Izzet Taskiran
May 30, 2019•Update: May 30, 2019
ISTANBUL
Turkish Airlines (THY) cabin crew founded Flying to Kindness project to reach people in need across the globe through charity work.
Kicking off with a small number of volunteers, the project became a huge success as more aviation professionals got on board, said cabin crew chief Sinem Guldal.
"We now have 3,000 volunteers not only from our cabin crew but from different departments throughout the whole company," Guldal told Anadolu Agency.
There are also volunteers from other aviation companies, she added.
Guldal underlined that the goal of the program was to reach areas others would consider unreachable.
"We could have visited a school in the city center of Entebbe [Uganda] and have been on our way, but that is not how we work. We go to places 3-4 kilometers or 3-4 hours from the city, to places where others don't dare to venture." she said.
"When we brought toys and footballs to the children, we saw that they didn't know how to play with them. When we understood this, we showed them how," she said, adding that it was clear from the children's faces that they had never tasted candy or chocolate before, either.
"Every child deserves to know the taste of a chocolate, every child deserves to know the pleasure of playing football," she added.
The project focuses more on people in need around Turkey, according to Guldal.
"People reach our teammates for their needs. Our main priority is improving the physical conditions of education for young children. But we try to help everyone, [providing such things as] wheelchairs, winter clothing and food packages," she said.
"Flying to many places around the world as does our company, we want to touch the hearts of as many people as possible," Guldal said.
*Writing by Busra Nur Bilgic
