Ziraat Bankası Ümraniye Office, Account number: 2237624 - 5002

• Foundation's Mission

Our İstanbul branch was opened up on April 18, 1987 under the leadership of İsmail Arık. Having formed an effective structure in the Branch, we have been concentrating on our educational efforts since then. The building and services of the Rehabilation Center was made possible via funds donated by the philantrophist Tekrime Tarman on a land acquired by the Branch in Ümraniye. An annex was later added to the Center after an increase in the number of students.

İstanbul branch is proud to be the first branch in the Foundation to have ISO 2000 certification.

Continuing its multi-faceted educational and rehabilitational services, the Branch also extends its efforts on education of families and the society. It furthermore helps to raise the consciouseness on mental disabilities through activities such as panels and conferences.

Our center focuses on children diagnosed with Down syndrome, mental retardation, attention deficit disorder, and growth disorder. We help our children develop basic living, self-care, social, and academic skills and provide programs for work/craft training through individual and group-based physical, mental, social, and emotional education. We also assist the parents for gathering the documents required for registration after their children are accepted to our center. Counseling is another important service provided to the parents by the Center. We currently have 20 mentally handicapped children and individuals who follow the full-day education program. In addition, 70 more children receive individual training sessions.

These training sessions are sessions of 45-minute duration when teachers and students meet on a one-to-one basis. The education program is individually determined based on the goals set beforehand. The sessions can be observed in progress through the small peeping windows on the doors where the sessions are held. The family is given a briefing at the end of each session with regard to the studies held in the session. Individual training sessions are supported by home assignments for the student. Individual training is the most essential and determining factor in special education. Determining the missing skills in a student first, it is an education system where all the skills required in life are progressively attained in the end.

How are the requirements determined?

• The skills lacked by the child are found out first.
• An individual training program is formed by setting up yearly goals to develop the missing skills. (Yearly long-term goals)
• Certain goals are systematically selected among the long-term ones to work on the corresponding skill in each month. (Monthly short-term goals)
• The monthly goals are analyzed in the end of the month.
  • If the skill focused on during the month can be evaluated in the positive direction, another goal is selected for the following month.
  • In case of a negative evaluation, the missing components for achieving the goals are established. The steps necessary for the progress of the child are reformulated.

Monitor your child’s training

As a parent, keep a records folder for the yearly goals set and attained, the monthly goals for each month, and the obstacles faced throughout the process. Your records may include items such as individual education plan, evaluations for the monthly and yearly goals.

A special care must be given to form homogeneous groups of 4 students in order to enhance the effectiveness of group based studies. Exercises supporting psycho-social developlent should be emphasized.

Each group consists of 8 students in full day training groups. The aim here is to support and help psycho-social development while helping them gain skills for workplace. Academic education is kept to a minimum, whereas skills development is given utmost importance in a setting where the students can feel themselves happy and comfortable. There are currently 3 such classes in our center. The biweekly social activities held especially for integration of the individuals with the society also has the mission of raising the consciousness of the society towards the disabled.

It is a workshop where all the students attending the full day training daily spend a portion of their time. Students improve their hand-coordination skills and feel the joy of producing. Candle making, hammock weaving, bead work, basket embroidery are among the activities.

Targeted against students in group training, students learn how to produce overshoes in this workshop.

In service of all the students in the center, the game room is utilized for both group training sessions and leisure time activities. This class room is usually in service in the winter as an indoor hall.

This hall provides the infrastructure to engage the students in sports and prepare them for sports competition in order to help development of big mass muscles.

• Kindergartens
• Special pre-school classes
• Integration programs

The aforementioned educational activities will facilitate your children in social settings where you and we might not be particularly helpful. As emphasized in many sources, integration of the disabled to the society can never be achieved without their socialization in their early years. A child raised secluded at home can neither communicate with the people nor suffice to satisfy his/her needs. Each minute spent amongst peers will improve your child’s self-confidence, self-respect, communications skills and help your child better fit in the society. Each school affiliated with the Ministry of National Education must provide a quota for disabled students.

• Photo Album