to emerging issues about project development as well as
outcome and impact creation. As an example, SAKEM visits new mothers who gave birth
in a short period of time, for supporting them by giving training about women and child
health. However, the Ministry of Family and Social Policies is not willing to cooperate
with SAKEM by giving the list of the name of these women. In addition, even though Six
Dots Foundation for the Blinds offers trainings and helps disabled people to find a job,
most of the companies and governmental organizations are not willing to hire disabled
people, even though there is a law saying that every company who has more than 50
employees must hire disabled people as much as 3% of total employee number.
Moreover, from cooperatives’ side, ‘Honey Forest Project’ of Beekeeping cooperative
aims local people to visit there and see the natural honey, but it has not been organized
and actualized because of the lack of support coming from other governmental
organizations in Sarıyer. Unfortunately, stakeholders in Sarıyer usually do not work
together, or do not know how to work together to create collaborative impact.
6.2.4. Difficulty of reaching small associations in Sarıyer
While making interviews with the stakeholders via phone calls, phone numbers of
some small associations could not be reached. Municipality and communes were asked
for the telephone numbers of these associations to reach them; however, no one knows
these associations. For instance, we can’t find true contact information of Yeniköy
Beautification and Development Association and Sarıyer Service Association. Most of
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these small associations might not be active and reachable.
6.3. Opportunities
While trying to get to know Sarıyer as both a district and a community, we, as the
SWOT Team, also evaluated previous and ongoing projects. During this time, it is not
hard to realize that there are some common issues for similar organizations. Solutions
and project ideas to solve these problems are also very similar and yet these solutions
cannot be put into real life because of different reasons. At this point, KUSIF can
cooperate with organizations or be a mediator for organizations to cooperate to carry
out these ideas and opportunities. Generally, these ideas and opportunities can be
grouped into 4 classes, such as awareness raising and communication projects, training
projects, and enhancing sustainability in Sarıyer.
6.3.1. Awareness and Raising Communication Projects
Awareness is a vital problem for many organization especially the organizations
which are working with minority groups. Disability organizations are the ones who
suffered this problem most. Disabled people are thought by community as if they are not
capable of doing anything or working in anywhere. Because of these reason, almost in
every disability association there are awareness projects to adopt disabled people into
social and business life. Unfortunately, although these organizations try hard to make a
change in this issue, there is still need to create awareness.
Another problem for most organizations - again the organizations which are working
with minority - is the lack of promotion and communication. The lack of communication
causes a vicious cycle; and many organizations are either not known or known
incorrectly. A good example to this is Darüşşafaka Society. Even though the organization
only cares the orphan children, it is usually confused with Darülaceze, an organization
which takes care of helpless people including children or elderly people. At this point,
communication projects can be quite helpful and promising, and also these projects may
help associations to reach more people.
6.3.2. Training Projects for Stakeholders
Most of the organizations and especially NGOs in Sarıyer are local, small
organizations. While trying to evaluate and report the situation of Sarıyer, we realized
that most of the organizations in Sarıyer are not getting any help from external sources
like universities or governmental organizations, although there are possibilities. That is
why; most of the stakeholders cannot develop projects to be funded. To change this
22
situation, training projects can be planned. For instance, Turkey office of The Lean
Institute which is an international institute offers a project management and project
writing training. Also Habitat Youth Association also offers trainings to write Youth
Projects funded by EU Youth in Action Program.
6.3.3. Enhancing Sustainability in Sarıyer
Sustainability is a topic which has been getting important recently. It is possible to see
sustainability projects in every city or even in every district. Sustainability could be
applied to every aspect of the life, any organization or any project. During an interview
with Pınar Öncel who is co-founder of Design and Innovation Initiative for Sustainable
Living, she said that “Local people and people who are working at organizations in
Sarıyer are not careful enough about sustainability, or they just do not know what they
should care. There is a huge need to learn and apply sustainability.” Therefore, by
teaching sustainability approaches to local people or people who run organizations, we
can have a more sustainable Sarıyer economically, socially and environmentally. Indeed,
stakeholders should be the drivers of economic, social and environmental sustainability
of Sarıyer. But, they are not fully aware of it.
