In Faro on 09 - 12 February 2022, We attended the opening meeting of our project "Diffability" where Vytautas Magnus University of Lithuania is the applicant institution and our association is a partner from Germany, Belgium, Slovenia, Portugal and Turkey.
Ümit Erdem Yiğitoğlu from the International Relations Commission and Oğuz Akkaya from the Education Commission attended the meeting organised between 09-12 February 2022 on behalf of our association.
As part of The project aims to contribute to the transition of disabled university students to business life by adoption of entrepreneurship training curriculum for visiually impaired death university students, creation of training program for employers, guides for employers and universities on accessibility and employment of disabled individuals, spesificly individuals with visual impairment and hard of hearing.
At this first meeting in Faro, the objectives of the project were assessed, the activity plans were reviewed, the responsibilities of the partners and the timetable were discussed.
EGED will continue to take steps for the participation of people with disabilities in education and business life together with its different members during this comprehensive project process, in which EGED will be both a participant and a host, and will continue to share its experiences with its members and followers.
Below you can read about our participants' mobility experiences in Portugal.
PORTUGAL MOBILITY WITHIN THE SCOPE OF DIVERSITY PROJECT
LISBON EXPERIENCES
On a rainy Istanbul morning, Elif Serbest from the Turkish Youth Union Association and Ümit Erdem Yiğitoğlu from EGED boarded the plane to Lisbon and we started a sunny day in Lisbon around 10:30 a.m. At this time, Oğuz Akkaya was in Sabiha Gökçen getting his procedures done in order to fly to Faro Airport with a connection in Düsseldorf. As we went down to the city centre by bus thanks to the suggestion of the tourist information desk, we communicated with Oğuz who was having a coffee while waiting to board the plane to Faro in Düsseldorf.
When we got off the bus, we came across the national theatre building. I admired the building with Elif Serbest's beautiful descriptions. The beauty, diversity and colourfulness of the buildings attracted our attention during our trip to Lisbon. In the square where the theatre building was, there were two pools and two sculptures that were copies of each other. We found ourselves on a street closed to traffic while we were walking around the streets of Lisbon. Walking around the street made us feel like we were in a taksim, a important square in Istanbul Turkey. The shops and cafes around made us feel like we were in Istanbul. After a while we were at the seaside. After having a pleasant time here, we were surprised to learn that the sea was actually a river when we got suggestions for food from the tourist information desk. It turned out that this wide river, which was thought to be the sea, was the Tejo River, which was born in Spain and flows into the Atlantic Ocean, carrying its fertility to Portuguese lands. The carnation revolution that took place on 25 April 1974, which gave its name to the 25 April bridge on the river, is an interesting story. For more information, please visit https://tr.wikipedia.org ' wiki ' Carnation_Revolution
After eating on the street we call istiklal Street, we did not neglect to taste Nada, the famous dessert of Portugal.
Before it was too late, we travelled by train to Faro, the city where the project meeting would be held. In the evening, the eagerly awaited meeting of the Turkish team took place at the Eva Hotel.
This meeting was also the beginning of a long lasting friendship. At dinner, we had the opportunity to meet the team that will participate in the project face to face. There were three participants from Lithuania, three from Portugal and three from Turkey.
MEETING DAY
After eating the magnificent oranges of Portugal for breakfast and getting energised, we started the project meeting. Let's talk a little bit about the project without going into the details of the meeting:
"Diffability" is a project coordinated by Vytautas Magnus University of Lithuania in partnership with EGED, Youth Union Association of Turkey, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia, Out of Box Europe, Portugal, Belgium and Italian Chamber of Commerce, Germany. The project aims to facilitate the transition of disabled university students to business life. For this purpose, an entrepreneurship training curriculum will be prepared for students and this training will be made accessible to students on an online platform. Apart from these, trainings will be given to universities and employers and their capacities will be increased.
As the Association for the Visually Impaired in Education, we take responsibility for ensuring that the work and the content to be produced are accessible to the visually impaired at every stage of this project. The Turkish Youth Union Association takes the same responsibility on behalf of the hearing impaired individuals.
Together with these two associations, which are project partners from Turkey, we are sensitive to the fact that inclusion should not be reduced to accessibility regulations only. We aim to evaluate discourses and practices in terms of language and approach in a framework based on a rights-based perspective.
In this first meeting of the project, project objectives were evaluated, project activities were reviewed, responsibilities of project partners and project timeline were discussed.
To evaluate the meeting, we can say that it was quite productive. Agenda items were effectively discussed and debated. It was understood that there are some points that need to be improved regarding accessibility and new meetings that were not foreseen within the scope of the project were planned. The fact that our partners took into account our contributions to the discourses on accessibility and disability during the meeting and that we had an open dialogue motivated us to work together in the continuation of the project. Working with organisations that have not worked directly with people with disabilities so far and do not have much experience in this field, but are strong in their own field, excites us. We hope to learn from each other. By working with such organisations, it will be possible both to improve the capacity of those organisations in terms of disability and to create networks that our association can cooperate with and learn from in the future.
Faro, a harbour city and an old settlement, is located in the southernmost part of Portugal and 280 km from Lisbon, the capital of Portugal. After the meeting, we spent the rest of our time until dinner in this small, historical and charming city, sitting and chatting on the steps descending towards the water right on the shore against Faro Marina. While evaluating the day on the one hand, we had a deep conversation about disability and our observations in the city on the other hand. The marina stretching in front of us, almost in front of our feet, is a lagoon-shaped structure with a swampy bottom, with the world's densest seahorse population, separating the city from the Atlantic Ocean. As we walked through Faro Marina and the historic narrow streets, it gave us a different feeling to know that the colourful and traditional cobblestones we stepped on were special. We completed our Faro days with pleasant conversations in the hotel room and on the balcony.
A DAY IN SEVILLE
Since Seville is about 3 hours away from Faro by bus, it would be impossible not to visit. We started travelling to Seville early Friday morning. In Seville, we spent the day in the historic city centre where the church of Santa María, the 3rd largest church in the world, is located.
We enjoyed the city decorated with orange trees with green parrots perched on the branches and trams passing by on one side and phaetons on the other. Flamenco, which can be considered as the symbol of Seville, was embedded in the soul of the city.
People were not holding back from Flamenco even while eating at the restaurant tables overflowing on the streets. Unfortunately, we could not visit the Alcazar Palace because it was closed, but we lived with Elif's descriptions. We did not neglect to eat ice cream in warm and sunny Seville before going to Istanbul, which was waiting for us with its gloomy and cold weather in February. We took plenty of photos and videos in the city to take our memories with us. In the evening, after eating "churos", a street flavour unique to Spain, we boarded our bus to Faro.
ACCESSIBILITY
Unfortunately, we did not notice any special arrangements regarding accessibility. There were guide lines in certain areas such as railway stations and bus terminals. Also, the pavements were generally low. Although cobblestone pavements make the city more authentic, they may pose difficulties for wheelchair users.
