Erol Hanlıgil Gets Youth off Streets onto Basketball Courts
On 28 February 2010 Sabancı Foundation's "Turkey's Changemakers" program hosts Erol Hanlıgil, a literature teacher who believes that sports can bring life to a city despite all hardships.
Erol Hanlıgil is a teacher of literature. He was born and raised in Hakkari, a city in Southeastern Turkey. When he was an undergraduate student majoring in Turkish Language and Literature, he taught basketball voluntarily in summer camps organized by the provincial directorate of youth and sports. After his graduation, he started to work in Hakkari Atatürk High School as a teacher of literature.
Erol Hanlıgil believes that a city can change with sports, and started his journey in Hakkari, where there are almost no social and sportive activities for youth. He has helped local youth through basketball and made basketball popular among them. Moreover, he has helped local youth enroll in universities. Thanks to his efforts, several basketball activities have been organized in Hakkari, and the streetball tournament became traditional. In Hakkari there are 12 basketball teams with 1.200 players. Each year 800 girls and boys apply to his basketball summer camps.
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