Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality BALMEK Bandırma Branch organizes a painting course for individuals with special needs to improve their motor, cognitive and emotional skills. In the continuation of the course, which aims to discover the talents of individuals with special needs by using painting as a means of communication, workshops suitable for the orientation of each of these individuals will be established and they will be able to earn income.
Under the roof of Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality Vocational Courses (BALMEK), individuals with special needs can express themselves and develop their motor, cognitive and emotional skills. In the painting course, which is only available in Bandırma BALMEK for now and similar courses will be opened in other districts in time, individuals with autism, down syndrome, CP, those receiving chemotherapy and their families participate in art therapy through the painting course with expert instructors.
WORKSHOPS WILL BE ESTABLISHED FOR THEIR TALENTS
By using painting as a communication tool and language, art therapists who make inferences from the drawings and colors used by individuals with special needs discover the future skills of these individuals and reveal their talents that will create an income for them. For individuals with special needs whose skills are developed in this course, workshops suitable for each of their talents will be opened as a continuation. The Metropolitan Municipality, which continues its project work on the subject, will open its workshops in a short time with the instruction of Mayor Ahmet Akın. Within the scope of the workshops that will serve to ensure the potential development and spiritual peace of individuals with special needs and to create a source of free time and financial income for their families; workshops on wood materials, souvenirs, ceramic objects, decorative paintings, plaques and rosaries will be opened.
“THESE CHILDREN SHOULD HAVE A PROFESSION”
Gülsüm Sönmez, Art Instructor and Art Therapist, Course Supervisor of Bandırma South Marmara Service Building, who said that the course contributes greatly to the development of motor and cognitive skills of individuals with special needs and to make the lives of their families easier, said, “Families are very important to us. Because their mothers have a huge burden on their shoulders. We want to relieve this burden. We interpret their drawings, we interpret the colors they use, we interpret their paintings. What should this child's talent be shaped according to, what should they do? These children should have a profession. Because they say we exist too. They say, 'We want to be useful, we want to do something, we want to produce.' We also have visually impaired students. They make wooden toys.”
THEY WANT THE COURSES TO CONTINUE
Gülsüm Sönmez stated that individuals with special needs and their families want the courses to continue and said, “They are very happy when they come and they want to produce continuously. They have a routine. They want us to continue this routine. When they stay at home, tantrums start. They attack their mother or father. That is why we, as the Metropolitan Municipality, support them with these courses. We thank our mayor Ahmet Akın very much for giving importance to individuals with special needs.”
THEY LOVE TO ATTEND THE COURSE
Nilsu Mandacı, who emphasized that she loves attending the painting course, said, “I am attending a painting course organized by Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality. I am happy, I am drawing pictures at home, I am improving myself. I definitely wish it to continue. These courses are very good for us.”
THEY DEVELOP THEIR EMOTIONAL AND COGNITIVE SKILLS
Emphasizing that this course opened by Balıkesir Metropolitan Municipality is very important for individuals with special needs, Nercü Çalışkan, the mother of individuals with special needs and also the President of Bandırma Engelime Renk Ver Association, said: “Our children develop both their motor skills and their emotional and cognitive skills. While painting, our special children transfer their feelings to the picture with colors and lines.”
