We present you 5 finalists per country. 25 innovative social ideas you can VOTE for. Do it, vote for the best you think it is social, innovative and sustainable!
Organization Mental Wellness
The program of this pilot project is composed of a series of psychological and educational workshops aimed at promotion and prevention of mental health among young people in the adolescent period and providing a comprehensive approach to the problem of mental health and well-being, the problem which is essential to any community.
Basic idea of this project is to obtain social approval and support for its expansion on number of schools in Belgrade and Serbia by further involvement of socially responsible companies, funds and others with the common goal to aid preventive positive influence on pre-adolescent population. The final goal is this activity to become systematic within elementary school education.
Human Capital Solutions
Executive Search doo
After 15 years of work with companies and candidates we recognized that many young people who are close to graduate at the university especially those from Agriculture Faculty are not ready to make good job application. In most cases students even don’t have their CV’s. They don’t make CV’s because they don’t understand the importance of this or they don’t know what CV should contain. They also don’t have any idea how to write a cover letter, how long it should be, what should include and also what writing form to use. Special challenge for young people is how to prepare for the interview.
The project aims to educate young people through lectures where after these presentations students will make their own CV’s and cover letters. All present training participants will give active help to every student who needs it. Students will get printed CV forms to fill. They also will get printed instructions for cover letter writing.
The final part of training will be active work. During this part students will participate in an interview demonstration with HCS interviewer.
Project Social Impact Award is guided by a mission to raise awareness of social entrepreneurship in young people through the organization of events and workshops, teaching them the necessary skills and rewarding the best ideas with start-up capital.
Social Impact Award makes change through awareness, education, support and connects young people between 14-30 years of age.
In Serbia, in the last two years they affected 600+ young people through their events and workshops, had 40 applications in the competition, incubated 11 teams and awarded 6 teams with total initial capital of 13.500€. Their goal for 2017 is that 500 young people participate in workshops, 10 teams go through incubation and to award 4 teems.
“Panonska inicijativa” is ready to start economic activities by establishing a social enterprise, because it has good condition and capacity that can be used for a wider social interest in conditions for employment and self-employment of young people.
The aim is to create „incubator od ideas „which would respond to all the needs and which would equip young people to sell their services and profit from them. „Incubator of ideas „would actually represent a systematic support to individuals in the successful start-up of sustainable businesses through counseling, mentoring and organizational support. All members of the company as an ongoing service of the organization will receive networking and connections with business sector, public and civil sector and other economic entities.
Incubator of ideas would have not been only the space and equipment that would the target group used for free. Their ideas and development would be supported through targeted training and education of eminent experts from different fields in order to increase their competitiveness in the market of the local community and beyond.
The goal is not just to create a platform that helps single parents, but through whole program to model a society where solidarity, compassion and the idea of single parents leading a normal life becomes a reality. A creation of an application/website will offer a more stable connection between single parents and companies and potential employers, creating job opportunities and also training opportunities with NGOs and educational institutions, improving their skills. This way single parents will have a greater chance to integrate in the job market. One of the aims is to encourage single parents to offer their services through the website. In this way, a space for all certified single parent to give online courses will be created in fields for which they are specialized and also advertise their products and services. This app/website will also have a space dedicated to babysitting services. Students and also other specialized nannies can offer their services.
Make it Matter Macedonia aims to coordinate local resources to create products LOHAS (Lifestyles Organic Health and Sustainable) segment, combining recycled material production from the hands of people with disabilities from the public institution Special Institute Demir Kapija and local unemployed women (designers and craft women) Coordinated by Plenty Practical, products from Make it Matter Macedonia, will be presented and sold on the local market. To fulfill the social mission of Make it Matter Macedonia, Plenty Practical 100% would reinvest its net profit in the continuing implementation of the concept, which will continue with the design and production of uniquely designed products for the LOHAS market segment. This will boost the employment in the region of Demir Kapija, but will also impact on the quantity of textile waste.
