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www.disabledsouthwest.co.uk |
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When I first went to live in Turkey in the 1970's it was quite common for families of disabled people to put them onto the streets with a bowl to beg for money. In some extreme cases they would exacerbate the deformity to promote more sympathy from the people passing by. I am PROUD to say, that over the last 40 years there has been a radical change in the way things are done. There is still a long way to go, but then the same could be said about the UK also. As more disabled people are now choosing Turkey as a place to visit, I thought I would post a few translated articles from the Turkish Press on the site to give you some idea of the work that is now being done. Enjoy !! THE ED xx CULTURE Social inclusion band comes to Babylon
Talented musicians from different backgrounds with various disabilities
will come together on the first Monday of each month to perform in one of
Istanbul’s funkiest venues, Babylon. Turkish dancer's dream transcends paralysis
Öztürk, who was paralyzed from the waist down after breaking his back four years ago, is seeking financial support for a stem-cell transplant. “I want this money not as a donation, but as a loan,” he said. “In exchange, I will dance until I pay off the person or institution that helps me rise from my wheelchair.” The dancer has overcome obstacles before. After falling in love with ballet at the age of 13, he danced as an amateur until deciding at 19 to become a professional. When he applied to the State Conservatory, the admission committee told him he was too old for the sort of training he wanted to receive. The committee members soon changed their minds, however, after seeing his enthusiasm and amazing talent. Öztürk, who lives with his family in İzmit, finished his schooling in 2006, but his great ambition to dance in international shows was thwarted by a traffic accident the very night of his graduation ceremony. After the graduation speeches, Öztürk said he borrowed a friend’s motorcycle to go home and get some money. “It was only a 3-kilometer ride. I got on the motorbike and went off hastily,” he told the Hürriyet Daily News & Economic Review. “That is my last memory of that night.” Öztürk spent 10 days in a coma following the accident. Recalling the moment he regained consciousness, he said: “It was as if there was a flood of people around me. I felt something was wrong with my body. I hit myself on my legs but could not feel a thing. My body was as stiff as a block of concrete from my waist down. I wanted to believe it was just a dream.” It was not. His back was broken and he was left with a huge scar on his back, running all the way down from his neck. “My body was my instrument and I could not take good care of it. I am very angry with myself. I still do not know why I rode to my destination,” Öztürk said. Today, the dancer is supported by his mother; his father left the family right after the accident, and Öztürk was abandoned by his girlfriend as well. “She took the money we raised for my operation and ran away,” he said. “I was already in great despair and pain, so I could not even grieve over that.” Öztürk said when his stitches healed his mother handed him a bag of breadcrumbs and told him to go and feed them to stray dogs. “That was my first attempt to go out of the house in my wheelchair,” he said. “Gradually I gained confidence in myself.” Despite the difficulties he faced, Öztürk never gave up on dance. He started doing his regular daily dance exercises again and attended a dance workshop in the United Kingdom with the support of the Samsun Municipality. A few months ago, he took the stage with dancers from the famed Bolshoi Ballet in a show called “Golden Horn,” organized by Elif Sözen Kohl. “It is true that my body is resisting my will [to dance],” Öztürk said. “But everyday, I tell myself, ‘You are going to dance.’” His ambitions, however, have not been matched by opportunities. “If I could, I would not leave the stage, even for a moment. Dance is the only thing that keeps me alive,” he said. “Unfortunately, even that is too much to ask, it seems.” “I am young, but I feel useless even though there is a lot that I can do. I can teach in conservatories, I can dance, I can be a stage manager – I would even run small errands,” Öztürk said, adding that he has applied for help from as high up as the prime minister and culture minister. "Even if I get cured at the age of 60, the first thing I am going to do is go onstage and dance for hours and hours,” he said. “If I do not do that, I cannot die a happy man.” SPORT Handicapped children learn sailing in Izmir
