TEMA Foundation: Attentive to Turkey's Biodiversity

Founded in 1992 by Nihat Gokyigit, "TEMA has pioneered a multistakeholder approach to tackling the problem of soil erosion in Turkey." According to the Foundation's website, TEMA's "mission is to raise public awareness of environmental problems, specifically soil erosion, deforestation, biodiversity loss and climate change."

"Nihat Gokyigit was a successful business entrepreneur, presiding over one of Turkey's largest conglomerates (Tekfen Holdings) when he decided to start TEMA with renowned environmentalist Hayrettin Karaca. Having grown up in Artvin, a secluded and pristine part of Turkey, he wanted to identify livelihoods through which Turkey's people could preserve their nation's rich biodiversity rather than destroy it. His private foundation operates Turkey's most prominent botanical garden, which complements TEMA's work through botanic education and research."

Excerpt from Outstanding Social Entrepreneurs 2010, the Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship

The Millennium Development Goals: It's Time for a "People's Plan of Action"

Recognizing that "individuals, companies and non-governmental organizations need to stand alongside their governments to advance the best solutions to extreme poverty, to sustain public engagement and to hold their governments accountable," through a "people's plan of action" a group of Young Global Leaders have made action-oriented pledges to support the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) by 2015.

One such individual, Ayla Goksel, through the Husnu M. Ozyegin Foundation, has pledged by 2014 to provide access to sustainable income-generating activities for 1,600 people in rural Turkey and to ensure 27,000 children have access to education in primary and secondary schools and programs built by the Foundation. This pledge supports MDG1 on poverty and productive employment, and MDG2 on education.

In addition, Ms Goksel has pledged by 2011, through the Mother Child Education Foundation (ACEV), to impact approximately 1 million families in Turkey through increased awareness of early childhood development and education; to raise US$ 20 million for these activities; to provide preschool, parenting and literacy education to 400,000 young children, parents and illiterate women; and to train 2,500 new volunteer instructors for this program, thereby contributing to MDG2 on primary education, MDG3 on gender equality, MDG4 on child health and MDG8 on building a global partnership for development.