Book Counter, a project initiated after a group of statistics students examined illiteracy in Turkey and found a need for broader access to books, has reached 6,000 students since 2012, reported Gaiga online magazine. The team applied to various grant programs for monetary support and received aid from the Turkish National Agency.
The volunteer students converted a minibus donated by Gazi University into a traveling library and have now delivered more than 12,000 books to 6,000 students in 20 schools in 13 different districts of Ankara. Mehmet Serdar Yetkin, a project member, said: "Around 15,000 disused books are in use in our library. The bus hit the road in May 2014. We started the project with no more than five people; however, we've reached over 200 volunteers, and we have more than 100 volunteers actively working on the project."
Yetkin said that people could donate books to the Traveling Library or institutions similar to Book Counter. He added: "There are many schools that are waiting for us to bring them books. We do not accept money; however, we are sometimes in need of certain things during our operations. If those who want to help us can contact us via social media, we will inform them about our needs."
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