By Honorary Reporter Sevval Yalcin from Turkey
Photos = CEKUD's official website and Twitter 

After Korea defeated Turkey in a women's volleyball match at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, Koreans donated 120,000 saplings to Turkey, which has suffered from wildfires, in the name of Kim Yeon-koung, captain of the Korean women's volleyball team. The donations quickly became a hot topic on social media in Korea, and thousands of Koreans gave tens of thousands of saplings in one day. 

The Turkish non-profit Association of Solidarity of Environmental Organizations (CEKUD) thanked Koreans who donated and announced the creation of "Turkey-Korea Friendship Forest."

CEKUD started a sapling donation campaign on the website www.dikiliagacimvar.com under the  slogan "We Have the Roots - The Green Homeland Is for All of Us." Korean nature lovers contributed on CEKUD's website and shared their donation certificates on social media, thus attracting more charity to the campaign.

CEKUD is helping the Korean drive to donate saplings to Turkey.

CEKUD board chairman Eyup Debik said, "We would like to express our appreciation to Koreans who alleviated Turkey's sadness by donating saplings. As a token of our brotherhood, we have decided to establish a Turkey-Korea Friendship Forest. Our friendship will take root with hundreds of thousands of saplings."

 
The organization’s message of appreciation was shared tens of thousands of times by Koreans through social media. Many major Korean newspapers also covered this campaign, and donations from Korea continue. 

This tweet certifies participation in the CEKUD donation campaign.  

News media have covered posts of seedling donation certificates by Koreans.

kalhong617@korea.kr

*This article is written by a Korea.net Honorary Reporter. Our group of Honorary Reporters are from all around the world, and they share with Korea.net their love and passion for all things Korean.