FOR SOCIETY
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Children First
“We believe that every person has the right to have a good childhood, no matter what country they live in…” These words by our founder, Sabri Ülker, have guided and inspired us in all areas, including social responsibility projects, which are built on the idea of ‘children and happiness’.
Since 1944, dozens of generations have grown up with Ülker. Our sensitivity in the field of social responsability comes from our deep-rooted history. As always, one of our priorities is to support projects that will make children happy. Our projects in the fields of sports, culture and art contribute to children’s physical, social, cultural and mental development.
SPORTS
Ülker Junior Basketball Festival
Together with the Turkish Basketball Federation, we organized the Junior Basketball Festival in different provinces of our country between 2005 and 2013. 7000 children participated in the project whose main philosophy was to teach them the values of friendship, companionship and team spirit, as well as aiding their sporting development.
At the 2010 FIBA World Championship, We did not forget the children who participated in the Junior Basketball Festival. 100 players from teams that regularly participated in the festival from Ankara, Izmir and Kayseri shared the excitement of the FIBA World Championship, watching the best basketball players in the world live from the benches.
Football Festivities
Festivities were held in 81 provinces, and elementary school students from different districts were mixed together to play matches in the provincial centers. These tournaments for children aged 10 and 11 took place in a non-competitive, festive mood. The goal of the festival was to foster the importance of team spirit, not winning, and for the children to socialize through football and learn about sports at an early age.
Ülker Football for Children
We truly believe that our children are the future of our country, so beyond our contributions to professional football, We have also sponsored sports projects for children aged between 6 - 12 through the “Ülker Football for Children (Grassroots)” program. Since 2007, the projects we have carried out in partnership with the relevant federations have reached more than 330,000 children.
Ülker Football for Children Project
Football Villages: For 10 years every summer We have, implemented the TFF-Ülker Football Villages, where talented children aged between 12 and -13 who were monitored throughout the year were selected to have fun and study football, as well as a chance to attend classes in chess, balanced nutrition, creative drama, environmental awareness, personal care, first aid, and art education. 5,300 children participated over at 10 year period. 36 of the boys and 44 of the girls who participated in the TFF-Ülker Football Villages were selected for national teams. 50 children have signed with professional clubs.
Elite Football Villages: In January of 2015 and 2016, We organized the TFF-Ülker Elite Football Villages where the most talented children in the 12-13 age group developed basic football knowledge and practices through the training they received from national team coaches for a week. They also took part in activities such as city tours, training visits and conversations with professional football players. They discovered the spirit of brotherhood, respect, being a gentleman and solidarity that are at the core of football.
Football Schools: The Football Schools project was held from July 6 through September 15, 2015. The aim was to help children spend their free time playing sports and receive basic football training for 3 months in 14 cities in Türkiye. Every month at Football Schools, 60 children between the ages of 6 and 12 in each city, and 4,000 children in total had the opportunity to play football under the supervision of TFF Regional Trainers.
U13 Istanbul Schools League: During the 2015-2016 academic year, the TFF - Ülker U13 Istanbul Schools League was organized for the first time in Türkiye with the cooperation of the City Directorate of National Education and Youth Services Sports and the TFF organization. The project included a total of 380 schools in 38 districts in Istanbul and 12,000 13-year-old athletes who played matches during the academic year. Selected athletes from each district participated in a festival held at the end of the season. The aim of the project was to spread football in schools and encourage unlicensed students to play.
University - School Cooperation Project: With the TFF organizing, and in cooperation with universities with Physical Education and Sports Colleges (BESYO) or Sports Sciences Faculties, elementary school students received football training during their school periods with the objective of spreading football activities in schools. In addition, university students at schools of physical education and sports took part in this project to increase their experience as trainers.
A total of 240 elementary schools - 10 from each city - and 24 universities in total including 21 universities from Türkiye and 3 from Cyprus participated in the project, reaching 43,200 students.
TFF Ülker Future Star Girls
For many years, we have been in collaboration with the Turkish Football Federation to ensure equal opportunities for our girls, discover their talents, support their dreams wholeheartedly, and enhance the player pool of the U15 Girls National Team. We have launched the 'TFF Ülker Future Star Girls Project' for this purpose.
Regardless of their location, young girls born in the years 2009-2010-2011, who aspire to play for the Turkish U15 Girls National Team, aimed to be discovered through the TFF Ülker Future Star Girls project. Those interested in participating uploaded videos showcasing specific skills determined by the National Team Technical Directors (dribbling, shooting, passing, technical capacity) to the ulkeryildizkizlar.tff.org website by December 30, 2023.
From the submitted videos, the National Team technical directors selected 33 talented players to participate in the U15 Preparation Camp, held at the Riva Hasan Doğan Facilities from January 25 to 30, 2024.
During the camp held at Riva, the selected star candidates participated in various educational and activity sessions in addition to football training. They increased their awareness about sustainability through the Ülker Children's Art Workshop, where they learned about sustainability and enhanced their teamwork skills by working together. They also had the opportunity to observe the production process by visiting the Ülker Chocolate factory and received balanced nutrition education from experts at the Sabri Ülker Foundation.
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CULTURE AND ART
Ülker Children’s Movie Festival
As a gift to our children, on April 23rd, National Sovereignty and Children’s Day, We launched the Ülker Children’s Movie Festival project in 2008. With this festival held nationwide, We have reached about 1.1 million children over 9 years and given tens of thousands of children who coud not go otherwise an opportunity to experience the silver screen and expand their imaginations. This has resulted, in, a marked increase in moviegoers throughout Anatolia.
Ülker Chidren’s Art Workshop
We believe in introducing children to art at an early age and making it a part of their lives, contributing to the development of their imagination. To facilitate this, we launched the Ülker Children's Art Workshop project, aiming to bring art to children from a young age.
Our workshop, which first opened its doors at the Art Beat Istanbul Contemporary Art Fair in 2011, has introduced thousands of children to contemporary art on different platforms every year. In these workshops, children also had the opportunity to meet with prominent artists of the time and benefit from their artistic knowledge.
The Ülker Children's Art Workshop has brought approximately 16,000 children together with art through its ever-enriching content every year. The workshop has been hosted not only at leading art platforms like Contemporary Istanbul and Art International but also at exhibitions supported by Yıldız Holding, such as the Burhan Doğançay Retrospective, and in various cities during the Ülker Children's Cinema Festival.
Sustainability Themed Ülker Children Art Workshop
In 2022, we began organizing the Ülker Children's Art Workshop with a sustainability theme to help the children of our employees learn about our "waste-free company" culture in a fun way. At our Çamlıca office and factories, our children, guided by instructors, transformed unused Ülker packaging into flowers, plants, and animals. They also had the chance to see the workplaces of their parents.
The works created by our children in the Ülker Children's Art Workshop, inspired by the Ülker Beautiful Country Forest, continue to be exhibited in our offices and factories.
In 2023, birdhouses designed by the children of our employees at our Çamlıca office and factories found their place in nature with the birds. Other works produced in the workshop are displayed in the most beautiful corners of our offices and factories.
In 2023, we brought our workshop to the Ferit Aysan Education Park in Bakırköy, a part of the Turkish Educational Volunteers Foundation (TEGV).
A year later, we relocated the workshop to Hatay, an area affected by the Kahramanmaraş-centered earthquakes of February 6, 2023. At the Ülker Children's Art Workshop held at Hatay İSO YaşamKent, we introduced approximately 500 children aged 5-18 to art. We also provided preschool-aged children with the opportunity to create notebooks to write down their dreams.