Main goal of this idea is to collect the used cooking oil from households in order to protect the environment and provide a financial benefit to people who will do it. Machines will be placed in supermarkets in different municipalities. The machine contains a filter, where all that liquid (usually water) that is not a used cooking oil goes into a special waste canister, while the used cooking oil is stored in a separate canister. This action will have direct impact of protecting the environment and social impact on the households. People who will put the used cooking oil in the machine will get 10 Macedonian denars per liter and 5 Macedonian denars per half liter. The machine can give gifts on a membership cards that can be used in super markets, public transport as tickets, used with gas-stations, ZOOs etc. After collecting, the used cooking oil can be used for bio-diesel production by the big refinery companies.
А mobile app will offer a set of services for different target groups (public institution working with waste collection – JP Komunalna Higiena, Private enterprises as Pakomak, Citizens, CSOs) as: mapping places of waste locations, type of waste and condition of the containers, locating illegal dumps and creation of events for waste collection, information of places and time for collection of bulky waste or construction debris, contact of responsible institution and organization working with waste, sharing news from the app on social media and real time data and notification services. The application will take in consideration all privacy and security issues as well as the relevance of the information gathered and published. Crowdsourcing will be used as an innovative model to collect data from users and in same time to showcase how a crowd can contribute in solving societal problems. In this way, everyone that will use the app can map a location of containers, map full containers or illegal dumps or leave a picture and comments. This will have impact on the environmental awareness among the citizens, as well as on the outlook of а respective city.
The basic idea is to use waste material in the production of designer urban and travel bicycle bags. This means that they will use waste tarpaulin material from advertising boards, as well as other waste tarpaulin into the production of rainproof, designer bicycle bags for carrying goods on bicycles. For this reason а partnership is formed between a designer that has experience in the use of tarpaulin from billboards in the production of clothes and accessories, and an organization that has experience in bicycles and extreme sports. The sale of the bags would be done via already established local shops. The local shops, especially bicycle shops will be their primary target since they already have access to most of targeted buyers. They will also drive sale through designer product shops. Additionally they will also have direct sales with businesses that have need for such bags, such as bicycle couriers, bicycle rental businesses, and travel agencies that offer bicycle tourism. In this sense they would create a solution for two problems: decreasing the waste of tarpaulin by reusing it in the production of bicycle bags and boosting employability.
In Montenegro, there is a huge problem with traffic accidents which often occur at pedestrian crossings. Statistics show that in the last 5 years, in Montenegro, 91 pedestrian lost the life. Neither drivers nor pedestrians are careful enough.
Light4Life is a product, designed in two segments:
- the two pairs of infrared sensors on the movement, whicha are located on both sides of the pedestrian crossings,
- LED lights on the crosswalk.
When sensors register movement, LED lights turn on infrared signal and are activated. Lights are up when a pedestrian steps out into the crosswalk. In this way, the driver can see the pedestrian timely and slow the speed.
In addition, the product is environmentally-oriented, because the sensors are on solar energy, and are especially effective when it comes to poor visibility on the roads and a number of traffic lanes.
The initial plan is to make agreements with municipalities in Montenegro, but in a near future, we plan to become distributors of the necessary LED lights and sensors.
Also, there is a secondary market. Using the options on the sensors, it is a possibility to count the pedestrians, ie. data on the frequency at crossings and they could be sold to other companies for the purposes of marketing and advertising.
We are a team of socially responsible individuals who are trying to use technology to do more good. Our goal and mission are to increase awareness, responsibility and safety of all citizens. Thanks to our team members, we have the capacity to implement the idea based on the knowledge of information technology, marketing and economics.
An English teacher have met with numerous students who have suffered from different learning difficulties. There were hyperactive, visually impaired, hearing-impaired students and students with speech, psychomotor disabilities and epilepsy. Then, students with Down syndrome and those who had heavier mental disorders. However, the hardest work was with students who had problems in reading and writing, or suffered from dyslexia. According to the data, there are 5% of these students in Montenegro. In spite of continuous training and professional development, as well as interviews with parents, she has not found concrete solutions or any kind of assistance to the teachers of foreign languages, and also to these students to facilitate learning and made it more efficient.
I believe that I am not the only one who wants to work on this problem so I suggest the organizing a hackathon where not only teachers, but also professionals, doctors, speech therapists, psychologists and pedagogues, and perhaps parents who have a child with this problem, will be present and try to give some general and / or specific guidelines in dealing with dyslexic children. Hackathon is an entertainment event which lasts from one to several weeks and the aim is to find innovative solutions to the given topic. During hackathon, it is necessary to provide food and drink, excellent internet connection (wi-fi), a place for work and a place for rest and relaxation. Participants bring with them laptops, tablets or phones, creativity, good humor and sometimes competitive spirit (if they act as teams).
