F.I G.’s shop & Staff

 

 

 

We are delighted to introduce Julie Peach, who has managed our shop since we moved a year ago.  Julie has been coming to Turkey for the last eighteen years, but decided to settle here around 5 years ago.  She particularly chose Fethiye because of its all year round activities and the fact it was not reduced to a ghost town at the end of the tourist season.

Having followed F.I G’s activities from this newspaper, when she saw the advert for a new shop manager Julie decided to apply as she thought it would be a useful way to occupy some of her time and she because she had considerable experience in retail.  Also the fact that F.I G worked to help local schools and children was something after her own heart.

Having turned down the offer of five star luxury, in order to celebrate her 30^th wedding anniversary, Julie and her husband travelled to India to stay in an eco lodge.  This was situated in the hills inland from Goa, where she and her family also spent many of their holidays.  She thoroughly enjoyed this opportunity to get closer to the real lives of the indigent people and was deeply affected to see the little children being schooled whilst sitting on the earth with only a flimsy shelter.  Very sadly her husband died suddenly three months after this special holiday.  Julie requested donations rather than flowers for the funeral and with the money raised she revisited India and was able to oversee the erection of a wooden building with wooden floors for the children to be able to have their lessons in a more suitable manner.  This building has been dedicated to the memory of her husband.

Julie’s commitment to F.I.G has overseen the establishment and development of our lovely new shop and thereby helped to increase our contacts and our income.  It really is a pleasant place to browse through our stock, look for something interesting to read and sit and have a chat with friends.  And all this increases our ability to help local schools and children.

If you wish to volunteer - we are currently especially looking for volunteers able to cover leave and short notice absences, but also have room for more permanent arrangements, i.e. you don’t have to commit to a full day every week, then please contact Julie on mob tel 0538 370 68 23 and give her the times and days that would suit you.

Donations of clean, saleable clothes and bric a brac to assist our charity are always welcome and can be delivered direct to our shop which is open between 10am to 4pm Mon. Tue. Thur. Fri. and between 1pm- 6pm on Wednesdays.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week we are pleased to introduce Vicky and Marion, who both help out at the shop on Mondays.  Vicky Green, a delightful and friendly young woman, had been holidaying in Turkey for 12 years and then six years ago she met Umit; and stayed!  She has since worked here in tourism and estate agency work.  Vicky learned about FIG and its activities about 2 years ago after reading about us in this newspaper, and last year she contacted Julie and came to work in the shop, where she has been very welcome.

Vicky likes the fact that FIG has both Turkish and ex-pat volunteers and is glad she has learned quite a lot of Turkish as that helps with many of our customers.  Vicky thoroughly enjoyed our last school visit and found it very rewarding to see how pleased the recipients were with the help we gave and how much positive difference it made to their circumstances.  Vicky also enjoys her volunteering work at the shop and is sad that her employment for this season may mean we will see less of her during the summer, but she will definitely be back giving more time come next winter.

Marion Kayaalp had been visiting Fethiye for 15 years.  Following the death of her elderly father 2 years ago she now lives here permanently with her husband, who runs their joint business project the Dolphin Beach Hotel in Calis.

Marion, always with a smile, is a friendly knowledgeable and unassuming woman.  Amongst a considerable career of work she has six years experience of working in an Oxfam charity shop.  She volunteered to work in our shop after first making friends with us at our coffee morning.  Marion learned about FIG from this newspaper and thinks our activities are extremely worthwhile, considering investment in children and their education is very valuable for the future.  On the personal side she has enjoyed the opportunity to meet and make friends, she values the structure her regular commitment has given to her life and enjoys the opportunity to practise her Turkish that the work in the shop has given her.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week we are introducing our Wednesday afternoon staff, with Cathy on the left and Joyce on the right of the picture.

Joyce has been living in Fethiye for the last ten years.  Prior to that she would holiday here quite frequently and had held plans to travel around Turkey, but as she says in her delightful Geordie accent ‘Ay got noo further than Fethiye!’

Joyce has been a supporter of FIG since it started and began her involvement by bringing us donations in the days when we operated from the FETAV office.  Following our move to these new premises she has welcomed the opportunity to work as a volunteer in the shop, where she enjoys meeting new folk and helping to support the good work that can be done with the monies raised by the efforts of all those involved in FIG.

Cathy Connor, an energetic cyclist, first came to FIG as she says ‘In a desperate search for something to read’.  This was soon after the new shop opened, her visits to choose books led her to make some friends and then to volunteer to help.

Cathy, with her two daughters has been living in Fethiye just over a year; she had been coming on regular holiday visits prior to that for 6-7 years and finally decided that life over here would be more beneficial than staying in England.  Now her two daughters are well settled in local schools and both have become fluent in Turkish, so she is very happy with her decision.  Cathy especially likes the support that FIG gives to the small village schools and so is more than willing to give some of her time to directly help make some teachers and children very happy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This week, from left to right, we introduce Grace Carter, Glenys Pates and Ann Clarke.  These ladies, well known to many of you, currently staff the shop on Tuesdays and Fridays.

Grace Carter is one of F.I.G’s founder members and she came to live in Fethiye eleven years ago.  After coming here for holidays and making several friends she decided that it would be a most pleasant place to which to retire.  Grace was co-opted into the team that helped F.I.G set up as she was writing articles that spoke about how some local schools were desperate for books, she was also involved in presenting both TV and radio programmes.  So following her previous involvement at the Home Bar, where they raised money for a local school, Grace developed the idea of ‘Books for Books’ whereby the income from a book swapping scheme would be used to buy new books for schools, hence our large selection of books.  Grace has been a regular and reliable volunteer from the day, over 6 years ago, when we first opened on Friday mornings at the FETAV office and has continued that way through all our moves to date.  She never takes a day off and has only been absent a very few times due to illness or travel.  Grace also has artistic talents and makes some very nice hand drawn cards and she also keeps a dossier with many pictures from our school visits, which she would be happy to share with you.

Colourful Glenys Pates settled in Caliş in 2001 after several holidays in the area which made her, ‘know I wanted to live here’.  She says she feels safe and happy living here.  Glenys started to work with F.I.G nearly 5 years ago and states that ‘having experienced hard times in my own life I wanted to do something that helped others’.  She says that she really enjoys seeing the pleasure on the children’s and teacher’s faces when we go on school visits and that that makes the work very worthwhile, she particularly likes handing sweets out to the children.  Glenys worked at Ruddington Grange Golf course in England for 15 years and has a lot of experience in organising weddings, charity events and silver service waiting.  Glenys was in charge of our clothes sales until we moved to our new premises, where she has happily let Julie take over the organising of this much larger project.  Glenys has now sadly left working for FIG for personal reasons.

Ann Clarke came to Fethiye five years ago, following the death of her husband, to join her son who used to work here as an entertainer.  Her son has since moved on, but Ann has stayed as she feels happy and settled over here.  Ann joined to help F.I.G soon after she arrived, stating that it has helped make many friends.  She regards the move we made from our enforced stay at the back of the market to the new premises as the best one we have made.

Ann really approves of F.I.G’s activities and thinks its achievements are ‘marvellous’.  She has also enjoyed a school visit or two, both for the views on the way there and back and to witness the gratitude of teachers and pupils making all our efforts worthwhile.  Ann also enjoys the structure her 2 days a week commitment gives to her life, together with the opportunities to make even more friends.

 

 

Fethiye International Group