We spoke with Fatma Eminoğlu, Head of the Volunteer Unit at Bülbülzade Foundation, about the foundation’s long-standing journey of volunteerism and the social impact of doing good without expecting anything in return.
Although individual efforts are valuable, the social impact created by solidarity always leaves a much stronger and more lasting mark. Bülbülzade Foundation, which has based its work on the principle of selfless effort since its establishment, continues to expand collective goodwill across a wide range of fields, from education to social assistance. Established with the aim of bringing years of experience into a more systematic structure, the Volunteer Unit both provides support in areas where it is needed on the ground and strengthens the bonds within this large family by increasing participants’ motivation. We met with Fatma Eminoğlu, Head of the Foundation’s Volunteer Unit, to discuss what unity of effort means in civil society, the role of young people in this process, and how steps taken without expecting anything in return touch people’s lives.
How do you define volunteering as the Head of the Volunteer Unit at Bülbülzade Foundation?
I define volunteering as an effort to contribute to life solely through one’s own inner motivation, even when there is no obligation to do so. Here, as the Volunteer Unit, we aim to create new opportunities for such people in order to make their work easier and increase their motivation.
What kind of activities do you carry out within this unit?
Bülbülzade Foundation is, in fact, an institution that has carried out its activities on the basis of volunteering since its establishment. It continues to work with a large volunteer network, alongside many professional staff members. As Bülbülzade Foundation, we have never interrupted our work in the fields of education, culture and social activities, particularly our efforts aimed at disadvantaged groups. The Volunteer Unit was established to make the volunteering aspect of the work carried out in these fields over the years more systematic and sustainable. We carry out activities both to find volunteers for areas in need and to provide orientation for these volunteers, as well as to develop the capacities of our existing volunteers and strengthen their psychological resilience.
WE ALWAYS SUPPORT OUR VOLUNTEERS
What exactly does volunteering at Bülbülzade Foundation involve? What kinds of tasks can someone who volunteers here take on?
Bülbülzade Foundation has been an institution working with volunteers since its establishment. Many of my colleagues and I have volunteered here for years and continue to do so. Anyone who wishes to take part in a volunteering activity can join the areas in which we work with volunteers, either through our website or by directly contacting Bülbülzade Foundation volunteers. For example, if someone wishes to volunteer in activities related to assistance or orphan support, we can immediately direct them to the relevant unit if there are tasks they can undertake there.
For instance, we have a clothing assistance store, and there are many defined tasks within this store. We need volunteers for each of the following areas: conducting social assessments to identify assistance needs, finding people who can provide aid, barcode labelling, organizing the store, distributing aid, organizing children's activities during aid distribution, identifying and supporting children with limited access to education, strengthening the psychological resilience of volunteers working here, and reporting. Alternatively, if someone wishes to volunteer in the field of education, we can easily reach people with limited access to education during our orphan support and assistance activities. We can provide spiritual, social and school-related educational support for our children in at-risk groups. When our volunteers inform us of the days, hours or areas in which they can provide support, we assign them to suitable activities. We also have a forest called Kurtuluş Forest. We direct people who wish to participate in environmental activities to our forest.
What are your expectations of people who will volunteer at Bülbülzade Foundation? What criteria do you have?
Every institution naturally has its own institutional culture and standards of representation. As Bülbülzade Foundation, we prefer to work with people who will not harm our institutional reputation. We first introduce our institution to those who apply to volunteer and explain our working principles. We expect our volunteers to act in accordance with these principles, to participate in an activity they have committed to whenever possible until it ends, and not to make any statements or promises on behalf of our institution without consulting the authorized personnel. At the same time, we always strive to maintain a supportive attitude towards our volunteers and to ensure that their boundaries are not violated.
YOUNG PEOPLE ARE OPEN-MINDED TOWARDS CIVIL SOCIETY
Why should people volunteer at Bülbülzade Foundation? What opportunities do you offer? What benefits can someone gain by participating in activities here as a volunteer?
In fact, volunteering is something done without expecting anything in return. We believe that we are creating goodness for people here. Human communities (and we can also include institutions in this definition) can come together and produce more good than people could produce on their own. We essentially make it easier for people to get involved by allowing them to join an existing system. At the same time, we provide social environments. We attach great importance to the sustainability of our activities. For example, someone who wishes to contribute to our assistance activities may also want to participate in other social and educational activities as a result of the wonderful friendships they develop, and this makes our team very happy. Our social bonds grow stronger as we gradually become a larger family. Recently, support for volunteer participation has been increasing both in Türkiye and in other countries. We prepare certificates of participation so that people who take part in our activities as volunteers can document their participation.
How do you think young people’s approach to civil society has changed in recent years? What do you generally observe?
I view young people’s participation in and approach to civil society positively because they are more open-minded. The activities they participate in develop them both in terms of experience and competence throughout their lives and can also contribute positively to their career paths. For this reason, young people naturally may wish to have their volunteering activities documented more frequently. Since Bülbülzade Foundation is also an institution that has been granted public-benefit status, it can readily meet these requests from young people. It is also preferred because it offers many areas in which they can carry out social responsibility projects.
