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The biggest project in my life is establishing a center for disabled children. It was established with the name “Edirne Therapy Center for Mentally and Physically Disabled Children”. You might say, what relationship do you have with disabled people. I am very socially active in Edirne. One day, I am sitting at work, a family came with all of its children. I am looking for Mr. Yasef, they said. “Mr. Yasef, you serve everyone, but you do not do anything for families with disabled children”. I had not thought of such a thing until that moment. “My son is disabled, but we cannot get him the care he needs in Edirne, we cannot get it in Istanbul either. I take my child to Eskisehir every ten days and bring him back. Would you please give a hand for disabled also?” she said. Next to me was the Textiles Central manager of the famous Bezmen group, Erdal Bey. We came face to face and said why shouldn’t we do this job, we said. We could do it, but with what. That day the word disabled imprinted on our minds. That person affected us. One day I receive a call from international Rotary. There are 25-30 young people coming from Germany who will transit through Edirne, they needed help in Kapikule. But they were a little late . I could not send them to Istanbul that day, I hosted them in Edirne. I was very useful to them, and I did not take a penny. One of them was a governor, he asked me if I had a project from Rotary when he was leaving. “I really want to be involved in disabled people” I said. The guy took note of it. He visited Turkey, went to Syria, and returned to Germany.
A week, ten days later, I received a letter, “There are very big schools in Germany for the disabled” he said, “send me a team, I will host them for 15 days, I will provide you support with the help of the university, and you send your doctors here”. We sent them a team of doctors led by Sait Erdem. They stayed 20 days in Germany. We made an international project, worth 20.000 dollars. The dean of the time gave up, I will not do this job, he said. All of our efforts were messed up, we sent the doctors to Germany. We were completely disillusioned I did not lose my conviction. I had a friend in Ankara. I called him. I told him about the project. I told him I found 20.000 dollars too. “But I cannot find anyone to implement the project”, I said. His answer was “ If you find Ihsan Dogramaci, he will take care of your business”. Dogramaci was president of YOK(Committee for Higher Education) then, a very good friend of his. He finds Dogramaci at his place, tells him the situation, we will take care of it right away, he says. He immediately calls the dean in Edirne, Ahmet Karadeniz, on the phone and says; “Dear Ahmet, I congratulate you, I heard that you are cooperating with the Rotary Club. You embraced them, wonderful. I am sending you a letter of commendation for the work you do, he said. But things did not progress fast after this. The dean provided a doctor for the clinic, we have seven patients, we cannot accept more. We don’t have money either, I started sitting at tables in mosques. I am collecting donations for the disabled. There, one citizen who does not know me, asks the reason. I explained the situation. We started a center, but it is not enough, if we find around 5 millions, then we can do something, I said. This friend gave us the five million, he was very touched when he saw me. The Jews are collecting money in the mosque for the disabled. We could only do excavations with this five million liras. We could not do anything else. He gave a place in the university of course. He asks me what is happening. My dear friend, you gave this money, we did the excavation, we have to wait for the rest from the government, I said. Would you lead this job, he asked me, I accepted. If you are going to be on top of this job, I will support you, he said. He gave 1.000.000 Swiss franks. This is a very big amount. With this money, we established the biggest disabled center not only of Turkey, but of the Balkans under my management, and it is still currently under my management, and it is very important for me, I am attached. In this hospital where we started with 5 childreen, now there are 2,000 disabled children. There are mentally challenged and physically challenged. This is a project as big as Turkey. I go there three to four days a week. The approximately 15 doctors that work there work under me. This provides me with the greatest happiness, I am so attached to these disabled, that I even built a park for them. Because the families of the disabled children are ashamed of their children. In reality it is nothing to be ashamed of but unfortunately they are. We built a park just for them on the road to Karaagac, on a 10 acre plot, which this citizen donated again, we built a big park for the disabled children’s families. The families come with their children, everything is free. Now, that is my biggest happiness. There are ceramic and art workshops inside the school. All the rooms are spotless, the families participate in the education and everything is taught to the children including getting dressed. There are two psychologists for these children and their families are visited too. Our therapy is free.
Outside of the Rotary, I am involved in the disabled. When the Edirne community was crowded, we had a lot of friends, and we did a lot of activities. The families of Kalvo and so on, all came here. We continue our friendship here too. Now we are friends with people who came from Edirne. We could not become part of the community of Istanbul.
A week, ten days later, I received a letter, “There are very big schools in Germany for the disabled” he said, “send me a team, I will host them for 15 days, I will provide you support with the help of the university, and you send your doctors here”. We sent them a team of doctors led by Sait Erdem. They stayed 20 days in Germany. We made an international project, worth 20.000 dollars. The dean of the time gave up, I will not do this job, he said. All of our efforts were messed up, we sent the doctors to Germany. We were completely disillusioned I did not lose my conviction. I had a friend in Ankara. I called him. I told him about the project. I told him I found 20.000 dollars too. “But I cannot find anyone to implement the project”, I said. His answer was “ If you find Ihsan Dogramaci, he will take care of your business”. Dogramaci was president of YOK(Committee for Higher Education) then, a very good friend of his. He finds Dogramaci at his place, tells him the situation, we will take care of it right away, he says. He immediately calls the dean in Edirne, Ahmet Karadeniz, on the phone and says; “Dear Ahmet, I congratulate you, I heard that you are cooperating with the Rotary Club. You embraced them, wonderful. I am sending you a letter of commendation for the work you do, he said. But things did not progress fast after this. The dean provided a doctor for the clinic, we have seven patients, we cannot accept more. We don’t have money either, I started sitting at tables in mosques. I am collecting donations for the disabled. There, one citizen who does not know me, asks the reason. I explained the situation. We started a center, but it is not enough, if we find around 5 millions, then we can do something, I said. This friend gave us the five million, he was very touched when he saw me. The Jews are collecting money in the mosque for the disabled. We could only do excavations with this five million liras. We could not do anything else. He gave a place in the university of course. He asks me what is happening. My dear friend, you gave this money, we did the excavation, we have to wait for the rest from the government, I said. Would you lead this job, he asked me, I accepted. If you are going to be on top of this job, I will support you, he said. He gave 1.000.000 Swiss franks. This is a very big amount. With this money, we established the biggest disabled center not only of Turkey, but of the Balkans under my management, and it is still currently under my management, and it is very important for me, I am attached. In this hospital where we started with 5 childreen, now there are 2,000 disabled children. There are mentally challenged and physically challenged. This is a project as big as Turkey. I go there three to four days a week. The approximately 15 doctors that work there work under me. This provides me with the greatest happiness, I am so attached to these disabled, that I even built a park for them. Because the families of the disabled children are ashamed of their children. In reality it is nothing to be ashamed of but unfortunately they are. We built a park just for them on the road to Karaagac, on a 10 acre plot, which this citizen donated again, we built a big park for the disabled children’s families. The families come with their children, everything is free. Now, that is my biggest happiness. There are ceramic and art workshops inside the school. All the rooms are spotless, the families participate in the education and everything is taught to the children including getting dressed. There are two psychologists for these children and their families are visited too. Our therapy is free.
Outside of the Rotary, I am involved in the disabled. When the Edirne community was crowded, we had a lot of friends, and we did a lot of activities. The families of Kalvo and so on, all came here. We continue our friendship here too. Now we are friends with people who came from Edirne. We could not become part of the community of Istanbul.
Location
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Türkiye
Interview
Yasef Romano