Since 2010, aiming to lure secondary school age working children (most particularly the ones on the streets) back to school on a full time basis, Garanti Emeklilik has been carrying out a project called “İşimiz Okumak” collaboration with İstanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education and Bosphorus University. The company continues to receive prestigious awards for the project.

Garanti Emeklilik was rewarded with “Leadership in Community Service and Corporate Social Responsibility” and “Corporate Social Responsibility” awards in the Communitas Awards, which is organized by the American Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP).

Garanti Emeklilik was also rewarded with “European Excellence Awards in Public Affairs” award in Brussels for the “İşimiz Okumak” Project. The company was the only Turkish company to be rewarded in the organization where the most prestigious projects of community services competed. The project was also selected as the leader of “CSR Initiative” category within the scope of the fifth “International CSR Excellence Awards”.

“We will continue to stand by our children who are our future”

K. Çağlayan Bakaçhan, Assistant General Manager of Garanti Emeklilik, gave a statement about the achievements of the project; and said that the project enabled nearly 1000 students to stop working completely since the initiation of the project. He added that so far 850 employees of Garanti Emeklilik provided voluntary support for the project, and they reached 5.700 students by working with 290 teachers in 13 districts and 44 schools. Bakaçhan added as follows: “In 2010, we had highlighted a social trauma in cooperation with İstanbul Provincial Directorate of National Education and the Lifelong Education Center of Bosphorus University and aimed to make our children go back to school and stop working completely. Since then, we have reached thousands of children and their parents; and yielded results that make all of us happy with the contributions of our stakeholders, trainers and volunteering employees. We have observed very positive changes in the views of secondary school students who participated in the project considering their plans and opinions for the future. Today, we are extremely happy to become entitled to receive three big awards in the international arena for such an important project. We are all extremely moved by being appreciated in both national and international level with this project. We will continue to stand by our children who are our future.”