Dilek Sabancı to Compete at the Canada’s International Disability Film Festival

Dilek Sabancı is part of the success stories of five disabled who will participate in Canada’s first international disability film festival this year with the title of “As Long As We Live”. The whole world will learn through her own words about the arduous life of Dilek Sabancı, daughter of the Sabancı Family, who believes that money is not everything.

Dilek Sabancı, Melike Emre, Adem Saykın, Asuman Uras and Emre Kılıç... All the five are playing the “disabled” role assigned to them by life itself... Their common ground is not only being disabled, they come together by the fact that they can manage to hold on to life as well.

Director Mehmet Kızıltaş submitted the documentary which he pieced these five lives together to the first international disability film festival to be held between 6-10 February 2006.

The film entitled “As Long As We Live” ‘looks at the lives of the disabled. The 36-minute documentary film projects their real success stories.

Dilek Sabancı’s life is one of the five stories to compete in Canada. Dilek Sabancı’s life is narrated in the documentary as follows:

“Theirs was a marriage of consanguinity. But what she suffered was not only caused by family relationship of her mother and father but also she was born at six and a half months. She was born premature. She suffered permanent physical damage arising from the lack of oxygen during her birth. She couldn’t walk at all until the age of 7. She completed primary school in Adana. At the age of 9 the Sabancı Family moved to Istanbul.  

In those years her father, Sakıp Sabancı took his daughter abroad for operation. The first operation slightly improved the motion power of Dilek Sabancı. She completed her secondary and high school education abroad.

Going back to her childhood, Dilek Sabancı says with an indefinable resentment: ‘Do you know? I could never do skipping in my life. I had to sit inside while the other children were playing skipping outside.

She always had good relations with the elders because she was always confined inside and couldn’t join the children playing outside. Dilek Sabancı learnt to cope with her life full of restrictions rather than sitting and crying about her situation. She had three more operations at different intervals.

She had her last operation at the age of 33 in one of the world’s few orthopedic hospitals in New York. But no operation could completely help her to have a healthy body.

Today, Dilek Sabancı is the executive of a tourism company and she is the Vice President of Turkish Sports Federation for the Mentally Retarded.  

Dilek Sabancı indicates that she is willing to perform social based activities from now on and says: ‘I want to work in the Metin Sabancı Spastic Children Foundation and help people like me and in worse situation than me. I think that I can improve their standards and convey my own experiences to them. I consider myself not as an Asian, European, American, Turkish, but rather a person of the world.’ 

Dilek Sabancı meets with her family once every week without fail. Dilek Sabancı goes to her mother’s house in Beylerbeyi where there is an indoor swimming pool; they enjoy having their meals together after doing sports. She goes to a sports center as well. But she says that she gets tired after 15 to 20 minutes while others keep on walking on the treadmill for 2 hours.

A message is given to all the disabled at the end of Dilek Sabancı section of the documentary film: “Let’s be strong, let’s never give up, let’s overcome all the obstacles together as long as we live”.

Following an unfortunate accident that broke his neck while jumping into shallow water, paraplegic economist Adem Saykın who is now self-sufficient after perennial challenges and treatments is also present in the documentary film that is competing in the Canada’s first international disability film festival.  

The story about Melike Emre who never loses the grip of her life despite her fast progressing myopathy, is narrated by her family and in her own words. She is the first Turkish theater actress who is confined in a wheelchair.

Asuman Uras lost her mother in a traffic accident in the Ilgaz Mountains. She suffered paraplegia due to incompetent first-aid treatment but did not lose the joy of life. She expresses about how she still manages to dance with life despite its obstacles.

Important sequences are also presented in the documentary about the life of spastic disabled Ömer Kılıç who was trapped in the wreckage in the earthquake of August 17. He lost one of his brothers in the earthquake hours later.  He can not walk and speak but he can work on the computer independently and write books without any help.
News by: Nilüfer KAS

Reaction from the Honorary President of the Turkish Special Olympics, Dilek Sabancı

At the presentation of the “special campaign” sponsored by P&G and Migros, Dilek Sabancı, the Honorary President of the Turkish Special Olympics, cried out: ’I can not find sponsors’. Then she strongly reacted against the lack of sponsors for the projects for the disabled from other companies. She said that these companies harbor the feeling that they don’t need to render support as “Sabancı, Koç and P&G are dealing with it anyway”.

’The special campaign’ which provides support in the training of the mentally disabled sportsmen/women entered its sixth year. This campaign is sponsored by P&G and Migros. Those who buy P&G products at Migros will automatically support the mentally disabled to taste sports through the campaign ending on June 24th.

In her speech at the presentation meeting of the campaign, The Honorary President of Turkish Special Olympics, Dilek Sabancı expressed her difficulties about finding new sponsors: She said: “As Dilek Sabancı, I am having great difficulties in finding more sponsors.”

Sabancı said “This is due to the indifferent attitude towards the disabled”. Emphasizing that the problems of the disabled are being ignored she carried on as follows:

“They are kind of putting it away saying that Sabancı, Koç, P&G are dealing with it anyway. But this is not only Sabancı’s or Koç’s problem but also Turkey’s problem. Need I go on a telethon (a fund drive on TV asking for the public’s contribution)? We are waiting for support from the other companies as there are many different campaigns which can be implemented for the disabled. Unfortunately some are using the crisis as a pretext but here the mission falls to everyone.”

The campaign will reach out to 3 thousand children

Emphasized that sports can open an area for the special children where obstacles can be overcome, Sabancı said: “More special children will have the chance to taste sports through the campaign of Migros and P&G.”
The External Affairs Director of P&G Turkey, Hayrunisa Aligil gave insight into the campaign and explained that 2 thousand 500 disabled children tasted sports in the last 5 years through this campaign and that this number would reach up to 3 thousand this year. Aligil said that the Special Olympics opened a whole new world for the children.

