In today’s World, it is a common problem in EU Countries that people who are with disabilities and special needs such as Down syndrome and mental disability are isolated from community and they are not accepted by other groups because their lack of communication skills and because they can not do like what social structure wants from them, and they try to survive with the help of other individuals According to data of OECD of EU and Turkey, approximately %15 of World population is composed of individuals with disabilities. So that, they are called ‘largest minority’ in the World. In EU countries, the rate of disabled people who left after primary school is %25. Also, %29.9 of disabled people are in the risk of poverty/social isolation in EU. It is noticeable that they are exposed to isolation from community and the rate of employment of them is low because they are not be included in production and social life. It is a important way to share the practices which are promising with international collaboration for individuals with disabilities so that they can acquire vocational skills in schools, provide self-confidence, maintaine their lives as individual offering added value to society and discipline social integration. On the basis of this problem, under the coordination of Turkey, we have met three schools from Macedonia, Romania and Turkey and decided to pursue our Project named ‘The SENDs Are Acting in Life’ Our most fundamental need was to produce solutions to uncover own potential of our student with special needs and to annihilate obstacles that they have countered and will countered. Facilitating the access of individuals with disabilities to health, rehabilitation, supporting education and employment, ensuring social equality for their success and mobilizing all the possibilities for environmental planning will make an important contribution to the solution of this problem. Education is an extremely critical topic for the employment of people with disabilities and for the prevention of poverty or social exclusion. We have selected the partners of the project, considering our personal initiatives and according to that there are experienced institutions carrying out educational activities on eTwinning in the field of special education, and also that the student profile is similar to our student profile We provided the needs analysis by conducting online meetings with other stakeholders. Basic and common problems of all partners; The socioeconomic status of many of the student families is low profile, a significant part of the student parents are disorganized families, the social exclusion of students due to the limited communication skills, anger attacks and aggressive behaviors, and the high level of post-school employment anxiety of the students. We believe that people with disabilities who are educated in schools can not generalize learning with classical education techniques, and supporting students with a production and art-based model will make learning more permanent and enable student integration into society. Our project will be realized under these two main titles. Production and Art. In 3 countries, 3 different production activities and therapeutic art activities will be held. In Turkey; professional skills will be gained in the field of organic farming and cooking with ecological production and gastronomy activities. Therapeutic studies will be carried out in the fields of painting, traditional crafts, earthen ceramics and music. In Romania; decorative objects such as ceramic works, vases, flower pots will be produced and professional skills will be gained in the field of cooking with gastronomy activities. A composition consisting of traditional music and dances will be prepared and a theatrical performance will be performed. In Macedonia; In the field of wood material production and restoration, professional skills will be gained and therapeutic studies will be carried out in the fields of painting and music. At the end of the project, a 3-part documentary film will be created and the reflections of workshops, professional skill workshops and art therapy workshops carried out in each country will be shown to students and teachers. The goal of our project; to enable students to develop skills based on production and art, and to participate in social life and express themselves with confidence. In addition, it is the rehabilitation of students and their parents, teachers to learn different methodologies, to support students' self-confidence and entrepreneurship, to facilitate their integration with the society, to get to know the culture of other societies. Our project is in the long term; It aims to encourage employment of disabled people by contributing to social production, developing lifelong learning skills in students and teachers, tolerance to different cultures, and creating awareness and sensitivity in all segments of the society, employers and awareness.
Nowadays in the world, individuals with disabilities such as autism, intellectual disability and down syndrome and with special needs; It is seen as a common problem of EU countries that their communication skills are limited, not accepted by other groups because they have difficulty in exhibiting behaviors in social structure, and are isolated. So they try to survive with the help of others. According to OECD-EU a data, 15% of the world's population consists of individuals with disabilities. The rate of disabled who drop out of school after primary school in EU countries is 25%. 29.9% of disabled people in the EU are at risk of poverty/social exclusion. Employment is low due to the inability of disabled individuals to participate in social life and thus they experience social exclusion. Depending on this, we gathered with 3 schools from Macedonia and Romania under the coordination of Turkey and we realized our project called “The SEND's Are Acting in Life”. We have done our best to remove the obstacles that our students face in social life and to reveal their potential. We have produced solutions for individuals' access to rehabilitation, education and employment, and to ensure social equality of opportunity. Our partners were defined considering our personal initiatives and the fact that they are experienced institutions so as to carry out educational activities in the field of special education, through the E-twinning platform. The main problems of our partners; Most of the students' parents are from broken families, their socioeconomic status is low, students' communication skills are limited. They are also exposed to aggressive behaviors,and social exclusion and employment concerns among the parents are high. Thanks to our experience that our students cannot learn through classical education-teaching techniques, we realized that supporting our curriculum with a production and art-based model would make learning more permanent and enable integration of our disabled students with society more easily. So, we carried out our project under two main titles: Production and Art. We held different productive activities and therapeutic art activities in these 3 different countries. In Turkey, in the greenhouse activity in our school, our students have grown various products by doing organic farming for 2 years. We have carried out gastronomy activities with these and gained professional skills in the field of cookery. In addition, we gained professional skills by teaching how to produce various ceramics, vases and wooden materials in our workshops. We also did macrame work. We carried out therapeutic art activities with marbling and Orff music workshops. In Romania, we produced decorative objects such as vases and flower pots, and painted these products with pictures, planting various aromatic plants in them and contributing to ecology. We have gained skills in the field of culinary through gastronomic activities. By preparing a composition of traditional music and dances, we performed a dance and at the same time, we developed the children's sense of rhythm with orff music and carried out therapeutic activities. In Macedonia, we carried out therapeutic studies in the fields of wood material production and wood restoration, cookery, professional skills in agriculture, painting and orff music. As a result of the work done, decorative and original objects emerged. In the final part , a 3-part documentary film has been shot. This documentary is about the culture of the three countries, the professional skills that can be gained by the students and the therapeutic work has been published on youtube, social media acoounts and our websites. We invited students from regular schools and we held common production workshops and art therapy workshops with our students. So, we ensured the integration of our students into the society. In addition, we invited our parents to the school and they participated in workshops with their own children. At the end , we held a project exhibition and a project seminar on the results and achievements of the project, and shared our experiences with other schools, relevant institutions and NGOs. The long-term goals of our project are to contribute to the social production of students, the rehabilitation of students and their parents, the development of lifelong learning skills in students and teachers, the support of students' self-confidence and entrepreneurship, cultural exchange with different cultures and dissemination activities by creating a multiplier effect and raising awareness among employers and all segments of the society. promoting the employment of people with disabilities. www.thesendsareactinginlife.com https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fVhWadzL8eo