Here at Oceanwide Properties we have interviewed a resident where one of our offices is situated in the rural village of Uzumlu, regarding the impact of the covid – 19 virus : my name is Christine, I have live in the lovely little village of Üzümlü which is situated outside Fethiye, a traditional village surrounded by thick pine forests & stunning views, I have been a volunteer/member of the animal charity ‘Animal Care Uzumlu’ for five years. Our village is usually full of hustle & bustle of everyday life, the expat and Turkish community going about their every day business, but with the expectant arrival of the Covid – 19 virus it has dramatically changed our day to day lives & has had quite an impact on village life in Uzumlu. One of the highly anticipated yearly activities of the village is hosting the popular mushroom festival, this is usually a very popular 3 day event which takes place early April, It attracts thousands of visitors from surrounding areas , unfortunately due to government precautionary measures regarding health and safety has been cancelled.
The animal charity ACU which is headed by President and founder –Brenda Singleton includes Turkish & expat volunteers in the village and the mushroom festival was a fabulous source of raising funds by actively getting involved in selling homemade produce etc. This has been a great source of income for the street & park animals of Üzümlü and also the further closing of the charity shop donated to us on a Friday by Oceanwide Properties ( which will hopefully reopen in the not to distant future ) which is conveniently located in middle of the village. We would normally raise on an average of 1,000tl per month through donations of various items , home baking etc. This was an extremely successful venture which greatly benefited our Turkish community as they enjoyed visiting us to pick up items that were useful and donate items also.
Our local restaurants & lokantas have now closed, this has had a further detrimental effect on our lovely street dogs, they are well known to owners and have their favorite eateries to hang out at and get well fed and although there are lots of volunteers who are still feeding the street animals they are missing their food from the restaurants. We hope we can find a temporary solution to this current problem by relying on the kind donations of our valuable members, patrons and businesses like Oceanwide Properties.
For now we just hope that everyone can get through this trying time of crisis the very best they can and with the speedy action of the Turkish Government we and our little village will get back to normality.
Suleyman Akbay MD at Oceanwide Properties has quoted; as a business we will continue to support our local community through various donations, Due to the current Clovid – 19 crises street animals are also suffering, this a very difficult times and wherever possible we urge our clients and the community to contact ACU for any little help you can give for them continue looking after the the animals,they can be contacted on their website https://acuturkey.org/
In the meantime stay safe and all the very best from all of us at Oceanwide properties.
