Ayla, her grandmother Sema Altan, and teacher Ferhat Budak pose in front of the library bookshelves she helped create in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city. Courtesy: Basak Altan
Ayla Altan-Schirmer and her mother were sorting through boxes in the basement of their Berkeley home when they came across her old dolls and toys.
Ayla, who had overheard her mother talking to relatives about the devastation back home in Turkey following the 2023 earthquake, which displaced millions, decided to donate her items so that impacted children had something to play with.
“My mom was calling a lot of people to check in and make sure that our family was safe. But what about everybody else in Turkey that doesn’t have that kind of protection?” Ayla, 14, told Berkeleyside.
Her gesture “snowballed,” she said, into a community effort, with relatives and community members in Izmir, Turkey’s third-largest city, contributing books and other materials. What began as one bookcase led to the creation of a small children’s library. Local municipal officials took notice and decided to expand the project into a larger permanent space, which is expected to open in the spring.
“People were inspired by the small little gesture, and then it just became a whole big thing with people donating more books. It happened so fast,” Ayla said.
Her mother, Basak Altan, grew up in Izmir before moving to Berkeley about 25 years ago and becoming an American citizen. Their family founded the nonprofit Berkeley Turkish School, which offered children cultural enrichment activities. It closed in 2024.
Ayla’s family visits Turkey every year, where she said she’s seen the impacts of the earthquake and years of military conflict — more than 40,000 people have died in Turkey in the past 40 years as a result of armed struggle between the government and Kurdish independence fighters. Many families displaced by the fighting and earthquake have moved to Izmir in recent years.
“It’s a lot of kids and families who lost homes, and they don’t have much,” Altan said. “Even though she was born and grew up here in Berkeley, there’s always been a connection.”
The library in Izmir is used each week as a gathering and learning space, where local children can read and play. This past summer, the family visited the library for the first time, and the children there had prepared a song to express their gratitude.
“I was not expecting this adorable crowd of kids,” Ayla said. “I walked in, and I couldn’t stop smiling because everyone was sharing books and stories. I saw my dolls and (thought) ‘Oh my goodness, I haven’t seen these in so long.’”
Ayla and her grandmother visited the library during story time. Courtesy: Basak Altan
She said the library space has an open area where kids can “just play around and be themselves.” Many of the children there only spoke Arabic rather than Turkish, but happily engaged in the theatrical storytime, she said.
A local theatre arts teacher, Ferhat Altinordu, leads weekly storytelling workshops, where kids act out stories to help their language skills and build confidence.
“I am a storyteller, and every week I tell different stories. Thanks to the storybooks in our bookcase, my own collection of stories has also continued to grow,” Altinordu said in a translated email to Ayla’s family.
Ayla is fundraising through the nonprofit Bridge to Turkey Fund and aims to raise $5,000 by March to support the expansion and movement of the library space. Altinordu said the library “will come to life” in a larger building owned by the İzmir Metropolitan Municipality.
“Berkeley can help even with the smallest donations,” Ayla said, adding that every contribution “goes directly to the kids” and the local community to buy books, science materials, and art supplies.
“Our children have had the opportunity to read books in different genres. Parents also borrow and read the books they choose,” Altinordu said in their message.
Ayla’s family said Berkeley community members have helped to inspire their charity work and love of literature. Ayla maintains a little free library in front of their home that she built with her father during the height of the pandemic. People have left books, CDs, and sometimes little toys.
Ayla often sees people on their way to a nearby BART station interact with the little library outside her window. She said there aren’t many in the neighborhood, so they decorate the nook during the holidays to make it more eye-catching.
“Books don’t just belong to one person; they travel through other people and friends and family to connect us,” Ayla said.
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