PPG Industries has announced the completion of a Colorful Communities charitable-giving project in Bursa, Turkey, which helped revitalize the Bursa Merkez Learning Unit of TEGV (Educational Volunteers Foundation of Turkey). The Colorful Communities program incorporates employee volunteers, products and financial contributions to bring color and vitality to communities where the company operates around the world. Launched earlier this year, the program expands PPG’s investment in global communities by committing an additional $10 million over 10 years.

PPG donated $16,000 to TEGV, along with TRILAKT brand paint products by PPG, to beautify the Learning Unit in Yildirim, Bursa, which serves local children who have limited access to education. The project brought together about 50 PPG employee volunteers from the company’s Bursa plants and Istanbul office, who used the Trilak paints to complete the project.

TEGV creates and provides educational programs and extracurricular activities for children aged 6-14 in order to build on the basic education extended by the Turkish state and offer benefits from modern educational opportunities. The foundation, headquartered in Istanbul, operates in 31 provinces with 38 Learning Unit locations – along with Education Parks, Firefly Mobile Learning Units and City Representative Offices – where it offers unique programs for local children with the support of volunteers. TEGV signed the Global Compact in 2007 and has helped nearly 2 million children have a brighter future with help from its 10,000 volunteers.

“The Learning Units provided by TEGV are crucial for children without access to proper out-of-school education,” said PPG Turkey General Director Günes Evgin. “With the renovation of the Learning Unit in Bursa, we aim to help TEGV to add color to and beautify more children’s and parents’ lives.”

The PPG Colorful Communities initiative aims to enhance, protect and beautify the neighborhoods where the company operates. Together with community partners and PPG employee volunteers, the program supports projects that transform community assets using donated PPG products. Other Colorful Communities projects involved revitalizing and improving the safety of a playground in Poland; transforming classrooms and corridors, and adding to the science curriculum, at a charter school in Pittsburgh; and creating a more welcoming and positive environment at a children’s hospital in Italy.

The Colorful Communities program is currently engaged with a number of communities and expects to complete more than 14 projects in 2015 in North America, South America, Europe and Asia. PPG has completed six other Colorful Communities projects to date: in the United States, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands, South Korea and China.

In 2014, PPG and the PPG Industries Foundation donated more than $5.7 million to hundreds of community organizations across 24 countries around the world. These investments focused on: education programs that teach young people skills needed to succeed in studies and careers related to science, technology, engineering and math, such as jobs in advanced manufacturing; revitalization programs for buildings and community spaces; and organizations important to employees through grant and matching-funds programs.