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There are 12 children on the stage, between the ages of 8 and 17,
performing with Kardeş Türküler.
Together, they are singing songs
in Turkish, Kurdish, Armenian, Laz and Georgian languages.
All of these children are from the Tatvan district of the eastern province of Bitlis.
This is their first time performing on a stage, and for most of them,
it is their first time in Istanbul.
The story of this concert, which took place at Özyeğin University,
started in the villages of Tatvan.
Preparations for this concert have been going on in small classrooms of
the villages of Tatvan's Kavar River Basin for weeks.
Children, along with their instructors, are rehearsing for their songs in 5 different languages.
Next to their instructors is Nurcan Baysal, who dedicated her life to making a difference.
After graduating from Bilkent University, Nurcan Baysal began working
as an assistant at the university.
While everyone was expecting her to pursue an academic career,
she went back to her hometown Diyarbakır
during the difficult times of the 90s to work in civil society.
She dedicated her life to civil society initiatives.
- We sing together. An ensemble, it means to be together, doesn't it?
I came back to Diyarbakır in 1997, upon quitting my job as an assistant
at Bilkent University in Ankara.
I began working with the UN Development Program.
Initially I did some work in the women's movement.
While working on strengthening women's organizations at the local level,
we also made various efforts
to create awareness around women's entrepreneurship in the region.
In 2000, we established the Southeastern Anatolian Women's Entrepreneurship Advisory Council.
During the same period, we established an Entrepreneurship Centre
at Dicle University to offer courses on entrepreneurship.
Then, a group of my friends and I established the Development Centre in 2005.
We focused on certain topics at the Development Centre.
One of these was forced migration,
and other numerous projects focusing on
rural development and urban poverty.
In 2009, we established the Diyarbakır
Institute for Political and Economic Research, DISA in short.
I took part in establishing, or was either the president or a member of
numerous civil society organizations' board of directors.
I did all of these things,
because one cannot just ignore problems that one encounters so frequently.
Lately, Nurcan Baysal is undertaking projects in cooperation with
the Hüsnü M. Özyeğin Foundation in the Tatvan district of Bitlis.
Baysal is working as the coordinator of Hüsnü M. Özyeğin Foundation's Rural
Development Program being implemented in the villages of the Kavar River Basin.
Along with the Özyeğin Foundation, she is sprinkling seeds for a better
future on the fertile and of the Kavar River Basin.
- Özyeğin Foundation's Rural Development Program was initiated in the Kavar River Basin in 2008.
The main of this development program is to increase the living standards of Kavar's population.
What we also do is, we plant walnut trees.
Thereby, we built the future of Kavar's children as we planted
tens of thousands of walnut trees.
These gardens are being maintained regularly. We also collect local milk.
Until now, villagers did not make any money from milk,
but now they do.
We have a milk collection facility.
On the other hand, women were subject to a very heavy workload.
There were even deaths due to working conditions. That's why we set up a bakery.
Meanwhile, as part of their empowerment, women are also cultivating flowers
at the greenhouse, and producing honey as beekeepers.
Products made by the women of the Bolalan village are being sold
at Marks & Spencer and GAP stores.
Rather than her own career, Nurcan Baysal prioritized the future of her hometown.
She became part of the solution, instead of the problem.
She made a significant difference by dedicating her life to the civil society,
and demonstrated everyone that a different way of living is possible.