Woman turns western province into a disabled-friendly city

Ece Çelik - MUĞLA

A woman has succeeded in transforming the western province of Muğla into a handicapped-friendly city via years of dedicated work, motivated by the difficulties her disabled relative encounters on a daily basis.

Speaking to daily Hürriyet, Dilek Dündar explained how she started her works regarding the rights of disabled people at the age of 40 even though she had no awareness on the issue until then.

“I was born and raised in Istanbul. I was working so hard in my own company, almost 15 hours a day, that I always dreamed of living in a coastal town when I retire and taking care of disadvantaged children. One day after I retired, I read an interview about a woman in a wheelchair in the newspaper and I thought of my disabled cousin Ömer, whom I had not seen for years. We started chatting with Ömer on Facebook.”

Dündar stressed that while travelling with her wheelchair-bound cousin in Istanbul, she became aware of how challenging it was to live in a big city as a disabled person.

Stating that she decided to move to Datça then established a platform in Muğla to bring all 23 associations of disabled people in the city together. Dündar said that they turned the western province into a disabled-friendly one, where any disabled person can get the help they need when they encounter a problem.

In 2015, Dündar found another association in Datça for the mentally disabled people, one year after Ömer and her had settled there.

To help the district’s mentally disabled population to get education, socialize and manage their own lives, Dündar and some volunteers pioneered in opening special classrooms in each school for the disadvantaged students.

“We also opened a workshop. Volunteers from Datça give training in workshops on sewing, candle making, cloth bag printing. In the summer, the children and their families sell the products they make. In this way, both they and their families earn money,” she added.