The “Bridge of Hearts” project has been conducted jointly by the Turkish Ministry of National Education and Turkcell.

It is a social responsibility project which enables 100,000 students from all over Turkey to visit provinces within the country that they have never seen before, to explore regional characteristics and different cultures and break the ethnic based prejudices, especially between the impoverished east and relatively developed western parts of the country.The students, aged 13-17, took part in cultural activities and built lasting friendships during their one week trip.

During the trip, each student was placed in a host family which had a child at the same age. The hosting child helped the visitor student get to know the visiting province more closely.The program started on June 1, 2008 and lasted for 8 weeks.

During the project;4,760 bus trips were made and a distance of 4,630,000 km was covered. Close to 10,000 trees were planted in 10 cities of Turkey to form the “Bridge of Hearts Memory Forest”. 2,380 administrators and 4,760 teachers accompanied the students. Project Teams of 255 individuals in 81 provinces of Turkey ensured the project to run smoothly.From the announcement of the program till the end of the trips, a considerable intensity in media coverage has been achieved.

The first launch inauguration of the project was organized in Ankara, the capital city, with the participation of the Prime Minister, the Minister of National Education, the students and the press. At the meeting, the Prime Minister, stated that the project is one of the most important social responsibility projects of this year in terms of content and budget. Hundreds of letters were sent to opinion leaders, artists, professors who were called to support the project as “Project Volunteers”.The kick-off meeting was organized on June 3rd in Diyarbakir, one of the major cities in the southeast part of Turkey owning different ethnic groups, and the first group was waved off by the Minister of National Education, Turkcell employees and journalists.A documentary film of the project was produced – The short version was distributed to the media and the long version was shown on TV.Another innovative idea was the duty of planting a tree in every visited city to form a Memory Forest. So the children would also gain environmental awareness.

Exchanges of 100,000 students between all the provinces of Turkey have been realised.The benefit of this project was realized by a survey conducted at the end of the project: 90% of the participants stated that the program contributed positively to their self improvement and that they would like to re-participate to such a program if it was repeated.The participant’s interviews in the documentary show that the trips eliminated the regional prejudices in their minds and that they established bonds of affection with their host families and peers.Corporate social responsibility projects as Bridge of Hearts affects also the employees positively. A survey showed that 98% of Turkcell employees stated that they consider voluntary activities an important tool for their commitment to the company.From the announcement of the program till the end of the trips, a considerable intensity in media coverage has been achieved: • Newspaper: 379 news articles (187 national & 192 local newspapers)• TV: 191 programmes (aired 25 hours)• Internet: 132 news articles.