The Sabancı Centre is turning a blue light on for “April 2 World Autism Awareness Day
Sabancı Holding and Akbank support the Turn a Blue Light On campaign implemented all over the world on the 2nd day of April, the Autism Awareness Day. Sabancı Centre is contributing to the Autism Awareness Day by turning a blue light on for the evening of the 2nd of April.
The Turn a Blue Light On campaign is implemented with the initiatives of Tohum Autism Foundation in Turkey. Besides the Sabancı Centre, many business centres and hotels particularly the Bosporus Bridge, Fatih Sultan Mehmet Bridge and Kadıköy Bull Statue drew attention to autism with their blue lights thanks to the campaign which has being organised since 2014.
The Sabancı Group has been carrying out studies on autism for years through the Sabancı Foundation. As the first step, Mrs. Mine Narin Fark Yaratan was elected as the Founding Chairman of the Tohum Autism Foundation in 2010 by the Sabancı Foundation and a video was prepared to introduce the activities of the foundation and the video was thoroughly shared to promote the issue of autism to a wide audience.
Afterwards, the Tohum Autism Foundation developed and submitted to the relevant public authorities an education model, for the development of inclusive education in Turkey, with the grant support provided by the Sabancı Foundation in 2010. The Tohum Autism Foundation has been implementing the “First Step to Education: Inclusion in Preschool” project since 2016 with the support of the grant programmes of the Sabancı Foundation. Within the scope of the project, it is intended to generalise inclusive education in preschool for all disability groups in 20 preschools in İstanbul.