What started as one schoolgirl's idea has turned into a national network of children doing good across Türkiye. Elmira Ayabakan was just ten when, inspired by a book she had read, she set up a kindness club at her school. With encouragement from her teacher, Yeliz Biçer, that small classroom project grew into the Türkiye Kindness Club — and Elmira still runs it as president.
The initiative didn't stay within school walls for long. Elmira's mother, Pınar Dağ Ayabakan, helped scale it up and now leads the Türkiye Kindness Club Platform, an umbrella body that connects families, volunteers, public institutions and civil society groups around the country. The platform backs a wide mix of projects: building school libraries, equipping special education classrooms, organising neighbourhood activities, running anti-bullying campaigns, and partnering on solidarity drives with two of Türkiye's best-known organisations, the Turkish Red Crescent (Kızılay) and the Green Crescent (Yeşilay).
It has crossed borders, too. Elmira travelled to North Macedonia, where she worked with children from the Turkish community in the village of Koliçan to create a book together — a small but telling sign of how far a school club idea can travel.
What sets the movement apart is its philosophy. The platform insists children shouldn't just be beneficiaries of projects adults have designed for them; they should be trusted to come up with ideas, take responsibility and lead. It's a bottom-up model of volunteering, and the slogan captures it neatly: kindness begins in one heart and grows together.
For travellers, the story is a window into the community spirit you'll encounter in Turkish towns and neighbourhoods — the same culture of local solidarity, from neighbourhood festivals to charity campaigns, that visitors often experience firsthand. And for families travelling with children, it's a reminder that school-age kids in Türkiye are actively encouraged to shape the world around them, whether that's a book corner in a village school or a campaign against bullying. If your trip brings you through Anatolian towns or smaller communities, chances are you'll bump into the volunteer energy this movement has helped spark.
Full story via Daily Sabah Travel.
