10 YEARS DEDICATED TO EDUCATION AND NATURE.

BODRUM GÜNCEL HABER NEWSPAPER

September 17, 2025

To read the news: https://www.bodrumguncelhaber.com

On the 10th anniversary of the EGET Foundation, Board Chair Özlem UZMAN held a press conference to share the 10-year journey of the Muğla-based EGET Foundation and its contributions to society.

“All our activities have focused on ensuring that our youth do not drop out of education.”

“Turkey has gained new cosmetic brands from Muğla:

It is possible to both protect the soil and obtain reliable, environmentally friendly products through environmentally conscious farming methods.”

From EGET Board Chair Özlem UZMAN on its 10th Anniversary:

-“We have created a strong corporate structure”

-A pioneering and exemplary initiative in Turkey: Our software, BUSED, which gives every student equal opportunities, has been launched.

-A social initiative that inspires the world: A lavender-scented scholarship fund!

-Organic production, organic distillation unit

-Organic lavenders transformed into high value-added cosmetic products: Muğla is now home to a cosmetic brand.

-EGET's gold medal-winning olive oils are on the world stage!

-EGET's natural products are available on all digital marketplaces!

-Environmentally friendly farming is possible: Muğla's EGET is on the Good Market list!

-We are replanting the seeds of our ancestors!

-We are happy to share another piece of good news with you. EGET is on the European stage: EGET's HEEFTA Project was selected from among 631 applications!

-Goodness spreads in waves through cultural activities: We harvest our lavender with a festival, share nature with students, and learn together!

-We ran for good in Eskişehir and became the participant who collected the most donations!

-EGET -New Brand from EGET Foundation: Efilyun Lemongrass Hotel Series in Final Stages

MUĞLA – Özlem UZMAN, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Education, Geriatrics, Ecological Agriculture, and Tourism Foundation (EGET), held a press conference on the 10th anniversary of the EGET Foundation, sharing the foundation's 10-year journey and its contributions to society.

Recalling that EGET was founded in Muğla on July 25, 2015, by Safai ÖZER and Özlem UZMAN, Uzman emphasized that, in line with Atatürk's words, "It is education that either allows a nation to live as a free, independent, and advanced society, or abandons it to slavery and misery," they have set contributing to society as their main goal.

Why does EGET exist?

Underlining that lack of education is the biggest obstacle to a country's development, Özlem UZMAN explained that they have designed a scholarship system focusing on the most disadvantaged young people at risk of dropping out of education. Özlem Uzman, emphasizing that the foundation's entire focus is on providing scholarships to more young people and that this is enshrined in the Foundation's charter as a non-negotiable clause, stated: “However, we did not limit our work solely to scholarships. Because we also wanted to find solutions to other problems in our country that we care about. Today, we are in a period where the soil continues to be polluted with chemicals, and concerns about the safety of the food on our tables are increasing. Although life expectancy is increasing, aging healthily is becoming more difficult every day. Traditional tourism on our coasts has reached a point of stagnation, and a new breath of fresh air is needed – ecotourism, agrotourism, etc. Instead of being just a non-governmental organization that provides scholarships, our goal was to establish a structure with strong roots that focuses on people, values ​​nature, and operates according to sustainability principles. Therefore, we aim to set good examples not only with our rhetoric but also with the practices we put into action.”

-“We have established a strong institutional structure”

Özlem UZMAN stated that EGET works to provide scholarships to young people at risk of dropping out of education due to financial difficulties, and to create a country where nature is protected through sustainable agricultural practices and where contemporary tourism examples are offered for middle-aged and elderly people, emphasizing that a strong institutional structure has been established to achieve these goals.

At the press conference titled "10 Years Dedicated to Education and Nature," Özlem UZMAN summarized the achievements of this period as follows:

- A pioneering and exemplary initiative in Turkey: EGET's own software, BUSED, which gives every student equal opportunities, has been implemented.

"Since 2016, we have been using the Scholarship Selection and Evaluation System - BUSED software in the selection of students to be awarded scholarships. We receive applications online, and the system ranks them according to predetermined objective, measurable, and of course fair criteria. Thus, we offer equal opportunities to students, and a systematic evaluation is conducted that highlights success, determination, and talent.

To date, 39,960 students have applied to our system. We work on a declaration basis. The data entered by the student during the application process is verified by the student if they are deemed eligible for a scholarship. We also conduct interviews in the final stage.

To date, we have awarded scholarships to 245 students using the resources we have developed. Compared to other established educational foundations, EGET Foundation is still relatively young. However, in a short time, we have achieved many firsts, including the launch of a mobile application..." We became the first foundation in Turkey to accept scholarship applications.