Once they come up with useful ideas and solutions, they will develop an action plan, and form a support group that will monitor and possibly organize more similar events.
Today, there is an increasing need for organic food which is unfortunately replaced by GMO which is carrying the harmful effects on the human body. In order to produce organic food, adequate conditions for its production need to be created, which means to deprive them of the ingredients that are harmful for people and the environment.
The replacement for artificial fertilizers, pesticides and other chemical additives is sheep manure that now do not exist in packages for distribution. Sheep manure has much more nitrogen, calcium and potassium, which makes plant food valuable, unlike the animal, which has significantly less calories. The need for this type of manure is an exceptional, first of all in Montenegro where a lot of people are opting for a professional production of organic food.
Thus, the idea is related to the packaging of natural fertilizers (in this case sheep manure) and its distribution on the market by the rural households whose primary activity is cattle breeding (sheep) which has already been registered as a grower of organic sheep meat.
The reasons for this idea are numerous. First of all, easy way of packaging of sheep manure in nylon bags and facilitate transportation to customers. The second reason is the economic empowerment of rural households through the maximum utilization of products (milk, meat, wool, and production of fertilizers as well). The third reason is that Montenegro, as a future member of the EU, undertakes to be oriented to organic food production and to have many registered organic food producers due to possible entrance in the international market. The fourth reason is the very high quality of sheep fertilizers, which is the primary one in the whole story, and it is high calorific value compared to cattle manure. In line with this story is the fact that there is no Montenegro household, engaged in packaging of sheep manure and placing it on the market, which implies that the product placement will be considerably easier, especially nowadays, when the production of organic food is experiencing the expansion.
The project aims to strengthen rural households through self-employment and entrepreneurship, to promote sustainable agriculture in Pljevlja villages and cultivation of sustainable-organic agriculture, as well as assistance in placing such products to consumers.
Portal www.ljudina.si is specially designed online portal from where website team will be running the campaigns and actions, on national level and beyond, in order to collect financial and other aid and support for people and families in need who are not able to pay funds for medical expenses and costly surgeries, who live in inhumane conditions or have some other similar problems. The idea is aimed at developing and creating a tool that will help the user in the process of collecting funds, with the following:
• the possibility for the user to open a personal account and present the case, tell the story and attach the documentation (photos, medical records.)
• the possibility for the user to follow his case and to take part directly in the process (comments, sharing online material).
• the possibility for the user to receive instructions how to collect financial support - way of acting via the Internet with potential helpers.
This service has a tendency to make it easier for user in the process of collecting funds, to motivate and engage the public by being more informed about the case and getting familiar with details (full story, photos, information on payment ect.), so that they could develop a strong emotional connection with the person and his or her condition.
Our team of web and online experts will be responsible to technically manage the service, to present sensitive issues and materials in the highly responsible and moderate manner and to make it easy to use for their guests. Additionally, our team, made of marketing and advertising experts, will use their creativity and expertise trough this online portal in order to influence individuals, organizations and private companies – potential donors.
Those who stand out as donors of special relevance will receive online recognition and will be promoted as philanthropists through the portal, social networks, throughout videos, awards at the end of the year.
Via the portal, we will create a possibility for other types of help and donations such as voluntary work, nurturing of sick people, donations of food and other necessities for the vulnerable individuals and their families.
The idea is based on a web portal that will consolidate information about the adaptation of facilities for people with disabilities or mobility difficulties and coping. A significant number, especially the public ones, have not implemented until the end of the process of adapting to access for persons with reduced mobility.
This application will integrate different sources, feedbacks, folders and databases into interactive platform where visitors will be informed before and during site visits, organizing events, fulfillment of obligations in public institutions or other activities.
Web portal will be based on geospatial data (layout Google map) or another mode of display and visualization of data objects and their degree of adaptation, installed appliances as well as current and planned activities / initiatives. It would gather and present an interactive information about the status of objects, initially in one town (Niksic) and then in the wider area of Montenegro. In addition, the portal would be based on standard web technologies, HTML, CSS, JS, PHP of responsive design (for phones), easy and fast to be edited.
