Halk Bank Çiftlik Office - Samsun, Account number: 16000018

• Foundation's Mission

Our Samsun branch was opened up on December 2, 1988 under the leadership of Üstün Küsefoğlu and altruistic contribution of Nezahat Geçkin. Samsun Branch has started to educational activities on a temporary place after the foundation. As a result of intensive efforts, having its own land, Branch has been built the school building with contributions of benefactors. In 2001, we have moved from old building where we could only serve and accommodate 35 students to 3000 m2 new building which was made possible by the support of benefactors and the efforts and devotions of volunteers from Samsun. The new building has better conditions that our children deserve.

Samsun Branch, our Executive Board and teachers with their experiences, has started multi-faceted educational and rehabilitation services in 1988 and targeted to being a leader of region in this area.

Our children are happy, friendly, hardworking, and affectionate; and they never have bad intentions. Perhaps their learning is slow and difficult, but they learn. They do everything that they could in order to learn. While they were in such an effort to learn, we, as volunteers from Samsun, believed that we needed to do something for them. We have been doing our best since our establishment in order to improve the quality of education to the highest level with the support of our benefactors and with our devoted working agenda.

In this context, we are providing a service which we have provided to the 35 students in the past in our new building with 200 student capacity now.

The number of our administrative and educational experts with other attendants is decided according to the laws and the number of mentally challenged students that are being educated at the center. So the following staff are working full time at the center;

• Responsible Administrator,
• Psychiatrist,
• Expert of Child Development and Education,
• Physical Therapist,
• Special Education Expert,
• Social Education Expert,
• Academic Skills Teacher,
• Physical Education Teacher,
• Hand Crafts Teacher assigned by the Community Education Center,
• Educators graduated from Child Development Program at the Female Vocational High School,

The teachers for vocational education, music, art (painting), drama (theater) and folk dances are working voluntarily. Additionally, a secretary, other helping attendants, a cook, a driver, and a guard are working at the center.

The children that are diagnosed with the following disorders could benefit from the educational and rehabilitation services at the center.

• Down Syndrome
• Mental Retardation
• Mental Motor Retardation
• Autism
• Epidemic Developmental Disorders
• Attention Deficit Disorder and Hyperactivity
• Cerebral Palsy
• Learning Difficulties

As a result of pre-evaluation, it is decided to enroll a student into the center. The evaluation forms are also decisive in the development level of the student. According to the needs of the student, general and monthly objectives are determined. Along with the monthly objectives; following daily programs are prepared:

• Mental development and conceptual education
• Affective development
• Psycho-social development
• Language development and speech education
• Physiotherapy—Physical education
• Education with a aim to support schooling
• Education for reading, writing and mathematics
• Education for motor development
• Education for development of social skills
• Education for development of self-care and basic daily life skills.

At the end of individual education, an evaluation takes place. Students are evaluated every 6-8 months for their development. According to that, objectives are re-determined to continue the individual education. Along with students’ interests and skills, their education is supported with the following activities:

• Educational games
• Art
• Physical education/gym
• Music
• Drama
• Computer assisted education
• Enriching activities (theater, movies, field trips, etc.)

If there is a doctor or psychologist who monitors the students’ development, the teachers and advisors at the students’ center and doctor/psychologist communicate and collaborate about the student’s development.

At the center, there are three different educations done in groups; short sessions, half-day, and whole day. Students are grouped according to their developmental levels. Short sessions with 4-8 students and half or whole day classes with 4-12 students are implemented with at least two educators. Six-month educational program is determined in relation to students’ common needs. According to this program, the following daily educational programs are prepared:

• Social development
• Awareness of self and the environment
• Self-confidence and self-expression
• Inclusion to a group and obeying the rules
• Learning and applying the social rules
• Acquiring the social behaviors (Collaboration, cooperation, sharing, waiting in line…)
• Game
• Development of self-care
• Mental development
• Language development

In order to help students acquire and reinforce these skills; the field trips to theatres, movies, picnics, pharmacies, or zoo are arranged.

Exercise programs are decided and carried out under the supervision of a physiotherapist for the students who need physiotherapy. While the normal development curve is taken into consideration, the programs are determined by the physiotherapist according to the students’ physical developmental level. The main goal of this exercise program is to help students acquire their independence in their daily life and to improve their life quality. The major principles of physiotherapy are:

• To change abnormal postures which are fundamental to basic movements,
• To prevent involuntary spasms and to improve the strength of weak muscles,
• To improve the basic and the most important movements along with the normal development curve (head control, sitting down, standing up, walking, etc.) and to improve balance and coordination in these movements
• To help the students become independent in their daily life activities and self care.

