Many families in undeveloped urban and rural areas of Turkey live below the poverty line. In these areas education is not easily accessible for girls.  Boys are more likely to attend school than girls; in some regions male students outnumber female students two-to-one. As a result, Turkey has a high rate of illiteracy among its female population: Of the 7.5 million illiterate adults in Turkey in 2000, 24 percent were male, 76 percent female.

To address this problem, Cagdas Yasami Destekleme Dernegi (CYDD - The Association in Support of Contemporary Living) launched a project in 1997 to educate girls living in rural parts of Turkey, starting with 17 female students. The program was successful and, by 1998, the number scholarships increased to 237. However, the association’s finances were insufficient to expand the program.

In 2000, Turkcell conducted an extensive research project that identified education as an important area of need in Turkish society that would most benefit from Corporate Responsibility funding and initiatives. Turkcell determined that expansion of CYDD’s educational program would have a tremendous positive impact on the future of Turkey, and partnered with CYDD as a corporate sponsor and co-manager of the KARDELENLER (Snowdrops) project.

A research made in 2000 among NGO’s, finance, government sectors, media, and students clearly indicated that education is an area where Turkcell could make a positive contribution to Turkish society. As a result of this research, Turkcell formed the Snowdrops project. Students enrolled in the project are called “Snowdrops.”Snowdrops symbolize the struggle to reach the light through black earth and white snow, just like the girls running towards knowledge despite tradition and regional difficulties

To start the project, local governments, local educational institutions, teachers, NGO’s, and Turkcell’s locally operating sales agents were asked to help select girls to receive scholarships.

Goals in mind:
Offering equal opportunity in education to girls that had the determination to go to school but lacked the financial resources to do so; Giving scholarships to 10,000 female high school students every year; Supporting female students that continue their education in University, Growing the Snowdrops project beyond the status of a Turkcell project to become a project of Turkey; Expanding the project - launched initially in the Eastern provinces where financial hardships are more severe - to the whole country over time.

Communication channels:

• Media relations
• Turkcell Internal Communication
• Advertising
• Promotional materials (Calendars, notebooks, school materials, etc.)

• The project was launched in August 2000, with a press conference. The Snowdrops project started by providing educational scholarships to 5,000 female students.
• In the 3rd year of the project sub projects were formed to expand the program in the country. In 2003, Turkcell published a book about the true stories of the Snowdrops. The stories were compiled and written by the famous Turkish novelist Ayşe Kulin and photographed by Manuel Çıtak.To date, the book was reprinted 28 times to meet the demand from hundreds of thousands of readers.
• In 2004, Turkcell started the “Mentoring Program (YONDER)” for the Snowdrops that continued their university education.
• The famous Turkish singer Sezen Aksu made an album about Snowdrops titled “Kardelen”, and she also gave 21 concerts in 2005 in a multi-city tour spanning Turkey to promote the album,solicit donations to the project.
• In 2007, Turkcell announced that the number of Snowdrops scholarships will be increased from 5.000 to 10.000 girls every year.
• In 2008, a documentary film referred to Snowdrops is prepared by National Geographic.  Shooting of the film made in the provinces of Eastern Turkey and will air on National Geographic Channels in Turkey and abroad in May 2009.

• Snowdrops hitherto provided scholarships to total of 20.000 students received scholarships. 8,666 students graduated from high school, 1,902 passed university entrance exams, and 755 graduated from university.
• These graduate Snowdrops are now professionals contributing to their hometown, as teachers, computer programmers, lawyers, doctors, nurses or accountants. The project is not just changing the lives of these Snowdrops; it is also contributing to the education of their families and the environment at large.

Snowdrops project merited IPR Excellence Awards, WEPR and CSR Awards, ESA Awards abroad, and 12 national awards.

Following are the international awards won by the project:

• 2001 -IPRA Excellence Awards - in the Corporate Social Responsibility category
• 2002 - WEPR's (The Foundation of Women Executives in Public Relations) Crystal Obelisk
• 2005 - PR News - CSR Awards Honorable Mention
• 2008- ESA European Sponsorship Awards

• According to Capital magazine’s “Turkey’s Social Responsibility Leaders” survey the business world finds it to be the most successful project in the field of social responsibility.
• According to “Turkey’s Social Responsibility Leaders” survey by GFK Türkiye conducted 2005, 2006 and 2007-2008Turkcell was rated as the most successful company in the field of social responsibility among the business world.

• In the field of corporate social responsibility the project is used as a case study and has been part of peoples´ thesis in universities.