TEGV Firefly Education Trucks Reach Earthquake-Hit Region

Algida-sponsored TEGV Firefly educational mobile units met with children and families in earthquake-affected regions as part of "Social and Emotional Post-Disaster Activities." Over the course of one year, thousands of children will participate in various activities with TEGV volunteers. The social and emotional positive impacts of education will grow as they are shared, supported heart to heart. Turkey's ice cream maker Algida is reaching children and families in regions negatively affected by the earthquake disaster through Firefly learning units in partnership with Turkey Education Volunteers Foundation. The project will support children's emotional development and socialization, while providing quality education in many fields including information technology, technology, mathematics, science, arts, reading, English and play. Two Firefly learning units, whose operational sponsorship Algida has undertaken, reached the region to provide heart-to-heart support for children's emotional wellbeing and to support their access to quality education. They met with children and families affected by the earthquake, now living in container and tent cities in Kahramanmaraş and Diyarbakır. Training with TEGV volunteers has begun. Within the framework of "Social and Emotional-Based Disaster Activities," children are being provided with breathing and movement exercises, opening circles and sharing, play, drama and art activities, followed by social emotional learning content. Under the project scope, while supporting children's social change through play, quality education in many fields including information technology, technology, mathematics, science, arts, reading and English will be provided over one year to thousands of elementary school-age children. Gül Lüş, Marketing Director responsible for Unilever's Home Care and Out-of-Home Ice Cream Categories, provided the following comments on the matter: "As Algida, for 30 years we have been sharing the happiness that eating ice cream brings with all of Turkey. At every step of this journey, we wanted to remind our society of happiness. Believing that happiness is a learnable concept and spreads heart to heart, through our "Happiness Class Heart to Heart" project that we launched in 2021 with Teacher Academy Foundation ÖRAV, we have reached 76 cities across our country, more than 156,000 children and their families. This year, following the major disaster we experienced, we restructured our projects to support the recovery process in our earthquake-affected regions where the definition of happiness has completely changed. Together with Turkey Education Volunteers Foundation, we have reached thousands of children in the region through Firefly learning units. We believe that education, learning, and socialization will provide support to heal wounds together. Our aim is to support the wellbeing of thousands of children and families in the region."