CSR work in Turkey
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IT consultant Neil Kendall-Cheese swapped sun, sea and sand for keyboards, mice and a screwdriver during his last trip to Turkey when he volunteered to fix the computing facilities at a local school. Neil, who runs BC-Services in Long Melford, The kind-hearted businessman, who owns a second home in Altinkum with his wife Beverley, forged a lasting link with the school during an earlier trip when he met an English teacher who was also running a gift shop to supplement his income. After hearing the pupils were short of English books, needed to learn language skills, Neil donated 25 kilos of reading material when he holidayed in Turkey in September. After seeing the poor state of the school's two computer labs, the 47-year-old also pledged to return in December to carry out repairs. He said: "The first time I saw the computer lab I thought 'my God it’s a graveyard'. They had two rooms full of computers and only the two teachers' machines were working. No one knew how the network worked either." Turkish airlines generously donated a ticket to enable Neil to travel to Turkey in December and, with the money he saved on the flight, he bought 40 Turkish computer keyboards and a laser mouse for the pupils to use. During the trip, Neil repaired all of the machines in one of the classrooms and has promised to return in February with wife Beverley to fix the remaining computers.
He continued: "The aim is to get school children computer literate as well as aiding their English language skills for the future. "This country upsets me in certain ways because the young people have got all the advantages they could possibly want and what do they do with it? The children in Turkey are so appreciative. "The first time I went there with the books was wonderful. The kids just came rushing in. There were Action Man books among the collection and the boys were just looking at them saying 'wow, something we can actually learn to read from'." |
breathed new life into broken computers and fixed the faulty internet connection at Ataruk Primary School, near Didim Belediye when he visited in December.
Neil has also teamed up with several companies, an English language newspaper called Voices in Turkey to ask the ex-pat population and holidaymakers to donate their old computers, laptops, accessories and books to the school. In the UK he has partnered with CPW Computing in Needham Market who provide recycled computers and monitors.