A Journey Beyond Borders

According to OECD, EU and Turkey data, approximately 15% of the world's population consists of individuals with disabilities. In other words, there are 1 billion disabled people in the world. Disabled individuals have not been able to develop their skills because their social inclusion cannot be ensured. However, most of the disabled can be brought to life with special trainings for their needs. 60% of disabled individuals in Turkey cannot continue their education after primary
school. The biggest problem here is the difficulties faced by disabled people while trying to be included in social life. The first of these difficulties is the unconsciousness of the society. People who adopt the idea that 'disabled people are a part of society and are not different from anyone else' expect people with disabilities to be socially included and integrated into society. Disabled individuals, who are excluded from society, cannot continue their education life like ordinary people and cannot seize opportunities such as business life. Disabled people who cannot be employed lead a life that is financially and
morally dependent on their families. Disabled people, who are aware of their dependence on their families, struggle with psychological diseases and become suicidal. Persons with disabilities do not want the concept of "disabled" to be included in the literature, they just want to be treated like an ordinary person. This issue is recognized as a "human rights issue" on
the international agenda. Carrying out international studies on people with disabilities draws attention in developing the necessary policies and updating their legislation. As a society, we want to strengthen international cooperation with Erasmus+ projects to enable people with disabilities to reintegrate into social life. With this youth exchange project, we want
to support disadvantaged youth and disabled people in getting education and reintegrating them into society by establishing cooperation in Denizli and internationally.
We will realize our project in Denizli Çameli and together with 4 partners, 30 participants (including facilitators and leaders) will take part in the project. The selection of participants will be made by our community and partners immediately after the
acceptance of the project. For the project, 7 people from each country will participate and these people will include 1 mentally handicapped, 1 companion, 3 disadvantaged, 1 assistant participant and 1 group leader. A total of 2 facilitators, 1 each from Turkey and Hungary, will also take part in the project. To ensure gender balance, 15 of the 37 participants will be
female and 15 will be male. The profiles of the participants are as follows: In order to improve the psychomotor skills, creativity, problem solving abilities, entrepreneurship, communication and personal skills of the participants, we will organize
manual dexterity workshops with the facilitators on three different days. Ebru art, cloth bag painting and rhythm/percussion training will be given. Each country group will present short videos reflecting the daily activities of a mentally handicapped
person prepared in their own country. Participants will role play, introduce their own culture. Pamukkale Travertines will be discovered after the Rehabilitation Center and Local Government visits are made. The approach of the EU and Erasmus+ Program to the mentally handicapped will be "and it will be managed by our expert friend. The participants will receive a
brief briefing on the EU and its values, and the priorities and objectives of the Erasmus+ Program will be explained.
Afterwards, our participants will be asked to answer questions about this subject and discuss the EU's The participants will evaluate and give feedback on the activities carried out at the end of each day. The management team will ensure that the participants are involved in the project. This evaluation process will result in the distribution of the Youthpass Certificate.
Among the educational workshops, the "Pasta Tower" and "City Bingo" will take place. Participants will create a guide with basic information about our topic for use in dissemination activities.