POCKET PALS TO TURKEY
– a story of hope, creativity and frustration and friendship. Written by Deborah Wood a Friend of the Rotary Club of Springwood Inc. Blue Mountains
Background: My inspiration for the Pocket Pals was evoked by seeing the heart wrenching footage on the evening news of Mesut Hancer holding the hand of his 15year old daughter Irmak. Irmuk died in February 2023, close to the Quake’s epicentre in the South East corner of Turkey.
This photograph was included in an article of Rotary Down Under (March issue) accompanying the story of Rotary support in the Earthquake region.
I believed that we could energize our distress for the victims of this Earthquake by sending something which may comfort children of this region.
Paramedic Murray Traynor of the Springwood Ambulance Brigade was part of the 72 member Australia’s Disaster and Response Team who flew to Turkey in the C17 from RAAF Richmond on February 13th. On his return, Murray spoke to the Club of his experiences and this presentation reinforced my belief that we really could do ‘something’ to make a difference.
The concept and my pattern for the Pocket Pals were included in the March 2023 District Newsletter and it caught the attention of Rotary knitters initially. Soon I was receiving Pocket Pals knitted by individuals also members of other Clubs: Rotary Clubs, The Brown Owl Knitting Group of Springwood and the Happy Hookers of Lithgow who contributed crochet Pals. The Wool Inn in Penrith donated yarn. Pals knitted by family members, neighbours, old friends, and new friends were all welcomed. Non-knitters generously donated so yarn and stuffing could be purchased.
Not all Pocket Pals arrived as finished Pals. There was also a great sense of industry and achievement from a very small, extremely loyal team who sewed and stuffed to create the finished Pals. Approximately 50 knitters were involved plus administrative assistance to produce the poster accompanying the Pals. A total of 1300 Pocket Pals were knitted.
The next step was finding a contact in the Earthquake region. This proved to be very difficult and time consuming. Attempts were made to liaise with Rotary Clubs in Turkey, and then I approached Christine Owen District Governor 9685 – resulting in this wonderful email.
Dear Deborah,
I am writing to you happily with reference to dear Janka's below email.
My name is Ayse Mine, I am the District Executive Secretary of District 2430 Turkey for 2023-2025 and also my club's past president (RC Samsun, 02430).
Since February 2023, that devastating earthquake we experienced in the southern & eastern Turkey in cities tied to our district 2430, I have been actively engaged in post-earthquake projects that Rotary Turkey has undertaken successfully. was one of the site team members during Rotary Foundation Trustee Geeta Manek and RI Directors Faiz Kidwai's visit to Hatay as well. This is how I know very well the possible ways to let your lovely help reach the earthquake victim children in the area.
Here is my suggestion to you:
We will be having a hand-over ceremony on the 26th of November in devastated Hatay!
We have achieved a Global Grant project, called WE WILL SURVIVE - MOBILE KINDERGARTEN hosted my club RC Samsun, my district D2430 and supported by more than 40 Rotary Clubs around the world incl. USA, Switzerland, Italy, Romania, Turkey (other earthquake devastated cities) and 8 other districts around the world.
On the 26th of November Sunday, together with the participation of many district governors, PDGs, DGEs, Rotarians from USA & Italy, Mayor of Hatay municipality, local people, press, earthquake victims and mostly the children living in container cities in the are, we will be HANDING OVER the MOBILE KINDERGARTEN to HATAY and on the same day we will organize CHILDREN WORKSHOPS. Hundreds of earthquake survivor children will be gathered in a special place Called HATAY EXPO by the municipality found this special ceremony and organization.
This could be a perfect timing to distribute your lovely and thoughtful POCKET PALS to those children.
As you have a lot, the rest may be distributed to kids as the mobile kindergarten visits other areas day by day.
If you think this works best for you, I will be your contact person and I can handle the distribution here.
In my private career, I own a kindergarten and in this sense, I believe you found the right Turkish Rotarian to cooperate....
After all they say; when we have each other we have everything! We are grateful for all your forts and positive thoughts..
Waiting to hear from you soon
All the best
Rtn. AYSE MINE ERGUN
District Executive secretary, 2023-25 02430 TURKEY
Past Club President, RC Samsun 02430 TURKEY
Now, the next phase of the adventure… The goal was to fly the Pals to Turkey and Volkan Ekmecki, himself an earthquake survivor, agreed to store the Pals until distribution could be arranged. Transporting solutions for the Pals proved to be very difficult and eventually with the support of President Frank and personal contributions from Club members, the Pals were packed into 6 boxes and were posted 01November to Mr. Ekmecki. The boxes were easy to track through the Australia Post Identification Numbers.
Asye and I were very hopeful that the Pals would arrive in time for the presentation in Hatay. Sadly, this was not to be. Our Pals were held up in Australian Customs for a couple of weeks. We then lost track of the boxes. We have no idea when they left Australia or when they arrived in Turkey. Asye and I exchanged many, many emails and we discovered the International Couriers had re-assigned different consignment numbers, making tracking the Pals very difficult. Turkish Customs also demanded payment to release the boxes which had been separated into three lots of 2 each. Somehow they slowly filtered their way through Turkey to their destination.
The wonderful news of the ARRIVAL of all the Pocket Pals was shared in an email from Asye dated 26th December, more photos arrived 24th January showing children receiving their Pals. The last photo was taken in February – a year since the Earthquake, THE DREAM REALISED!
I would like to thank the Community Director Rotary Club of Springwood Inc, (my husband) for his encouragement and the dedication and energy of Ayse, in making this a reality!