7. Conclusion
One of the goals of KUSIF is to develop sustainable programs creating social impact
in Sarıyer by working with local networks such as local people, associations,
cooperatives, government, social entrepreneurs and local media. Understanding Sarıyer
means understanding social impact potential that could be created by internal or external
networks. The purpose of this report is to share this knowledge and describe the situation
in Sarıyer.
While preparing this report, our main information sources were interviews and
researches about the organizations. While following this procedure, two different SWOT
Teams were organized. From March to May, first of them did researches about the
organizations, contacted them via mail or phone to get the first impression, and
categorized the contacted organizations to understand whether there would be a chance
to collaborate or not. After this step, during summer period, the second SWOT Team was
formed, started to have face-to-face interviews with many different organizations like
governmental associations, cooperatives etc., and prepared reports for each interview by
stating the SWOT (strength-weakness-opportunity-threat) of the each organization. These
organizations were chosen based on some criteria such as the type of the organization
(cooperative, governmental etc.), the working area, (disability, fishery, etc.), willingness
to cooperate, and capability to develop projects with KUSIF.
At this point, so as to make a more clear understanding of Sarıyer while preparing
this report, the contacted organizations are grouped into 4 main groups as governmental,
non-governmental, educational and other organizations. Non-governmental
23
organizations in Sarıyer are grouped into 2 main groups as associations (disability,
environmental and educational associations) and social entrepreneurs. Cooperatives,
health institutions and local media are placed under the group of other organizations.
As the output of this study, SWOT (Strengths - Weaknesses - Opportunities - Threats)
of Sarıyer has been analyzed. Strengths of Sarıyer are mainly, ability of offering trainings
in their fields of expertise, capacity of collaboration and forming networks, potential to
increase impact on a local scale, and being competent & expert on their fields to work
with different groups in Sarıyer.
But also, there are important weaknesses and threats of Sarıyer, which are
influencing Sarıyer unfavorably and hindering the potential to create impact. The main
weaknesses of Sarıyer are lack of human resources, lack of funding for projects, lack of
communication among stakeholders in Sarıyer, distant standpoint of government to
cooperate with local organizations, and difficulty of reaching small associations in
Sarıyer.
However, there are solutions where there are problems. Since weaknesses and
problems of Sarıyer are not unsolvable, there are ideas or projects that can be develop to
overcome these common problems. Major ideas and potential projects could be
awareness raising and communication projects, training projects for stakeholders, and
enhancing sustainability in Sarıyer.
In every society, there are many factors affecting social impact creation. It is vital to
be aware of these factors and your own effect. Moreover, it is much more important to be
sensitive and mindful of the needs of others. Usually, people do not know how to work
together to create social impact, and they all think only from their own perspectives. That
is why, it is important to communicate with others to inform them on how they come
together to create social impact for Sarıyer. If we, as KUSIF and as Koç University, can
understand SWOT of Sarıyer clearly, and be mindful of what we can do, there are many
things that we can change positively in Sarıyer through our own resources. And, this is
not only true for us, but also for every member of the society such as individuals,
government, NGOs, social entrepreneurs and others in Sarıyer, which should take its role
in impact creation.
Let’s stimulate action for positive change in Sarıyer.
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References
Adnan Kayıcı - Beekeeping Cooperative
Dilek Karafazlı – SAKEM
Güler Sönmez - Kilyos Kumköy Associaton for Protection of Natural Environment and
Environmental Culture
Güler Sönmez - Sarıyer Micro Credit Center
Levent Pehlivanoğlu - Sarıyer Posta Newspaper
Mahmut Kement - Sarıyer Disabled People Coordination Center
Mehmet Akyüz - İstinye Fishery Cooperative
Nelih Akay - Sarıyer Neighborhood and Villages Women Farmers’ Cooperative
Agricultural Development
Pınar Öncel - Design and Innovation Initiative for Sustainable Living
Seçil Arıkan - Sixs Dots Foundation for the Blinds
Yalçın İpbüken - Lean Institute
Yasemin Daşar - Darüşşafaka Society
www.sariyer.bel.tr
http://sariyer.meb.gov.tr/