There has been a lot of progress in Turkey since we trained them to start a self-advocacy group at the end of 2017.

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Recent activities

The self-advocacy group is nearly 2 years old and has been involved in many different activities.

They have spoken up at many different events including running seminars and presenting at universities and businesses. They have also spoken at Turkish Parliament as part of the Down syndrome committee that the group helped to advocate for.

The group has been involved in an Erasmus project on poverty and social exclusion. They explored the meaning of poverty by helping to prepare a meal for homeless people and doing an activity buying food for a fictional family with a low budget. Then they decided on a group about activities they wanted to do, which included distributing food, visiting a nursing home and preparing a support box for families with newborn babies.

Through the project the group has visited Barcelona, where they met the Turkish ambassador, and Budapest, where they did a presentation about their project.

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Next steps for Turkey

Down Syndrome Turkey is planning to expand the project, starting self-advocacy groups for people with Down syndrome in 5 cities across Turkey.

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Read more about our self-advocacy work here:

SELF-ADVOCACY

Support more projects like this here:

GLOBAL SUPPORT CAMPAIGN