News

Turkish Tunes in Phoenix

04/25/2012

Phoenix's Musical Instrument Museum has an expanded Turkish music collection. Read about this extensive single-country exhibit that showcases mehter (Ottoman ceremonial) music, various traditions of the Turkish countryside, the music and movement of the Mevlevi Sufis, and the vibrant music of Turkey's urban centers that TPF is proud to support. Read more.

Social Entrepreneurship in Turkey: Mustafa Sari Saves Van

04/17/2012

Booming is the adjective most often used to describe Turkey these days. Ranked the 16^th largest economy (and growing) in the world, the country saddled between Europe and the Middle East is looked as a sound investment and economic model for others, especially in the region. Yet, it is important to note that this Turkish economic miracle is regional, contained to Turkey’s west. What happens in Istanbul stays in Istanbul. Read more.

Matthias Scheffelmeier

Matthias is the country coordinator for Ashoka Turkey.

Prior to leading Ashoka's efforts in Turkey he was a program director at Ashoka's Youth Venture in Germany. He is a BMW Foundation Young Leader and the winner of the 2011 BMW Foundation Young Leader Award. Matthias' responsibilities at Ashoka included the roll-out of a nation-wide project improving the conditions for civic engagement in Germany (changemakercity.com) the lead of a think&do tank of young German changemakers (leading-changemaker.de) and the support of Ashoka's search for leading social entrepreneurs.

Before joining Ashoka in 2009 he helped to establish the European Hostel Cooperation (gomio.com) in Paris, founded his own initiative empowering youth to become active in their local communities (matthias.globaldamu.org), worked as a freelancing online communication consultant in several communication agencies, and spent 12 months in Istanbul, Turkey coordinating Microsoft's Community Affairs (CSR) program in 70 countries of the Middle East and Africa region (microsoft.com/unlimitedpotential). During this time, Matthias also developed and co-founded two internet startups feedili.com (a web-usability testing site using a crowdsourcing approach) and pocketvillage.com.

Blog Posts:

"Social Entrepreneurship on the Rise in Turkey" January 17, 2012