First lady Gül speaks of success in campaign

ISTANBUL

The campaign will continue with the support of The Presidency of The Republic of Turkey and Hayrünnisa Gül’s patronage.

Turkey’s first lady Hayrünnisa Gül, wife of President Abdullah Gül has announced that the “Education Enables” campaign, aimed at educating disabled citizens, has reached its goals in ways she never expected.

“Our aim was to increase the number of disabled persons who receive an education at a rate of 30 percent when we launched the campaign, but in the last three years the number of disabled citizens who have received an education increased at a rate of 144 percent,” she said at the annual ceremony of the campaign on April 24 in Istanbul. “There were 150, 000 disabled citizens receiving an education, but now the number is 370,000 in total,” Gül said.

The campaign has been of crucial importance for 8.5 million citizens in Turkey and will continue with the support of The Presidency of The Republic of Turkey and Hayrünnisa Gül’s patronage. PM Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s wife, Emine Erdoğan, and Social Policies Minister Fatma Şahin also attended the ceremony.