The project, Engelli Değil Yelkenli, or “Not With Disability, With Sail,” is being coordinated by Turkish national sailor Özgür İnam. “We will give basic sailing lessons to 72 blind and deaf children in the short term,” said İnam. “The second part of the plan is to set up our first-ever national sailing team to participate in the Paralympics,” referring to the equivalent of the Olympics for handicapped athletes. The lessons will last for seven months and 75 percent of the funding will be provided by the İzmir Development Agency, or İZKA. “Sailing is a team sport and will improve the children’s adaptation skills and boost their confidence,” İnam said. “If this project becomes successful, we will have enriched these children’s lives. We will have shown that they can overcome any difficulty if they work hard enough." LIFESTYLE Disabled working at home as call center operatives Callaktif, a company offering call center solutions, is providing job opportunities for people with disabilities to work from their homes. Some 60 percent of employees at the firm work from their homes and 40 percent of those are handicapped, many with paraplegia. All employees are insured and the pay differs from minimum wage up to 3,500 Turkish Liras monthly. Burçin Seyiş, general manager for Callaktif, said they have 250 employees, including contractors. “Among our handicapped personnel, there are blind people and others with paraplegia. There are even people who are unable to move from the neck down,” he said. Seyiş also said their motto was removing the obstacles on the path of the handicapped and this is a civil society initiative they are practicing by helping disabled people take part in business life. They are working together with related foundations to hire employees, according to Seyiş. The company receives 35,000 calls everyday, Seyiş said, and added that they would start working for customers abroad after Aug. 12, starting with an energy company from Germany. Customers from Romania, Ukraine and Russia will follow. Callaktif is now in search of employees who are fluent in Romanian as if it is their mother tongue. “Those people will also read Romanian publishing and watch television channels. We need to help people who call from Romania as if we are from there. They need to know a lot of things, from the weather report to the country’s agenda,” Seyiş said, adding that they will encourage those employees to spend their summer holidays in Romania, too. “We practiced a similar system for England before. The callers did not notice the service was from Turkey for a long time” Seyiş said. Derya Coşar is a 26-year-old part-time Callaktif employee who has been working in the credit cards division for one-and-a-half years. Coşar’s job description includes informing callers on their credit card deliveries and statuses. Coşar works for five hours a day and answers 78 to 100 calls in that time. She graduated from a business high school and foreign exchange is her specialty. “I decided to take this job after a call from the Physically Disabled Foundation. I started training after the interview. Since I know about banking and my instructor was very good, I started working immediately,” Coşar said.
A.C.T was formed from a unique partnership;
combining the skills of the Project Manager Emma Smith, with 10 years
experience of the UK's Social Services Care Workers Sector, along with
Turkey's leading medical facilities from Caria Private Hospitals, offering
the highest quality practices and with a UK run Construction Company,
Dreams-in-turkey. The hotel centre within Icmeler has been designed and
landscaped to offer complete open access and equality for people with
disability or individual needs. What to expect: The A.C.T centre is the first
of its kind in Turkey and probably Europe. The Hotel is determined to
offer a memorable holiday experience to every individual respecting his or
her individual needs and high standards of care. Irrespective of mobility
and social needs, ACT hotel resort is fully risk accessed. High standards
of delivery care and flexibility at ACT Hotel offers unique experiences to
reach your specific needs and requirements on every visit. Rooms All well equipped, hoists available
when required, entrance doorways are wheelchair accessible, and hand rails
are fitted where necessary. Call system in place.
http://www.icmeleronline.com/hotel.php?no=136
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...... SPOTLIGHT ON TURKEY
The
Social Inclusion Band, which was launched by the Dream Academy as part of
the Istanbul Akbank Jazz Festival in October and has musicians from
different backgrounds with various disabilities, will perform on the first
Monday of each month at Istanbul’s Babylon
Being
paralyzed in a motorcycle accident has not stopped ballet dancer Mehmet
Sefa Öztürk from pursuing the art he says keeps him alive – or from hoping
for a cure that will free him from his wheelchair.
Marine
sports will be used to help rehabilitate the handicapped in a project
initiated in İzmir and launched with the participation of 72 children.
Amenity
highlights: Semi Olympic sized pool well shaped and designed with
rails and slopes, so you can enjoy your daily swim or just lay by the pool
soaking up the aromas of the pine clad Taurean mountains which surround
you.