The Mouse Island Swimmers are a small bunch of good for nothings who try once a year to break the habit of a lifetime and do something good. Since the first 5.5km open water swim from Mouse Island to the Kalkan public beach on Turkey's touristic "Turquoise Coast" in 2011 we have raised a lot of money for local causes thanks to the generosity of Friends and Residents of Kalkan. 

Our campaigns have included financing a new prosthetic leg for a young newly wed, funding a basketball court for a local school and purchasing equipment for the Kalkan health centre.

But this year we have to raise our game. And then some! 2021 continues to be harrowing for the ordinary people of Turkey. For our Antalya Muğla region the biggest horror has been the worst forest fires in living memory. These come on top of the economic pressures from a global pandemic which have hit tourist revenues very hard.

Many people have lost everything, especially country people living already tough lives in the mountain villages. 

But amongst the pain and devastation there has been an outpouring of love and support. Locally Kalkan's international friends and local residents have already raised lots of cash to provide immediate relief. Community groups have formed to pick up litter thus reducing fire hazards and to set up firewatches.

Our own local branch of Search and Rescue Operation AKUT have been in action.

In the words of Aşkınay Tomanbay, AKUT operative

"As Kalkan/Kas department we have been in Manavgat from 28th of July for 5 nights.  As soon as we arrived we were appointed in to rescue missions, rescuing people from first line of fire.

All the fire fighters I have seen had blood red eyes. We have given eye drops to a lot of people fighting in the front line both government workers and local people fighting the fire. Especially locals have no correct gear at all, and all of them go through same eye problem. We do go to the front line of fire without proper fire protection gear on us. I have personally raised money and bought some fire protective clothing for our operation team.   

But the damage is huge. I have seen quite a lot of Manavgat and surrounding neighbourhoods. I hear so many locals say “we have food water we need home”.

Akut Operation centre at Manavgat worked for 24 hour time shift for 5 days in a row. Akut Alanya, Akut Antalya and our Kas/Kalkan (11 volunteers) teams were assigned to Manavgat fires. During these 5 days our teams have rescued:

• 75 adult
• 6 Children
• 2 Lifeless Person
• 78 animal

We came back to Kalkan after working for 5 days, 24/7 shift rotation, to re-gather our material and to rest. Unfortunately fires started to broke in the region and we had to go for them.

Then on 5th of August we had call from 112 Emergency Services, requesting a evacuation due to fire risk of a elderly couple at 1.800 meters mountain top between Gömbe and Bey Mountains (you can watch a short video on the front page). The nearest village is called Doğantaş, at Kasaba area. So we got the call around 16:30 and by the time we park our car and walk to the top of the mountain to get the couple it was already almost getting dark. The trekking from the car to the couple was almost 2 km uphill and on a goat track. We were trying to get an airlift, but since it was becoming dark, we have decided since the couple was not in critical condition, we said we come back in the morning. Luckily they made the night through and next day we went up and securely handed them over to the ambulance helicopter with doctor on board. The couple was possible corona patient so we went in full covered.

Later on we heard the gentleman was positive so our team had to go through PCR test and thank god we all came out negative."

So, dear Turkey Lovers, on 9th October of this year a few swimmers (currently 5) will cross the 5.4km open passage from Mouse Island to Kalkan Beach to raise money. What can you do?

• Donate to the campaign via this page or by direct contribution to any of the swimming team
• Sponsor a particular swimmer
• Be an Associate Swimmer..NEW THIS YEAR! Follow us in on a boat and join us in the water to swim the last kilometre together. A fee is payable which you can get sponsorship for from friends and family. Details soon

All money raised will be spent as follows;

Half will go to AKUT Kaş/Kalkan team to spend on their priorities in building their capacity to search and rescue. You may be glad they are here one day. You can read about the work of our local team by clicking on the AKUT tab above.

The other half will be distributed to support those who have lost livelihoods in the fire and to support the firefighters from the Forestry Fire Service and the Municipal Fire Service. The needs of these groups will be assessed and decisions made by a small group of three, Ilkay Utaş, Altan Türel, and Linda Bestwicke plus me. I will give a casting vote in the unlikely situation that we are split. 

All the money collected and our decisions and actions will be posted here where they can be scrutinised. We will also use social media to promote, update and explain. Except for a small percentage (around 2%) that is deducted by PayPal there are no charges nor will we divert a penny for administration. Any costs will be covered by commercial sponsorship.

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