While physiotherapy program is being applied, in addition to the exercises done with the physiotherapist, an exercise program for home to be done under the supervision of the parents is prepared. The aim is to improve the effectiveness of the physiotherapy program with including the parents of the child. According to the results of regular evaluations, the physiotherapy program is re-determined.

Life house is established with aim of helping our students to study basic life skills and self care. Life house is built and decorated according to the skills that our students need to develop in their daily life. It also aims to fulfill and improve their inevitable daily life needs. Tools such as refrigerator, oven, stove, washing machine, iron, sewing machine, TV, and VCD/DVD players, are used in Transition to the Independent Life Program.

There are both lawn and concrete fields in the recreational area of the center. In the grass playground, there are toys such as slide, seesaw, swing. In the concrete area, short and tall basketball hoops, mini soccer goal posts, volleyball and tennis fields are offered for our students’ use. These fields are being used for the physical education classes. Additionally, we have a game room for our students to play their games in groups.

• Our students are encouraged to participate in swimming and basketball classes offered by the City Government Office of Youth and Sport.
• Physical education teacher at the center and volunteer teachers also offer semester classes for various kinds of sports.
• It is collaborated with the students at the 19 Mayis University Yaşar Doğu Physical Education and Sports College in their field experience applied courses.
• Our students also participate in swimming and basketball classes offered by the 19 Mayıs University Yaşar Doğu Physical Education and Sports College in summer semesters.
• Our students participate in camps offered by our center; youth sports camps, and other camps offered in Samsun.

• Our athletes participated in the track events which took place in Trabzon on June, 07-09, 2001.
• İLKNUR ÇETİNKAYA became World Champion in Ladies 50m running competition in “SPECIAL OLIMPICS-WORLD GAMES” which took place in Ireland on June, 21-29, 2003.
• Our basketball team earned the second place in Karadeniz Basketball Championship in their group (C) which took place in Zonguldak between September, 25-26, 2004.
• We participated in four divisions in Karadeniz Athleticism, Basketball, Table Tennis, and Swimming Championship which took place in Samsun on May 13-14, 2005.
• Athleticism
  • In the long jump competition, Müslüm UYSAL earned the second place and Recep AKSOY earned the third place. Müslüm UYSAL earned the third place 50m running competition.
• Basketball
  • Our basketball team earned the second place in their group (D).
• Swimming
  • Safa ÖZCAN earned the second place in Karadeniz in backstroke 25m and freestyle 50m. Cem AKSU the third place in Karadeniz in backstroke 25m and freestyle 50m.
  • SEFA ÖZCAN earned the third place nationwide in freestyle 25m and backstroke 50m in Turkish Swimming Championship which took place in Denizli on September 24-25, 2005.

Our students are doing gardening activities in our hobby garden such as hoeing, sowing, planting, watering, and harvesting. They grow plants such as tomatoes, green pepper, cucumber, parsley, green beans, zucchini, eggplant, and lettuce. Students also use these vegetables to make salads or to cook soups in their basic life skills and nutrition classes.

Our students who are 21 years old or older produce paintings, candles, candle holders, lampshades, necklaces and bracelets under their art, craft and galosh teachers’ supervision with leftover materials. Our galosh production supplies most of the Samsun’s galosh demand.

Every semester we offer music and drawing courses. In music courses, students participate in musical activities with various musical instruments as a group. In drawing courses, they learn various drawing techniques.

In drama courses, our students participate in activities such as creative drama, sketches, and small plays. Field trips are arranged for our students to go children plays, puppet shows, or movie theatres in the city. Sometimes these activities are offered and performed at our center by volunteer organizations or people.

In the summer semesters, courses are offered to teach folklore dances. It is aimed to improve our students’ rhythm, movement with music, and counting skills.

Services are provided for children who attend regular public schools but need support due to their academic skills, mental, emotional and physical development. Children are grouped according to their ages and come to the center for half-day period (after or before schooling). Then they return their regular public schools. We communicate and collaborate with the teachers and advisors at the students’ school about the student’s development and needs.

This education is provided for mothers and fathers individually or in groups in order to inform parents about their children’s characteristics, to provide information how to teach their children many skills, how to deal with problematic behaviors, how to control their children in more effective ways, and how to improve their relationships with their children. These educations are shaped according to parent consultation meetings and the demands and the needs of the parents.

It has been claimed that the objectives and the goals of all programs and projects towards children are crucial and inevitable for those children’s lives. However, a very important issue for the child could be forgotten: the holistic approach to the child. The holistic approach in a child’s development means to perceive the child as a whole being who grows up in a family, society and country concepts and his or her development is supported in those environments. For the education of autistic children, it is more important to help them gain self-care and freedom in their daily lives for adjusting into the societal life than their academic education.

