10 February 2023
I was deeply moved when they told me of something that happened on the motorway in ISTANBUL. From what they described, another dog had dragged to the side of the road the body of a dog killed by a car.
Then there are animals that suckle the young of others, people who pick up cigarette ends from the ground and throw them in the bin, people who put food out for the birds on their balcony or in front of their window. What benefit do these animals or people gain that makes them act this way, I wonder? Is it not the same with those who have fountains built so that people they have never met or known may drink?
It seems to me that for some, doing good is a need. I wonder: can everyone who finds the chance to do good actually do it?
I observe that humanity's most common value is “goodness”. What I understand by goodness is this: an act, a donation, a prayer, a gesture or an expression made in the belief that it will benefit someone else, without expecting anything in return…
In one way or another we understand that people — whatever their religion, culture or geography — possess the feeling or the idea of goodness. The child who feeds the birds, the parent who gives the child money to buy feed and throw it to the birds, those whose gaze and whose smile carry approving gestures and expressions as they watch the child scattering the feed, and you who read these words and feel a sweet stirring within — you are all parts of that goodness.
Are there not people who like none of this? I suppose there are… Writing negative words even about such people is a difficult task for me. It is quite hard to analyse why someone would dislike goodness and keep away from it. In the end, even by doing so you are saying something bad.
Let us say, “Being part of goodness is a matter of destiny,” and not sin against anyone. Let us go on searching for the answer to the question, “Why does a person want to do good?”…
Looking without distinction of time or place, the fact that goodness is a common value may be evidence that it is part of human nature. Whether living or non-living, these good acts must take place for any being at all to sustain its existence. If a woman were to say, “It is not clear whether the child will bring me any return tomorrow or not,” and give up bearing and caring for a child, the human race would end. Likewise, since all beings complete one another, it seems that with the absence of the act of goodness the existence of all of them would be endangered.
“Doing good is a fine thing, but it is not easy to do” — I can understand this complaint too. Perhaps this is the crux of the matter!
In Eminönü, someone who helped a blind friend of mine to carry his suitcase took the suitcase and disappeared. If someone else, with the very best of intentions, wished to do my blind friend a kindness by carrying his suitcase, how could a person with such a bitter experience trust him and hand it over?
You want to do good to the children who try to sell paper tissues at the traffic lights, but as it turns out, the money you give means that child will be kept out there even longer. Those who send the child there see that the business is profitable and send them out again the next day…
Once you sacrificed an animal with the very best of intentions, and it turned out that in the background the terrorist organisation called FETÖ was digging a pit for our country…
One day your doorbell rings, or in squares and at bus stops magazines, newspapers and theatre tickets are sold for people with disabilities; you cannot know whether it goes to people with disabilities or whether someone is exploiting them and pocketing it…
Of course a remedy for these things has been devised.
Associations and foundations naturally deliver the good they intend to the places they intend it for (and they must). They are also audited by the state. There is a system in which the state follows every kuruş and asks in minute detail whether the aid given by citizens has reached the places announced. The system it audits most intensively is that of associations and foundations granted “Exempt Fundraising Status”. These are organisations that do not require permission to collect aid and receive donations. They do not need permission to accept good deeds, but they account in fine detail for how they spend them. You say, “I will use the money that comes in for education,” but education is a broad field. Nor is it enough to say you plan to buy computers for students with disabilities. You must specify and decide, down to the finest detail, how many people and what kind of people you will give what kind of computer to, and at what cost. And then you are audited on whether you carried out the transactions accordingly.
Although there are tens of thousands of associations and foundations across Türkiye, the total number holding this status is 29. The Turkish Beyazay Association is the 29th organisation to be granted it.
After being granted this status, Beyazay launched the “Education Overcomes Every Barrier” campaign. As a person with a disability whose life was changed 180 degrees by education, I know at first hand that this campaign will change the lives of many people with disabilities and of their families.
I know that a person with a disability who finds the opportunity of education can do a great many things, from managing to support themselves to holding a job, from building a home to being of benefit to their family and to society.
In fact, human nature will thereby be fulfilled. That the potential of a person with a disability should not be brought out is a loss shared by all humanity. Supporting the emergence of every person's potential is in fact a requirement of that nature revealing itself.
God willing, from time to time we will present here — without wearying you — the various dimensions of the “Education Overcomes Every Barrier” campaign, which will achieve an extremely beneficial and good purpose.
There are many ways of being part of this good deed on the material plane, from regular donations to donating by credit card. For me the easiest way is donating by sending an SMS. Is there a feeling of gratitude within me? I immediately text DESTEK to 7392 and send 5 TL. Is there a wish within me to be protected from some calamity or accident? I immediately text DESTEK to 7392 and send 5 TL. Have I seen someone doing good and felt the urge to do good too? Instantly I text DESTEK to 7392 and send 5 TL. And — praise be — I am certain of to whom and how it is spent!
So there is no problem.
May God deprive none of us of the blessing of doing good!
LOKMAN AYVA