After creating the application and consultation with local and national associations of people with disabilities, the application will be filled with application data objects, which will be a continuous activity. It is anticipated that the initial phase lasts up to 2-4 months, during which the applications will be developed in Niksic as a test area, and then in Podgorica and other major towns in Montenegro.
Carrier: Time Management Skills
Time is one of one life’s most valuable possessions, while it is something you can never get back.
Subsequently, one of the most essential life skills to manage is time management. After all, time management is exactly life management.
Management time takes ridding your life of procrastination and a great deal of self – discipline. Mastering time management does more than just increase productivity. When time is managed wisely, it minimizes stress and improves the overall quality of your life. If you often find yourself run down by your daily workload or overwhelmed by the complexity of projects and tasks in your life, it is likely because you have not fully mastered effective time management.
Time Management Project is indeed life management project.
My project target is to generalize among young people the consciousness of using time.
Time Educations on the framework of the Project, Young people who learned to manage time is going to share their knowledge with their new friends by using peer education system.
The consciousness of time management is generalized by sharing among young people, Young Masters will emerge one by one in effective time management.
The methodology of the project;
1. Core Professional Trainer Group (Academician, Professional Executive, Business Women or Businessmen) who will prepare the Project Basic Team, namely 1st Generation Project Instructors.
2. Educated Project the Basic Team will return to the provinces and disseminate the trainings to young and young adults in the areas they reside in
3. Training of second generation project trainers team among the training areas (3 day meetings - groups of 25 people)
4. As the project becomes more widespread, both the number of training areas will increase rapidly and the number of Project Instructors will increase rapidly.
Carrier: Uni.coop
Uni.coop is a social enterprise model that enables university students to gain professional experience and earn economic income during their student days. Different business models will be created within the model and students will be able to run these business models together with a professional core management team. The cooperative will aim to continually improve its capacity to compete with a private company on the basis of every business model it creates with its dynamic, creative, visionary and youth team members.
The selection of the model's statutory status as cooperative coincides with the philosophical "social enterprise" philosophy and the social perception of the "cooperative" word. Students who will become cooperatives members in the model will form the General Assembly. The activities of the cooperative will continue with the Board of Directors, which will be composed of the General Assembly and the professional core management team. In parallel with this, it is aimed to be the representative of the private sector, academicians who have gained a sense of achievement in the society/experience, NGO managers / experts etc. An Advisory/Mentor Council will be established where the people will be involved.
The funding sources that will enable the cooperative to establish sustainable business models will be the private sector. Companies will sponsor the business models of cooperative by making "social investments". In this way, the cooperative will be beneficiary in the activities that will be realized in the field of corporate social responsibility of the private sector.
Another important factor in the organization structure is the Independent Audit Institution. A transparent, accountable order will be formed in the cooperative with the audit that this organization will carry out.
Membership in international youth networks/organizations will be realized in order to spread this social enterprise model internationally, to cooperate/exchange ideas with other youth organizations in the world, to participate in related organizations and to international youth networks/organizations.
Within the scope of "social responsibility", the cooperative will prepare projects aimed at solving problems, especially youth/disadvantaged groups, to funding agencies such as Development Agencies, EU, TÜBITAK.
The cooperative will form a special platform to support the private sector employment of students who have gained experience by working within the university period. In addition, a Youth Academy will be established within the cooperative to support the individual development of the students and the institutional development of the cooperative. Various trainings and workshops will be held in this academy.
Carrier: Paper Cup Project
Today, paper cups have very extensive usage area. They are frequently chosen due to the reasons like hygiene and their practicality in use in places where public drink need is satisfied as coffee automats, canteens, water dispensers. People are the ones who create and sustain non-governmental organizations. People who gather under the same roof of non-governmental organizations are workforces for physical, psychological and material requirements of them when reaching their aims. Non- governmental organizations can sustain and enlarge their meanings if only they could reach more people. Profit-oriented organizations touch people at first time by advertisement, however for non-governmental organizations this can be economically challenging and luxury. In Paper Cup Project, informations about work and active projects of the non-governmental organizations will be published on the surface of the paper cups and these cups will be provided in the areas where targeted people use them for drinking. Informative paper cups will be changed for weekly periods to introduce a new non-governmental organization or a new active project in determined areas, by so communication between non-governmental organizations’ will be up-to-date. In addition to that non-governmental organizations, which run location oriented projects, can directly reach the target people. Print costs of the paper cups can be paid by enterprises which serve beverages in these paper cups or partnership can be formed by a profit-oriented organization. Profit-oriented organizations can communicate their potential customers by supporting an non-governmental organizations’ paper cup printing costs.
