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Istanbul, Turkey

Clean-up of Golden Horn Bay

Poster Contest Winner, Ecem Guleray, Age 12

Winning Students Initiating the Project: Ecem Guleray and Irem Yilmaz

Name of Community: Hisar Educational Foundation (HEV) School, Göktürk-Kemerburgaz Region, Istanbul, Turkey

Project Name: Clean-up of Golden Horn Bay and Public Awareness Campaign. Golden Horn or by its Turkish Name (Haliç, short for Haliç-i Dersaadet, meaning 'The Bay of Istanbul') is a fresh water estuary that divides the city of Istanbul.

HEV School, has been a member of the Eco Schools Program since 2005, and they were awarded with a green flag by FEE in 2006. Their theme for last year and this year is water.

The two winning students (Ecem Guleray and Irem Yilmaz) developed a community water committee and completed two planning phases with assistance from their Biology Teacher and Eco-School Coordinator, Tugba Elif Ercan.

Student Beach Clean Up Crew

Their community water committee consists of eight students (including the poster contest winners and the Eco School Water Team members), one mentor teacher, the Science Department Head, the ISTAC-Sea Surface/Beach Cleaning Chief and a parent working for Göktürk Municipality.

Poster Contest Winner, Irem Yilmaz, Age 15

Golden Horn, is a very close to the HEV schools. For many reasons, Golden Horn is strategic in the fight against water pollution and restoration of their community water resources. This region is one of the most important water resources not only for their school area but also the entire city because it collects water from other tributaries and releases the water into the Sea of Marmara. Golden Horn is the newest resource for water extraction, purification, and reuse.

Golden Horn is getting dirty because of human effects. Contaminated water of Haliç (Golden Horn) threatens living organisms in the water. Contaminated fish may affect humans, as it is one of the major food sources. HEV Schools have chosen the cleaning of Golden horn as their ACTION project. They began to work on this issue at the end of last school year. This year they will improve their project and work as surface and beach cleaning staff and include a public awareness component to their project.

The cleaning of this region will provide long-term benefits to the city. During cleaning activities; students and other staff will wear protective dressing, gloves, sterile masks, clean nets. The cleaning chief will orientate the team to the suitable region. Communities living in that area will be aided by temporary volunteer groups during each activity. Raising awareness within the community is also considered of vital importance. This project is overlapped with the relevant units of different disciplines’ syllabi.
Help the Students of HEV Schools in the Clean Up Golden Horn Bay

Last Updated ( Tuesday, 09 December 2008 )

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