With the aim of developing students' sense of social responsibility, we support all kinds of activities.

We want them to volunteer in this environment. Again, with the same spirit of solidarity and, of course, for a sustainable scholarship system, we are implementing a repayable scholarship system.

Today we have three different scholarship programs:

EGET Foundation Undergraduate Scholarships, EGET Foundation High School Scholarships, and the “Living Safaî Undergraduate Scholarships,” which we launched in memory of one of our founders, Safaî Özer.

-A social enterprise that inspires the world: A lavender-scented scholarship fund!

Since its inception, EGET has focused on establishing a stable scholarship system not only through donations but also through the projects it develops and the work it does. These types of non-profit initiatives, aimed at distributing funds to shareholders, are called “social enterprises.” We use this model extensively. By investing in the fields of “Geriatrics, Ecological Agriculture, and Tourism,” which are included in our name, we have provided a sustainable resource. The EGET Foundation Economic Enterprise started operating within the foundation.

EGET thus launched an initiative that, in our opinion, inspires the world, spreading a wave of goodness from Muğla. On May 24, 2015, at the EGET Armutçuk Organic Farming Enterprise, we planted 415 oak saplings inoculated with truffle spores. This resulted in a 22,000 m² area. We succeeded in establishing Turkey's largest private truffle plantation on this land.

On May 8, 2016, we planted two different types of lavender seedlings, known to nourish truffles, on the same land. Thus, we established the first lavender field in coastal cities.

We are proud to have inspired farmers, cooperatives, and local administrations in our region, creating new lavender fields.

Starting from Armutçuk, beekeepers moved their hives next to the lavender fields. Lavender honey from Muğla was thus offered to Turkey and the world.

-Organic production, organic distillation unit

We produce our lavender according to organic farming principles. This is not just rhetoric; we have obtained internationally valid organic product certifications and are carrying out farming according to international standards.

We process the products obtained from here in Muğla's first Organic Distillation unit, which we established in Armutçuk, to produce oil and tonic. Again, the reason we established this unit within the field is due to the organic production requirements. -Organic lavender transformed into high value-added cosmetic products: Muğla is now home to a cosmetic brand.

We utilize the lavender we grow in our organic farm in Armutçuk in various ways. We cultivate medicinal and aromatic plants in our greenhouses and work to develop high value-added products from these plants. Lavender is at the heart of this work.

We process our organic lavender in our own facility and produce pure lavender oil. Using this oil, we produce EGET TEN cosmetic products, which have all the necessary certifications, primarily from the Ministry of Agriculture, and are registered in the Ministry of Health's Product Tracking System. We use specialized external producers for cosmetic products.

Thus, Muğla has become home to a cosmetic brand. I should note here that we do not put any products bearing the EGET name, including cosmetics and food, on sale without having all necessary laboratory analyses done. We have obtained all the necessary certifications.

-EGET's gold medal-winning olive oils on the world stage!

The EGET Foundation Economic Enterprise has brought Muğla's exceptionally beautiful olives to the world stage. EGET brand olive oils have returned with awards from the world's most prestigious competitions.

I am pleased to announce: EGET Memecik won a gold medal at London Olive 2025, one of the world's most prestigious competitions. We also won a silver medal in Tokyo in 2025. In 2020, EGET Kuzluk won silver at Tokyo Olive Japan, and in 2023, EGET Memecik won silver medals at both Olive Japan and the London International Olive Oil Competition (IOOC).

Our EGET Memecik olive oils, a source of health, are produced from the bountiful olives of Muğla and have won five international medals since 2020, thus bringing the name of our city to the world stage.

These awards have made visible not only the quality of our products but also our efforts to be a role model for the world through our environmentally friendly production model and our social entrepreneurship approach that has transformed into a scholarship fund.

-We are on online sales channels: Those searching for Muğla can now find our healthy agricultural and cosmetic products. EGET Foundation Economic Enterprise offers hundreds of products in the EGET Plant, EGET Food, EGET Handicrafts, and EGET Workshop categories online, both through its own e-commerce platform eget.com.tr and through stores on all well-known digital marketplaces.

-Environmentally friendly agriculture is possible: Muğla's EGET is on the Good Market list

As the EGET Foundation, we demonstrate extraordinary sensitivity in all our agricultural production. We do not use any chemical products against chemical fertilizers and pests. The only fertilizer we use is obtained from our earthworm friends, and we use organically certified fertilizer.

We are pleased to announce that our commitment to sustainable agriculture and environmentally respectful production principles has led to EGET being accepted into the Good Market community, which supports only products and services that are good for people and the planet, as of July 2024.