Carrier: Women Employment House
Women Employment House’ is a platform for connecting skilled women in need who can work from home, with employers who want to outsource handmade production. Offered service is primarily for housewives who cannot work outside from home, are non-educated, without a husband, with family in need of care, and skilled in some handcrafts (cooking, bakery, knitting, sewing etc.). On the other hand, there are the persons, companies, sellers who require a handmade process in their production. ‘Women Employment House’ is a connecting base between the two parts.
The platform has two facets: The physical aspect (project team and the collaborates) searches low-income districts to find women fitting these conditions and register them according to their regions and skills. The digital aspect (website and application) makes available easy access for employers to contact these women and organizes secure payment.
This is how it works: As the employer puts in the job definition, women with matching qualifications are presented. If the women accepts the job, the payment is taken to the platform’s pool account and the connection is made. All the materials and directives are supplied to the women by the employers. When the job is done, the payment is transferred to the women.
The employer pays an additional service fee to the platform. Through this income model the platform is granted sustainability. This way, while employers can easily outsource handmade workforce, the women receives a chance to earn an income within their natural environment.
This system is a sustainable model that contributes to women employment, lifts general public weight from the government, revives handmade production and provides employers easy-access to a service they require. The project can be developed with trainings, and can be applied to districts, cities and countries with similar conditions.
The short term goal is to empower women in need by ensuring a path of income that is compatible to their lifestyles. In long term, it is possible that this model has effects as: increasing prevalence of handcrafts in production, decreasing level of poverty in general public, increasing level of gender equity and eventually increasing peace in society.
Carrier: Social MarketLab team
Social MakerLab is an innovation center established to solve problems in the society by using new technologies and to produce innovative solutions.
The 3D GooD brand is also one of the social initiatives of the Social MakerLab team.
3D GooD is a brand of design bag produced with 3D printers.
The birth of the 3D GooD brand is based on a beautiful and powerful story for us. When we were architect students in Syria, we met Omar who flew away from the war and came to Istanbul. It is known that there are close to 3 million Syrians in Turkey and Omar is only one of them. He is the one whose biggest dream is to be an architect and has to postpone his dreams when he fled to Istanbul. When we got together, he told us that he knows 3D design and wants to use it. We started to design bags together and started to produce with 3D printers. With new technologies, we created a fashion brand that carries futuristic lines.
With our income from the sale of bags, we will organize trainings for young people between the ages of 18-25 coming from Syria, where they can learn about new technologies, how they can experience and how they can create value by using technology.
Our purpose is to create value with new technologies, to show them how to start again without delaying their dreams and to create more beautiful, powerful stories together.
Carrier: Edina Hadzic
Zorya is the project proposal or the name of the brand that specializes in placement of locally and organically produced food, in the form of social business, promoting „Shop with cause“ philosophy of sales. Zorya wants to make the first truly B&H product, brand, which proposes a different, more innovative approach to the production and sale.
For beginning products are limited to natural tea and organic honey. The further development of the production would be expanded into a variety of fruit products, juices, and jams and so on. The idea is to link small agricultural holdings or simply families in the form of social business. The idea is to link households who are making these products in private arrangement and to place them on the market. This would help many families, particularly women who have no permanent income, to obtain some profit.
All the families that are involved in the program will have a direct benefit and profit through the sale of their products. The hope is that the project will indirectly have a greater impact, both on the affirmation of B&H rural tourism, as well as the affirmation of B&H organic cultivation or agriculture in general.
