From Fear to Courage… Ece & her dreams
Helping blind children to excel and advance in education
Our Education4Blind program is closing soon…
The last project of our Education4Blind program was completed and implemented in mid June. We are excited to inform you that we delivered the first ever English Language Braille Set -”Essential Grammar in Use”(4 sets in total) through our partnership with TURGOK, the braille library & NGO located in Izmir, Turkey. With your support and strong donations, blind children and youth can access to these new language education tools, learn English and widen their world literacy in the future. In addition to the language set, we gifted the production of 2 new books (Gulliver’s Travels, E.T. The Extra Terrestrial) and a new dictionary as part of the gift package to supplement language learning.
You would remember from our initial campaign promise; we aimed to help and advance education & learning opportunities for blind children in Turkey where the literacy/schooling rate in less than 10%. Blindness is one of the most challenging disabilities for children as lack of special education and lack of special tools impede their personal and social growth and integration into the society. Literacy and education is a current privilege and a “must have” to have a job, build a life and make a living.
In the beginning of the year, we developed a comprehensive program with our partners to mitigate part of the opportunity gap in 3 different ways. In the past 2 updates, we shared the news about production and distribution of braille book-sets for the specialty education K-12 schools throughout Turkey. In addition to these printed braille materials, in March we started sponsoring 5 blind university students (our support will continue for a period of 5 years) in Middle East Technical University, in Ankara, Turkey. Our total investment in these programs exceeded $35,000 with your support.
The printed, braille language sets are vital sources for language learning, and creates the foundation of english literacy which later can be supplemented by other voice assisted mediums or technologies. We gifted a total of 4 sets ($4000 value), and each set is printed in 9 separate chapters/binders to increase utilization. We are grateful for being able to support these programs with your donations, and we have been informed that the language set has been a hit, and already been checked out by 5 members of the blind library — TURGOK in the first week.
Meet Ece…
Ece is 16 years old, and currently attending “Omer Seyfettin Anadolu High School” in Ankara. She aspires to be a psychologist, and she is extremely interested in learning English as a second language. She would like to become a good scholar, attend a university and advance in her studies in this profession. She is very happy with the set, studies daily to improve on her language skills. In addition to acquiring a second language, she also aspires to be an athlete and wants to compete in the special olympics.
We wish Ece great success, admire her strength and perseverance. We know that with dedication and determination, she will achieve all her dreams, and be a role model for many others. Girls like Ece are tremendous inspiration for all of us, for what we do, and why we do. We wish many others find encouragement, follow her in her footsteps, and Ece’s success becomes a national story for the blind youth in Turkey.
