6 February 2023
The “THE TWO OF US ARE ONE SAPLING” social responsibility project, launched in cooperation between the Turkish Beyazay Association, the Çekmeköy District Directorate of National Education and Çekmeköy Municipality, has begun to sprout in Çekmeköy.
There are 11.5 million people with disabilities living across Türkiye. According to research, a large part of society does not form friendships with people with disabilities and has no particular contact with them.
The Turkish Beyazay Association, which since the day it was founded has delivered various social responsibility projects to create social awareness about people with disabilities, aims through this project to build that awareness on firm foundations from an early age.
The President of the Turkish Beyazay Association, Lokman Ayva, said: “We launched this project in Çekmeköy as a pilot. In the work we carried out with the Çekmeköy District Directorate of National Education, close to 60 pupils with and without disabilities were paired up. They were brought together through various social activities so that they could get to know one another better. The aim is for them to know each other better and to experience feelings such as brotherhood and sharing at an early age.”
The Çekmeköy District Director of National Education, Ahmet Aktaş, said: “With this project now under way, we will make the work sustainable so that the awareness beginning among our children spreads throughout the district.”
At the opening ceremony of the ‘‘The Two of Us Are One Sapling’’ social responsibility project on 25 February, pistachio saplings will be given to the young pupils. The children, who will each receive the other's sapling, will also spend time together during the process of raising them.
Once the saplings reach the planting stage, they will be planted in Çekmeköy's Özgecan Arslan Park.