3 million 790 thousand consumers provided support

“The special campaign” of P&G and Migros is changing the lives of the mentally disabled children through sports. It means that the campaign is automatically supported by everybody buying P&G products from Migros stores in 64 cities. The mentally disabled children receive sports training for 8 weeks and participate in the Special Olympics within this support.

The Corporate Communication Manager of Migros, Ahu Başkut Alyanak told that 3 million 790 thousand consumers supported this campaign by buying these products and she said: “Our youth who participated in the Special Olympics within this support have been a source of pride to our country when they won the medals. It is a success story for many other youth who are in a passive situation as they engrain hope to future generations.”
Vatan

30 Thousand People Visited

Nearly 30 thousand people visited the Sakıp Sabancı Mardin City Museum and the Dilek Sabancı Art Gallery which were established through the contributions of the Sabancı Foundation and put into service on October 1st.

According to the Sabancı Foundation’s statement, “the Dilek Sabancı Art Gallery” which is located on the ground floor of the Sakıp Sabancı Mardin City Museum opened its first exhibition under the title of “Nature, People and the Sea-With Selections from the Sabancı University Sakıp Sabancı Museum Collection”. The museum and the art gallery hosted nearly 30 thousand people for the last two and a half months since the opening.

The Sakıp Sabancı Mardin City Museum will exhibit art works which shows Mardin’s urban formation and life style, ties between communities and their customs, languages and cultural characteristics, and the Dilek Sabancı Art Gallery’s initial exhibition will display 75 art works of 47 artists.

This exhibition will remain open for visit for one year and will display the artworks of various artists who offer an insight into the past history of Turkish painting from early period to recent period ranging from Hikmet Onat to İbrahim Safi, from Şeref Akdik to Abidin Dino, from Adnan Çoker to Selma Gürbüz.

The Sakıp Sabancı Mardin City Museum also started to host various cultural and art events and projects. A puppet show titled “Garbage Monster” was organized in the concert hall of the museum in “the 1st National Mardin Children and Youth Theatre Festival” which recently took place in Mardin. Primary school students of Mardin had wonderful times at the puppet show entitled “Garbage Monster” which was also watched by the famous theater artist Müşfik Kenter.

It is stated that the youth of Mardin showed great interest in Latin Dance Courses which are held in the Sakıp Sabancı Mardin City Museum’s ground floor halls. The Museum authorities state that there are lots of demands from Mardin and the surrounding cities to participate in the painting and music courses which will start in the near future.
The Sakıp Sabancı Mardin City Museum and the Dilek Sabancı Art Gallery were opened on October 1st with the attendance of the Minister of Culture and Tourism, Ertuğrul Günay, the Minister of State, Mehmet Aydın, the President of Religious Affairs, Ali Bardakoğlu, the Turkey Armenians Patriarch Deputy, Aram Ateşyan, the Greek Orthodox Patriarch, Dimitris Bartholomeos, the Turkey Jewish Community Chief Rabbi, İsak Haleva, the Assyrian Metropolitans of Mardin and Midyat, Saliba Özmen and Samuel Aktaş, Güler Sabancı, Dilek Sabancı, Türkan Sabancı, İstanbul Governor Muammer Güler, Mardin Governor Hasan Duruer and many other distinguished guests from the business and art world.

The historical structure which was established in 1889 at the time of Ottoman Empire Abdülhamit II by Diyarbakır Governor Hacı Hasan Pasha initially served as a " Cavalrymen Quarters ", then a "Military Induction Station", then a “Tax Office” between 1991-2003 and after a three-year restoration process it now hosts its visitors as the Sakıp Sabancı Mardin City Museum and the Dilek Sabancı Art Gallery.

The artworks displayed in the museum consist of the ones borrowed from the Mardin Museum and surrounding museums, the ones donated by the Mardin Citizens Education and Solidarity Foundation (MAREV) in İstanbul and the ones directly donated to the museum by Mardin citizens. The Sakıp Sabancı Mardin City Museum holds various artworks, pictures and animation sections which reflect the city’s geography, history, architectural structure, economy, the past and present religions and living culture.

A panel structure at the entrance of the museum which describes the historical names of the city emphasizes the identity of millenniums old Mardin which continuously changes and yet does not change at all.

The Sakıp Sabancı Mardin City Museum displays a Linof camera dating back as late as the 19th century and the first manual printing machine of the Middle East’s first printing house. This printing machine belonging to Deyrulzafaran Monastery was brought from England by the Antakya Assyrian Church Patriarch, Moran Mor İğnatiyos and put into service in 1889. The museum also displays two booklets printed by this machine. Among these pieces the place of one group is of a special importance and they are the gravestones of the people who belonged to three different religions (Islam, Assyrian and Armenian) which lived in Mardin.

The Sakıp Sabancı Mardin City Museum restoration process was initiated by a groundbreaking ceremony in 2006. One thousand 645 square meters area was restored and one thousand 600 square meters area was reconstructed. The Sakıp Sabancı Mardin City Museum and the Dilek Sabancı Art Gallery have a narrow and long structure with display sections on a linear walking axle design.

The arrangement of the exhibits where spatial completeness is emphasized focuses on the characteristics peculiar to Mardin’s urban identity. Along with display units designed in different sizes, the structure’s existing alcoves allows the art lovers to view the handicraft products on display.

The Sakıp Sabancı Mardin City Museum and the Dilek Sabancı Art Gallery help in the promotion of the history and culture collected along the centuries in Mardin, one of the world’s few archeological cities through its historical, touristic, architectural and visual values.