Community Building Trip to Southern California
On January 26-30, 2006, three board members of Friends
of Anatolia were in Los Angeles to meet with the
leading members of the Turkish American community
in the area.
Demet Yezgi, Ebru
Erdem, and Tugsan
Topcuoglu are
hosted by our vice president Sema
Basol at her house
for five days.
Once the team has arrived to Los Angeles, a conference
call was made to talk on strategies about upcoming
events and activities.
On
the second morning of the trip, our representatives
met with Suleyman Ari, who is a PhD student in
UCLA. The group talked about his latest academic
status so that Friends of Anatolia can evaluate his
eligibility for the sponsorship of Mehmet Okur, the
famous NBA player who supports Suleyman with the
assistance of Friends of Anatolia. President Demet
Yezgi also
talked with the university officers to confirm the
latest developments of his case.
Then the team met with John Safyurtlu, one of the
emerging Turkish businessmen in Southern California.
John has accepted to join the Advisory Council
of Friends of Anatolia to share his broad knowledge
of business and finance with us. As being one of
the past presidents of Association
of Turkish Americans of Southern California (ATASC),
he also gave information about the opportunities
for Turkish nonprofits in the region.
On
that evening, our board members had a dinner with
Sibel and Ali Cayir at their nice house to talk
about the problems and strengths of Turkish American
community in the Los Angeles region and the rest
of Southern California.
The
next day, a brunch is organized by Sema Basol to
come together with the representatives of ATASC and
Los Angeles Turkish American Association (LATAA),
a chapter of ATASC.
Several collaboration opportunities between these
organizations and Friends of Anatolia are discussed
during this event.
After the brunch, the group attended a dinner
at Vega and Haluk Sankur's house in Ventura county.
A presentation of Friends of Anatolia is made by
President Demet Yezgi during this dinner.
The next day, Sunday, after an hour-long conference
call with the rest of the board, our representatives
went to UCLA to see the screening of the movie, Desperate
Hours, and meet with the prominent figures of the
Turkish and Jewish communities in Los Angeles. Our
board members also met with Asuman Yilmaz
of Turkish American Ladies League (TALL) and Eser
Turan of Turkuaz
Magazine.
On the same evening, our new board member, Lisya
Mizrahi, joined our team to have a dinner and
discuss about financial issues.
On the last day of the trip, our four board members
met with Mr. Ambassador Engin Ansay, Consul General
for Turkish Republic, at the Turkish Consulate in
Los Angeles. At the meeting, we had a chance to tell
about our mission and programs and discuss how we
can contribute to the Turkish American community
in the U.S. Mr. Ambassador congratulated us for our
hard work and expressed his support. We also met
with the Vice-Council Anil Inan to get more demographic
information about the Turkish community in the U.S.
After a brief evaluation of the meetings and discussions
of these fruitful five days, the trip came to and
end on Monday night.
We
are glad to mention that this trip will bring further
opportunities for Friends of Anatolia. The
organizations and individuals we met were eager to
work with Friends of Anatolia on different projects
and utilize our experience and knowledge on issues
such as fundraising and nonprofit management.
As a side note, thanks to the generous support of
the individuals we met in Southern California, we
were able to raise funds for our programs and activities.
Friends of Anatolia thanks to Sema
Basol, who hosted
our delegation at her house for four nights and setup
all these meetings. We also thank to Vega
and Haluk Sankur for their
hospitality and the wonderful dinner at their place
in Ventura.