Taking this idea into account and knowing that our children should not be distracted, we built a closed circuit television system with audio and colored video properties at the center. Since the first months of 2004, the educational videos have been played in the waiting room for our parents to watch. The videos are about the skills that we aim to help our children acquire. In these videos, parents are also encouraged to have similar activities at their homes with their children.

Additionally, parents are informed individually or via communication notebook about their children’s status after every individual education and physiotherapy. Child’s that day’s performance is noted and recorded. Parents are also assigned tasks for to be done at home. Parents are also asked to keep a record about the tasks and developments happening at home.

Individual parent-teacher conferences, meetings, seminars, and house visiting are organized in order for parents to get to be more acquainted with their child and to participate actively in their children’s education and special education (groups for different handicaps, educational techniques, behavior forming, physical therapy, constitutional rights of disabled people; career development, etc.). These seminars are presented by professionals by using visual and audio equipments (OHP, video, audio cassettes). Furthermore, parents are informed through written media such as parent bulletin board, periodical bulletin, and brochures.

These individual or group meetings aim to help parents to understand their own and their child’s emotions, thoughts, and reactions. It also aims to help parents to face their own emotions. Another goal of these meetings is to assist parents to produce realistic solutions to their child’s problems by sharing their child’s emotions and expectations.

These programs are prepared for the children who are coming from the city of Samsun or its’ suburbs and can not attend regularly. First children are observed and evaluated in educational or physiotherapy activities. Then educational or physiotherapy activities to be done for a month or two months at home are given to the parents. In order to help parents to apply these educational or r physiotherapy activities successfully, they are invited to participate as observant to the educational or physiotherapy activities at the center. Parents who apply their programs at home efficiently come back to the center at the end of the pre-determined period. The child is re-observed and re-evaluated at the center and a new program fro home is prepared.

We started a new project under the name of “The Child of All of Us.” With this project, it is aimed to make people in the surrounding of the disabled child become aware and be informed about the important related issues. Most of the parents are knowledgeable about their child’s differences. But they could not transmit this information to their surroundings. We think that it is not sufficient to educate only the child and his or her parents. Therefore we aimed to enlarge the rings of the chain. We have started neighborhood meetings in order to reach everyone who is in the surrounding of the child and has a possibility to communicate with the child. Parents invite relatives, people in the near surrounding and neighbors to listen to the information about the child provided by our experts. We use a non-technical language in these presentations since our audience is learning these subjects for the first time. We provide detailed information about the child and include the people in the surrounding of the child in his or her education. We also asked them to share their newly acquired knowledge with others in other environments. So we believed that we accelerate the process of acceptance of our children into the society and the process of making others approach them appropriately. Our parents are very pleased of the results of these activities. They gladly share with us the positive consequences that they have observed.

Taking into account the seasons and certain days and weeks, we arrange field trips to the zoo, museums, governmental offices, and picnic areas in our city. Every year we organize a fair in June. We have exhibitions of our children’s handicrafts and various shows. It is aimed towards helping our children to get acquainted with their environment.

The students participate in mock military services performed by the Turkish Armed Forces Samsun Garrison Headquarters in Samsun.

Our children also actively participate in the activities organized by Samsun Metropolitan Municipality and in the Handicapped Fair organized by İlkadım Municipality.

The first “From Theory to Practice: Special Education Symposium” was organized by Samsun branch on May 10, 2005 in Samsun Atatürk Culture Center.

Prof Dr. Hıfzı ÖZCAN, Prof. Dr. Bilal DİNDAR, Dr. Engin DENİZ, Dr. Bülant MADİ, Psychiatrist Fatma SAYMAN, Psychiatrist Mine AKTAŞ, Social Services Expert Semra AYDIN, Lawyer İsmail ARIK and Lawyer Birol KANSOY had presentations in the symposium. Parents of the handicapped children in Samsun, university students and professionals participated in to the symposium.

European Union Central Finance and Adjudication Department (CFAD) prepared a Local Improvement Initiatives Grant Program for Samsun, Kastamonu and Erzurum Level – II Regions. Our project which aims to improve the career rehabilitation and employment of the mentally disabled people is now under consideration and being evaluated by CFAD.

We would like to present our most sincere gratitude

• Turkish Republic Samsun Governor’s Office
• Turkish Republic Samsun Garrison Headquarters
• Samsun Metropolitan Municipality
• Foundation of the Social Services and Child Protection
• 19 Mayıs University
• İlkadım Municipality
• Gazi Municipality
• Atakum Municipality
• Canik Municipality
• Kutlukent Municipality
• The City Government Office of Youth and Sport
• Kadıköyspor Management

and volunteer supporters and benefactors from Samsun.

• Photo Album