Koruncuk Foundation Magazine Interview

This interview, featuring Ms. Emine Sabancı Kamışlı, Vice Chairperson of the Board of Directors of Esas Holding, and Ms. Figen Samuray, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees and Management Board of our Foundation, details the long-standing and value-driven collaboration between Koruncuk Foundation and Esas Social. We thank Esas Social and the Şevket Sabancı Vision First Opportunity Program for their support.

1. Can you tell us about the origins of Esas Sosyal and its 10-year journey?

Emine Sabancı Kamışlı:We established Esas Social as a business arm of ESAS, driven by my father Şevket Sabancı and our family's vision of giving back to society. Before designing our social investment programs, we conducted research to determine which social problems and areas we would focus on. Our research showed that young people who have recently graduated from university remain unemployed for 15 months. Therefore, focusing on youth and employment, we aimed to create a sustainable and measurable impact with the motto "Esas Social Provides Equal Opportunities." In line with this goal, we launched the "First Opportunity with Şevket Sabancı's Vision," "My English Opportunity with Hayırlı Sabancı's Support," and Alumni Programs.

When designing our programs and improving them based on feedback from our ecosystem, we aim for a profound social impact and equal opportunity. We not only give young people their first opportunities, but we also follow up with them, organize events to strengthen their professional networks to keep their motivation high, and hold a mirror up to them so they can see their potential. While empowering young people, we strengthen the human resource capacity of civil society organizations and raise awareness among institutions about developing their human resources policies in line with the understanding of equal opportunity in youth employment.

With our programs, we aimed to pioneer a human resources approach where young people are evaluated by employers based on their competencies, not on the universities they graduated from. By reaching hundreds of young people from many different provinces of Türkiye, we contributed to their entry into professional life as more confident, self-assured, and well-equipped individuals. 

As Esas Social, we are experiencing the happiness and pride of completing a fulfilling 10 years with a high social impact. We are proud of the achievements of the young people whose lives we have touched, and we are moved when we listen to their success stories. While experiencing all these emotions, we see once again that we have taken the right steps at the right time and with the right stakeholders.

2. How would you evaluate the work of Esas Social, a non-governmental organization that it supports?

Attorney Dr. Figen Samuray: I view Esas Social's work not just as a social support program, but as a very powerful way of taking responsibility. The First Opportunity Program, with its vision of Şevket Sabancı, offers a very valuable approach that genuinely cares about inequalities among young people and creates space for them to realize their potential without labeling or categorizing them. 

One of the most valuable aspects of the program is that it evaluates young people not only based on their CVs or the universities they graduated from, but also on their potential. At Koruncuk Foundation, we clearly experience that when given the opportunity, young people who have been invisible until now simply because they fall outside certain molds create significant value both for themselves and for the institutions they work for.

Esas Social's perspective is a very concrete reflection of its trust in young people and its belief in equal opportunity.

3. As Koruncuk, how does being part of Esas Social's ecosystem benefit you?

Attorney Dr. Figen Samuray: Being part of the Esas Social ecosystem provides a multifaceted contribution for the Koruncuk Foundation. First and foremost, the young people who work at our foundation under the İlk Fırsat (First Opportunity) program not only provide a workforce but also bring new, fresh, and creative perspectives to civil society. For a non-governmental organization that relies solely on donations, this dynamism is extremely valuable.

To date, we have had many colleagues who joined our foundation through the First Opportunity Program and continue to work with us. We also have program alumni still working with us. Our colleague who serves as the Resource Development and Corporate Communications Manager is also a graduate of this program. This clearly demonstrates the program's sustainable and transformative impact.

On the other hand, Esas Social's trust in young people and our belief in the potential of girls meet at the same time. We accept girls from different regions of Anatolia whose access to education is at risk into our Koruncuk Village, and we work to help them become independent individuals. Our dream is for these children to also participate in working life in the future through opportunities like the First Opportunity Program.

Therefore, being a part of the Esas Social ecosystem is a very valuable partnership that strengthens not only the present but also our shared dreams for the future.

4. What is the role of the ecosystem you've built around the programs in the social impact they create? Where do NGOs fit into this ecosystem?

Emine Sabancı Kamışlı: Making the social impact we create sustainable is our top priority. To this end, we are activating the Esas Social Ecosystem, comprised of various institutions and individuals, to enhance the power of our clearly defined and measurable programs. Since our inception, our greatest companion has been our ecosystem, meticulously crafted and bound not by blood ties, but by intellectual connections. 

Bugüne kadar eğitimli genç işsizliği odağında 69 kurumsal destekçi ve 55 sivil toplum kuruluşunu bir araya getirdik. En güçlü kasımız olarak tanımladığımız bu ekosistem; kurumsal destekçilerden katılımcılara, mentorlar ve mezunlardan STK yöneticilerine, İK profesyonellerinden eğitmenlere uzanan 5.000’den fazla kişiden oluşuyor. Kaynaklarını verimli kullanmak isteyen kurumları ortak akılla buluşturuyor, birbirini besleyen güçlü bir iş birliği ağı kuruyoruz. Ekosistemimizde yer alan STK’ların ve kurumların bursiyerlerine yatırım yaparak etkiyi birlikte büyütüyoruz. Buna dair verilere baktığımızda, Hayırlı Sabancı Desteğiyle İngilizce Fırsatım’ın 5. dönemindeki 500 gencin %83’ünün ekosistemden geldiğini görüyoruz. Programlarımızla bu zamana kadar yaklaşık 50 kurumun bursiyerini destekledik ve bu ortak güç ile Türkiye’nin 81 ilinden 99 farklı üniversiteden 2.000 genci fırsat eşitliğiyle buluşturduk.

In implementing our programs, we aim to create equal opportunities for young people and to ensure that these opportunities provide maximum benefit. In this regard, civil society organizations, which are of great importance among our stakeholders, instill a sense of social responsibility in young people while also gaining access to resources and qualified young workforce provided by Esas Social.

We envisioned every step we take in our social investment programs as a marathon with our supporters, creating a mutually reinforcing mechanism of benefit. We are doing our best to maintain and expand this synergy we have created with strong players in the private sector and civil society. Our goal is to connect more young people, who are our future, with equal opportunities through NGOs and our corporate supporters; to help them discover themselves and advance confidently in the business world.