Ziraat Bank, Çiğli Branch, Account Number: 7452300-5002

Vakıfbank, Çiğli Branch, Account Number: 2014296

• Foundation's Mission

The Izmir Branch has been founded on November 14th, 1989 under the Presidency of Berat Zengil. In the beginning, our Branch carried on its education and rehabilitation services in a temporary space. In this early period of its establishment, the Izmir Branch made a great contribution to the region through the “Educational Courses for the Educators”, as a joint effort with the local Universities.

The Private Special Education and Rehabilitation Center, built as a donation by the philanthropist couple Vasfiye and Orhan Akyıldız was opened for service in November 1998 by Kutlu Aktaş, the Minister of Interior Affairs of the time. The Akyıldız family continue supporting the Izmir Branch as volunteers.

Today, our Izmir Branch still offers its multi-faceted, quality education and rehabilitation services with success, in the newer units added to the existing building, under the name of “Vasfiye-Orhan Akyıldız Courses for the Mentally Handicapped”, certified by the Ministery of Education.

Vasfiye - Orhan Akyıldız Courses for the Mentally Handicapped:

Our Special Education policy is based on continuing with long term (preferably full day) group activities together with individual education, since progress and development will be insufficient if limited only to weekly individual sessions. In our institution, we offer three individual sessions in a week, on the average, as well as full time group education, to our students. A student who has already been diagnosed is fully observed and evaluated by the experts in the school, upon application. Sessions are specially planned for such observation and evaluation processes. Following the evaluation, the student’s education and social programs are determined and shaped according to the specific needs. These programs are re-planned with re-evaluation meetings within certain intervals, no less than three times during a year.

The objective of the Education Programs is to facilitate the progress of the student so that he/she can advance to his/her fullest potentials in the fields of motor control, language, reasoning, social, self care, to give the necessary academic support, which are included in the progress of the handicapped student; thus, making the social adaptation of the individual possible, and, finally, helping the student to gain his/her independence.

Our Education unit includes eight group education rooms and eight individual education rooms. Each individual education room is equipped with computers and other necessary learning tools and equipment. The individual education rooms are 20 squaremeters each.

Our learning Center follows all the new publications necessary to keep this institution up to date in our field, as well as periodically updating the materials utilized for education. In their group and individual Education Programs, our students receive further support through social programs such as theater/drama, folklore, and physical education activities.

In our Physical Therapy unit, the handicapped students who have been diagnosed as C.P. (Cerebral Palsy) and those who have any kind of physical handicap receive therapy, working with our physical therapists who are experts in these areas, to provide for their independence at the highest level possible for each individual.

A child who has received a diagnosis, his/her handicap determined and handicap group defined goes through a thorough evaluation to determine the specific work program needed for that individual. The work activities in this area are continued individually with the child, the physical therapist, and the family. The home exercises for the students who commute daily from home are taped by a videocamera and sent as VCR to the family that is previously educated in this area. The objective is to present the activities the child should continue to do at home visually, to give help and support to the family.

In our Branch, the Physical Therapy activities are carried on in two special halls that have the necessary tools and equipment for this work.

In our Psychology Service, handicapped individuals are subjected to a very thorough psychological evaluation. As a result of this evaluation, psychological support programs are planned and these are individually applied to each student. At regular intervals, further evaluation meetings are held under the close supervision of the experts and the resulting evaluation reports are shared with the family. In this program, psychological support is also offered to the family if requested.

Special individual sessions are planned and conducted specifically for children who show adaptation difficulties, adolescence problems, problems of sexual behavior, and general behavioral maladaptation.

The activities and work in this section are conducted by our psycho-motor experts. This is a program which benefits mostly children with balance, coordination, and emotional problems. They are planned so that psychology and motor therapy activities are combined to include also emotional unification therapy work. The objective of this therapy work and activities can be summarized as:

• Increase attention, balance, and coordination,
• Develop self awareness,
• Finetune their level of motion,
• Develop body image,
• Increase the sense of self-reliance in the children.

Our main objective for the Workshop activities is to have our students gain work discipline, so as to provide for them opportunities for adaptation and contribution to the society and attain skills to be able to earn for their own independent living in time. For these purposes, we have organized special courses our students benefit from, such as hair dresser skills, ceramics, candle making, production of galoshes/overshoes, and other handcrafts.

There are few professional programs geared towards the education of the family in the country. Such activities which are organized within institutions mostly include class work and homework planning. The reality is that if we aim for progress in the fields of Rehabilitation and special education, this will only be possible with knowledgable and conscious parents, in addition to the experts in these areas.

With this premise in mind, the Family Education Center, which is within our Foundation, has been established to serve the needs of all the families who live in Izmir that have mentally handicapped children.

Upon application to this Section of our Foundation and explaining the specific situation in the family, the necessary education and training will be offered with no cost to the family. All that needs to be done is to make your application to our Center by telephone or in person.

The families that are accepted by the Foundation receive a detailed social evaluation right away. This way, their social and economic levels, as well as their health situation are determined. They receive all the information on the various foundations, institutions, and the societal resources so that they can get the necessary help in the areas they need to receive support. The conditions and specific situations of these families are recorded so that they can receive further support as their support needs and progress are followed.

In our Social Service Section, all activities are related to providing solutions to the problems that arise from environmental conditions during the progress of the handicapped child; these are continued while working together with the family and his/her social environment, thus bringing relief and support to the life of the family together.

Among the objectives of the Social Service Section are also: to direct various donations and help that are offered to our Foundation’s Izmir Branch towards the needy families, to organize various social activities, to arrange field trips and festivity programs, to create family groups for psychological support and effective communication, and to organize education programs and seminars, in order to contribute fully to families’ awareness and education.

• Photo Album