There are 550.000 people who are taking advantage of the education programs for children in their early childhood, mothers and fathers, and women.
Education for 350.000 mothers and children in Turkey through mother's training programs.
Education for 32.500 fathers and children in Turkey through father's training programs.
Education for 91.000 women through literacy and women support programs.
Education for 18.000 parents through parents education seminars.
Education for 50.000 children through preschool education programs.
In the second issue of the new year, on our social responsibility section, we interviewed Meltem CANTÜRK, AÇEV Literacy Education Unit Coordinator, in order to introduce you to AÇEV which provides early childhood and adult education.
Ms. Canturk, could you please briefly tell us about yourself?
Meltem CANTURK: I've been working with AÇEV since 1995, and as the coordinator I run the literacy program, one of the education units in the foundation.
Could you tell us about the foundation of AÇEV and its goals?
AÇEV was founded in 1993. Our main mission is to empower people through education, contribute to bringing equal education to everyone, and especially announce the public about the preschool education. Our basic quality is to generate education programs that address the needs of adults, and bring this program to the ones in need.
We collaborate with both the Ministry of Education and other civil society associations. We have the “7 is Too Late” campaign. With this project, we aim to make the preschool education in Turkey mandatory and widespread. We conduct various awareness-raising activities. Another specialty we have as a foundation is the adult education. We provide various trainings for parents with preschool kids.
Especially with the activities conducted by literacy unit between the ages of 2-11, we provide literacy classes for mostly women older than 15 who have not been to school before. This is primary education, and since these people have never been to school before, we don't just teach them how to read and write, but we also help them become conscious about their needs as citizens, and how to sustain in life.
We receive consultancy from various academicians in order to keep these education programs up-to-date, addressing all needs, and science-based. For instance, Prof. Dr. Çiğdem Kağıtçıbaşı of Koç University, Prof. Dr. Sevda Bekman of Bosphorus University are among our academic and general advisors at the foundation. We exist in almost all 81 cities, and we have mother-children trainings abroad. Father trainings are only held in Germany. However, we have early childhood education in Belgium, Bahrain, France, Holland, Switzerland, Northern Cyprus, Lebanon, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia. These courses are applied in Arabic in the Arab countries.
Until now we have reached nearly 100 thousand women with our Women Support and Literacy trainings. Illiteracy problem in Turkey seems to be bygone. Several campaigns had been conducted on this topic. The level and quality of literacy is more important then the ratio of literacy now. As a foundation, we provide literacy classes in the standard level, but beyond that we are improving the level of literacy by an 80-hour development program.
Are you receiving any subsidies from the government?
Since we are a foundation, we don't get any financial support from the government. We are a foundation, depended on the foundation laws. We collaborate with the government during the implementation of our programs. We collaborate with the Ministry of Education. We want the locations where we educate parents to be schools. Because parents have easy access to the school in their neighborhoods. This is something that schools can also take advantage of. Because in the future, the preschool kids are continuing their education in these schools. So the headmasters/teachers are meeting the parents earlier. This is one of the important points of making the preschool education services widespread. The parents and the children get to be prepared for school. That is why, when possible we conduct our literacy courses, parents trainings in public centers, primary schools, high schools, education rooms of civil society associations.
Do you use technology in your trainings?
Right now, all trainings that we conduct in the field are long term, and they aim change of behavior. That is why they are applied as face to face and interactive. Additionally, we organize informatory seminars. On top of that we have education activities on TV. Especially the "Want to Play with Me?" program that was broadcast on TRT from 2002 for 5 seasons, we had the opportunity to provide children between the ages of 3-6 and parents a fun education program. Other than this, in collaboration with NTV, a documentary called "It's Great To Be a Father" which talks about our father trainings was produced and broadcast. In 2005, in collaboration with Channel D, an entertaining TV show called "Our Class" which involved literacy training sections was prepared and broadcast. Aside from these, during the 7 is Too Late campaign, we had informative and awareness-raiser TV spots.
In addition to our corporate website, we shared information with parents about child development on www.7cokgec.org. AÇEV is currently developing projects that aim to integrate technology in a more comprehensive manner to its short and mid-term education programs. For this regard, we have started working on an education website for teachers, soon to become an interactive portal. We plan on launching the website by the first half of 2010. Also, we are continuing the development of a project that will transform the literacy program to an education format on the web. Once we have enough financial resource, we are going to start implementing, and with this experience, technological dimension will be added to all of our educational programs.
What to do in order to become a volunteer?
The literacy trainings of our foundation are led by our volunteers. Therefore, in order to become volunteers in our literacy unit, people should only follow our 2,5 week long facilitator seminars. People who have the time and want to help their society are starting literacy courses with our guidance and logistic support. They are teaching women how to read and write 3 times a week.
