Events

1st Empathy New Year’s Shopping Festival

The Empathy New Year’s Shopping Festival, was held in Gaziantep at Teymur Continental Hotel on 25-26 December for the first time by the Empathy Social Responsibility and Education Association. The income raised from the festival will be donated to education.

The festival, which was organized to cover the expenses of Empathy Primary School, which opened in the 2013-14 academic year, was flooded with visitors. Many companies from various sectors in İstanbul, Gaziantep and surrounding cities participated in the Empathy New Year’s Shopping Festival with distinguished brands.

Some of the participants are Bretz, Dream Home, Collection Home, Armaggan, Beymen, Big ZK Dreams, Bristol, Design Elti’s, Doremix, Ferhat Ozansoy, G.E.O Global Training Organization, Gül Güler, Kids Story, Mini Atelier, Nazlı Ceylan, Nurus, Nurten Ceylan, Orijin Watch, Rolex, Persan Piculet, Pierre Cardin, Primemall, Swarovski, Sisters Home, Vakko, Kalori, Zahittin&Bülent, Times-Arı Optics, Batik, Little Shop of Miracles, MAC Sanko Park, Makupas, Network, Princess Design, Regnum SPA, Tantitoni, White Accessories.

The opening of the festival, where thousands of souvenirs are offered for sale under one roof, was attended by Gaziantep Governor Erdal Ata’s wife Mrs. Nazan Ata, Şehitkamil Mayor Rıdvan Fadıloğlu’s wife Mrs. Seval Fadıloğlu, Gaziantep Chamber of Industry Chairman Adil Konukoğlu’s wife Mrs. Jülide Konukoğlu, Empathy Social Responsibility and Education Chairwoman Pınar Topçuoğlu and members of the association.

Stating that Empathy Social Responsibility and Education Association continues its activities in accordance with its founding purposes and has achieved important firsts in its educational projects, Chairwoman Pınar Topçuoğlu said, “We organized many events for the construction of Empathy Primary School and each of them was a first in Gaziantep. We completed our school with the income raised from these events. The income raised from this festival, too, will be used for the acquisition of tools and equipment for our school, the participation fees for in-service training courses for our teachers, student scholarships and other expenses.

Topçuoğlu said: “2013 was a very good year for Empathy. Because we were focused on our objective of building a school and supporting education. Indeed, in 2013, we put our school with 850-student capacity, into service. Now, we are working to complete the improvements of our school. In this sense, the New Year’s event was also very productive. We collected a good amount of donation and thus will have completed the improvements of our school real soon. We established this association empathizing and I think what we are doing is worthy of empathy. On the other hand, there are groups that we invariably support. Because we are an education association we stand out with what we do in the field of education. But we also provide support for children in the oncology hospital, orphans, women’s shelter and our citizens in need. We support students studying not only at the Empathy School but also at the university. Although not in the limelight most of the time, we engage in support activities all the time.”

Dream Home Executive Melahat Döş said, “The association did a very successful job. It is very important that the income is going to be used for children. Should there be another event again, we will be happy to take part.”

Armaggan Executive Güliz Haymanalı said, “It is a pleasure to take part in such a meaningful social responsibility project. Here we met very special persons from Gaziantep and built strong relations. We take part in many social responsibility projects. We would like to thank Pınar Topçuoğlu for her interest and for including us in this beautiful project.”

Nurten Ceylan from Nurten Ceylan Fur and Leather Company said, “I saw how hardworking, conscious and experienced the women of Gaziantep are and would like to congratulate them for their work. It was such an elite organization that I could not tell whether I was in İstanbul or Gaziantep. We have seen that this country is not just about İstanbul and we are happy to have served a very good cause.”

The 2-day festival attracted huge interest. Chairwoman Pınar Topçuoğlu said, “I would like to thank our Board and members, visitors and participants for their trust and support. I wish 2014 to be a very good year for our country.”