MESSAGE FROM THE FOUNDER AND THE HONORARY CHAIRMAN
Precious Marine Friends,
I am at ease and delighted. Thanks to TURMEPA, which we have established a quarter century ago, we are coming closer to achieving our main goal even though we have not reached it yet. We have a strong influence on public opinion.
The spark which we have lit turned into a flame with our people, our government, public institutions, schools, local administrations, Turkish Armed Forces and our younger generation. TURMEPA is embraced by everyone. We are working with various people and organizations for many of our projects, both in private and public sectors.
It is now accepted and understood that we are an authority in the field of keeping seas clean. However, a quarter century ago, there were 3-4 organizations like us. We were almost competitors because our belief, strategy and patience were not yet proven.
For example, our government has claimed the idea of preserving seas from plastic waste even more than us maybe. Yet have we reached our goal? No!
When we established TURMEPA 27 years ago, the number of people living near the sea was approximately 28 million, while today this amount increased to approximately 45 million. Today, we are pleading the protection of seas to twice as many people.
As I have said at the beginning, we have raised awareness regarding protection of seas, which is the most enjoyable and satisfying part of our job. We cooperate with everyone, so to speak.
I would like to thank our dear presidents, managers, and supporters, who brought us to these days and wish that we work together for many quarter centuries. Yours affectionately.
RAHMİ M. KOÇ
MESSAGE FROM THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Dear friends of the sea and blue,
DenizTemiz Association/TURMEPA, has expanded the scope of its contributions through education and raising awareness projects. TURMEPA, which has adopted the mission of instilling love of seas and environmental awareness to future generations through education projects that engage children from different districts with seas and the understanding of “I can’t know what I don’t see, I can’t love what I don’t know, I can’t protect what I don’t love.”, gave environmental lessons to 8 million 300 thousand students and raised 16 thousand educators.
Considering the influence of these practices, I can proudly say that training and awareness projects of TURMEPA has played a major role in raising sensitivity regarding the aforementioned issues in our country. That’s why, by highlighting our education projects in this annual report you hold; I wanted you to see the activities of TURMEPA through the eyes of our children, who look at the blue future full of hope.
Our goal is to show you how much we have grown in 27 years and how your valuable contributions reflected on our children’s happy faces, via their photographs. This year, TURMEPA is proud since we observe the positive consequences of the warnings we made about plastics and recycling as well as the projects we conducted concerning education and awareness, both in national and international grounds. Mobilization against plastic waste has started in areas where TURMEPA pointed all over the world.
Our motto, which we have used for years “
If there is sea, there is life.” has spread all over Turkey thanks to the Ministry of Environment and Urbanization.
World without bags, which
is a project we have been carrying out for the last 3 years, has come to life across the country. I firmly believe that we will take our activities to the
next level in the near future and develop a wide range of environmental development models that will make our country go further with the leadership of the public and the cooperation of specialized non- governmental organizations. We are experiencing the first example of this with the “Zero Waste” project.In order for the “Zero Waste” project, which is carried out under the auspices of the Minister of Environment and Urbanization as well as Mrs. Emine Erdoğan, to spread among the public, we as nonprofit organizations have a big responsibility. That’s why TURMEPA supports the “Zero Waste” movement with all its projects. In
our new year, we intend to further raise our voices within the scope of the “Zero Waste” project with your support and our already executed projects.
With endless thanks to our supporters and volunteers who help TURMEPA.
ŞADAN KAPTANOĞLU