Innovative Leaders

INNOVATION WITHOUT BOUNDARIES

Module 2 - Innovative Leaders

This is a common work done by mixed groups from Erzincan High School, Pagėgių Algimanto Mackaus gimnazija, Burak Bora Anadolu Lisesi, Amasya Sabuncuoğlu Şerefeddin Vocational and Technical Anatolian High School, I LO Nakło, Samsun İbrahim Tanrıverdi Social Sciences High School, Gaziantep-Şahinbey-TOBB Science High School, Şanlıurfa Yüzbaşı Ali Saip Ursavaş Anatolian High School.

Prof. Dr. Türkan SAYLAN
(13 December 1935 -18 May 2009)
Medical doctor, academic, writer,
teacher, activist

Guided by Aysel ATAK
Prepared by Group -the awesomes- 1
Ilgın, Roja, Betül, Ola, Gülşen, Aleyna

Her Life

She was born on 13.12.1935 in Istanbul. her mother's name was Lili Mira Raiman. She had four siblings. She studied at Kandilli Middle School from 1944 to 1946 and then at Kandilli Girls High School from 1946 to 1953. She graduated from Istanbul Faculty of Medicine at in 1963. Between 1964 and 1968, she received Dermatology and Veneral Deceases Specialization at SSK Nişantaşı Hospital. In 1976, she started to study on lepra and founded Fight Against Lepra Association and Foundation. She was awarded "International Gandhi Award" in 1986, India. She worked as a consultant in lepra for World Health Organization until 2006. She took a part in foundation of Laboratory of Derma pathology, Behcet's Disease and Policlinics of Sexually Transmitted Diseases. She has worked as the voluntary head physician in Istanbul Lepra Hospital for 21 years, between 1981 and 2002.

She got married in 1957 and had two children. She has four grand children. Having suffered from breast cancer for 17 years, she died on 18 May 2009.

Her Career

She served as the Head of the Department of Dermatology at Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine between 1982 and 1987, and as the Director of the Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine, Leprosy Research and Application Center between 1981 and 2001. In 1990, she took part in the establishment of the "IU Women's Problems Research and Application Center" and worked as the coordinator of the Women's Health courses with the deputy director until 1996. Dermatology Clinic Faculty Member Worked until 2002 and retired on 13 December 2000.

Alongside her leprosy work, Saylan became a strong advocate for secularism and women’s rights in Turkey. In 1989, together with Turkish psychiatrist and professor Aysel Ekşi she established ÇYDD, a charitable foundation devoted to promoting women’s rights, education, and the modernisation principles of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.
Since its formation 30 years ago, ÇYDD has awarded scholarships to nearly 74,000 girls so they can attend high school, as well as 34,000 university scholarships. They have furnished over 700 preschool classrooms and built 565 playgrounds, two high schools, six nursery schools, 32 village schools and 36 dormitories.

Türkan Saylan helped students who could not read. She became a guiding, supportive, and uplifting role model for many snowdrops with the Association for Supporting Contemporary Life, of which she is one of the founders. She always painted the image of a secular Republican woman, hostile to ignorance with her work in medicine and education. This beautiful person, who is extremely forward-thinking, devoted herself to teaching and enlightenment. However, she was the subject of many rumors and slanders throughout her life but still did not give up.

On May 18, 2009, that special woman, who touched the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, left this world. But what she did continues with the children she brought up, whose struggle for enlightment she contributed to.