Hawthorne Elementary School principal Sarah Kaber said fourth grader Alara Goksu’s campaign to raise awareness for earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria fits perfectly into the school’s mission. (photo by Joey Waldinger
Hawthorne Elementary School principal Sarah Kaber said fourth grader Alara Goksu’s campaign to raise awareness for earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria fits perfectly into the school’s mission)

After an earthquake on Feb. 6 devastated parts of Turkey and Syria, Alara Goksu, a fourth grader at Hawthorne Elementary School, talked to her teachers about how she could support the victims. Goksu is from Turkey, and members of her family were among the thousands of people struggling to survive the aftermath of the 7.8 quake.

During one of Hawthorne’s weekly assemblies, Goksu explained the situation to her classmates, and asked them to donate money and supplies to help. With the support of Hawthorne staff, she created a slideshow, handed out fliers and alerted the school’s families to the donation drive. By the end of the first day of collections, the school filled 25 bins with supplies.

“It was getting people’s attention, so we decided we could do more,” Goksu said.

During a sleepover with friends, Goksu came up with the idea of writing “Yes” on the palm of her hand, and posting it to Instagram with the hashtag #yesIhearyou.

She shared the idea at another school assembly, encouraging her classmates to be creative with their designs. The campaign began to take off.

“It represents … for the people who don’t have the money to help or are stuck in the rubble, ‘Yes I hear you,” Goksu said.

Goksu’s oldest brother, a student at University of California, Santa Barbara, began sharing #yesIhearyou photos on his feed. Her middle brother, who attends Beverly Vista Middle School, did the same.

“We noticed people from all around the internet were writing ‘yes’ on the palm of their hand,” Goksu said. “I feel really proud of myself [for] what I’ve achieved, helping my country.”

Hawthorne Elementary School principal Sarah Kaber said she also encouraged Goksu to pursue the #yesIhearyou campaign because it was logistically more difficult to send supplies to Syria than to Turkey. With the social media campaign, Goksu could still help affected Syrians, she said.

Kaber said that Goksu’s activism is a perfect example of the school’s goal of tying together students’ homelives and class experiences. The school might not have launched a campaign to help earthquake victims if Goksu hadn’t felt comfortable sharing her interests with her teachers, Kaber said.

“I think it’s our job as adults to take that and say, ‘Yes, let’s give her a voice. Let’s give her a platform.’ And I feel like we’re successful if we can that for every student,” Kaber said.

“This has felt amazing. Kids really felt connected and learned about it and asked more questions about it.”

Although Goksu is happy with the awareness she’s created for the situation in Turkey and Syria, she has bigger aspirations for the #yesIhearyou campaign. She hopes the hashtag will be used to educate people about future crises across the globe.

“I think that the future of this campaign, it’s not going to be only for Turkey and Syria, but it’s also going to be for all countries across the world having trouble,” Goksu said. “When big things happen, like terror or bombings or natural disasters … I want people to take notice of that.”