Carrier: Association “Nasa djeca (Eng. Our children)”
“Our children” is non-profit organization with aim to help children without family, without parental care and children with special needs. In the last three years, the Association Our Children has a second hand shop in Mostar, which proved to be very successful. The local population is able to find high quality items for reasonable prices and at the same time they have the opportunity to interact with people with special needs and to build long-lasting relationships with them. The annual cost of this store is 8,608 BAM (renting), electricity and transportation of goods from Sweden and England.
The purpose of this grant application is seeking money that would be directed to the project „Second Hand Shop“ in Mostar in order to create one more store. Another shop would create the possibility for new jobs for young people with special needs, as well as for former residents of the home. Currently, employees of second shop which are users of „Housing units“ do not receive financial compensation. Instead, money is used to pay housing, utility bills, food, medical supplies, personal hygiene products and therapeutic treatments. The establishment of an additional Second Hand Shop would provide the funds for the salaries to all workers in the shop.
Carrier: Association “Snaga žene (Eng. Woman power)”
“Snaga Zene” provides psychological, social, medical, pedagogical and legal assistance to women, adolescents and children (refugees, displaced, domestic population, returnees) and civil victims of the war (victims of rape) who suffered different types of war and post-war trauma in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Association “Snaga zene” Tuzla, enthusiastic team of employees has decided to turn their ideas and successful stories into the entrepreneurship project and cooperative called „Zelena Mreza“ (Green Net). Cooperative “Zelena Mreza” should ensure buying up the raw material from beneficiaries, engagement of beneficiaries in production process and market distribution of final product with the support of “Snaga Zene” management and cooperative “Zelena Mreza”.
In other words Cooperative will be legal entity through which our beneficiaries can sell their raw material, be present on the trade fairs, create final products and find market for them. Cooperative will create branding for those products and marketing. Cooperative “Zelena Mreza” is planning also to continuously support and buy raw material from at least 15 women (“Snaga Zene” beneficiaries) and to seasonally produce and distribute complete assortment of products. Market channels for the beginning will be trade fairs and internet selling through website. This will help our beneficiaries to increase their home budget and to earn money for their families.
When production develops they are planning to include some of the beneficiaries in production and give them paid job. Cooperative “Zelena mreža” will be social business because total profit will be invested in Snaga Zene’s projects (psycho- social, medical, legal and economic support) to victims of the war.
„Self-employment project of vulnerable women in rural areas through directed environmental impact“
Carrier: Association „Nova žena (Eng. New women)“
The project „Self-employment project of vulnerable women in rural areas through directed environmental impact“ is an original idea of self-employment of vulnerable women through focused environmental impact. The project beneficiaries, or unemployed women from rural parts in Semizovac will recycle waste from its surroundings and produce items from it for wide domestic use and sale – shopper bags, boxes, laundry baskets etc., all made or woven and stitched from recycled plastic bags and paper.
In this way, the project will represent a self-contained production unit with multiple benefits – for project beneficiaries and the wider community, as well as the natural environment. All household accessories that are produced through courses in sewing and weaving in the framework of the project is planning to be presented and offered for sale during the event „Vogošćanski dani“. The training program of sewing and weaving household accessories made of recycled materials will pass 30 women/girls who belong to vulnerable categories (unemployed women, single mothers, girls from families of high risk, etc.) aged 16-60 years.
Project objectives:
1. Recycling waste in Semizovac (Sarajevo Canton)
2. The creation of added value, production of household accessories made of recycled materials
3. Self-employment of women in rural areas
4. Increase awareness of the importance of recycling
Carrier: Bosnian-American Friendship Association (BAFA)
In Bosnia and Herzegovina there is no single web portal designed for matchmaking different companies. The acquisition of a new client from foreign market costs a lot because it means staying in countries such as USA, Canada, and Sweden... Such a departure of the company averagely costs a minimum of 6,000 € to 8,000 €.
BAFA wants to create a single portal recconect.ba to create a database that will contain the key experts of diaspora, information on companies owned by Bosnians, which will include at least 100 companies, 200 professionals from Bosnia and Herzegovina origin in order to better linking of the mentioned actors in promoting B&H as a business destination. In addition, recconect.ba wants this information to be available to small and medium enterprises that can offer their services to companies that are owned by Bosnians and to other companies with which our citizens who line now in diaspora and have developed a network of contacts can connect them.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
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Croatia
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Macedonia
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Montenegro
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Serbia
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Turkey
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