Funkenwerkstatt-Little-Prince-Academy_final

Placed in the middle of Turkey, Cappadocia is known from all around the world for its unique geology,
caves and famous balloon flights. Thousands of years ago, ancient people came to central Turkey
to build their small villages in caves. This tradition lasts until this day: Most of the buildings in
the city were carved into caves and are filled with restaurants and shopping facilities for tourists.
Our way through Turkey and to the Little Prince Academy.
But besides these attractiive tourism lies a special
place for very big reasons. It is called Little Prince
Academy, which is a place for disabled people.
Educated volunteers help to improve their abilities.
Because the son of the former owner and initiator
of the academy, Hassan, got Trisomy 21,
also known as Down’s Syndrome, the Little Prince
Academy came into being. Hassan decided
to spend his money to develop a project, which
provides equality and freedom to its visitors.
Surrounded by a beautiful vulcanic landscape, the
academy which was build into the rocks, has their
own horse ranch, an open air cinema and a gar-

den that is designed like a small permaculture, where
they produce their own food. But not only on the
outside everything looks well planned and designed.
Inside, the academy is designed perfectly to accommodate
the different disabilities of the special
visitors. After entering the cave there is a kitchen,
where the volunteers can cook fresh vegetables
from their own garden. Moreover, there are several
rooms for music therapy, meditation and dance
workshops. Everything fits to the needs of the special
visitors, there are no barriers for those who have
a wheelchair and, ropes on the walls to support safe
walking. Toys and music instruments are selected,
in order to improve lack of different abilities. To
support and take care of those visitors, volunteers
from all around the world come to the academy.
They are hosted in their own several apartments
which look like a converted truck. The focus at
First impression when you are entering the cave. Dinner
room and small office in the back.
Insight the cave are several rooms for doing workshops and
different programs.
Little Prince Academy lies on multiple disabilities.
Therefore, every morning the volunteers meet up to
discuss in detail, what kind of workshops and therapies
they will provide. The Little Prince Academy
chooses volunteers with specific specializations,
like, for example, dance performers or people with
psychological or educational background in social
sciences. The next step is to prepare everything,
like building a course for horse-therapy. After those
activities the kids usually eat something freshly
cooked before the next round of activities will start.
Everything at Little Prince is well organized,
they have someone who is cooking for the disabled
and the volunteers, they have coordinators
who plans the visits of the people and volunteers.

There even is a gardener who is responsible for
fixing everything inside and outside the cave.
And of course, all the volunteers help everyday
to maintain this place, to keep it like an oasis.
We had a talk with Ezra from Turkey who
is working at Little Prince Academy for one
year. Ezra is the coordinator for the volunteers
and prepares several workshops for
the visiting people. Educated in the social
sciences, Ezra writes reports for the doctors
after every workshop, to give them detailed
knowledge about their development.
She explained that many of the people who
come to the Little Prince Academy have
been really shy and isolated, but after a whi-
Office area, with a beautiful view to the big kitchen, where the
fresh food will be made.
le they got used to the workers and the place,
so they started to develop positively a lot.
Especially the horse therapy is showing big
effects, like increasing confidence, she explained.
In fact, the kids are getting a better
connection to the horse and are able to
lose their fears as well as learn to coordinate
multiple tasks, like catching a ball while sitting
on the horse. From a certain viewpoint,
those activities might seem to be very easy
and small, but they are big steps for the people
and are helping in their development.
Hassan while he is doing a ball exercise to improve multiple
tasks and coordination.
We asked Ezra what disabilities the people
who came to Little Prince Academy have.
She explained that they are working with
people that have several different disabilities
like Down’s Syndrome, Cerebral Palsy,
Schizophrenia, and other mental and physical
disabilities. The workshops and programs
also address the lack of confidence or hyperactivity.
To prepare them the most, the volunteers
are preparing different workshops.
Furthermore, the people who are coming to
Little Prince Academy have a huge variety in
age, which also provides different workshops
and tasks. We have been curious of how the
project is financed and whether they get support
by the government. Ezra explained that
the owner Hassan, is financing all by himself.

We also talked to David from Romania, who iorganizes the horse therapy. He told us that before
he came here, no one was able to do the horse therapy. At first, he didn’t know how he could start
this project, but after a while and lots of hours riding the horses, he started to develop the course.
What David has learned at Little Prince Academy, he will pass on to the gardener, for him
to continue his hard work with the horses in order to improve the development of the therapy.
We asked him what is special about this place. David just added, “ everything” – the internationally of the volunteers,
the fact that you are the designer of whatever, you can make up your own workshops and you have
that freedom to do what you want or like and additionally helping people with that – is what he likes most.
Little Prince Academy
showed us how important
it is that we have places
like this. Safe Spaces,
where people can come
and feel like it doesn’t
matter which disabilities
they’ve got, while getting
supported by people
from all around the
world. The experience at
Little Prince Academy
also showed us, how
things can change, like
for example for Hassan,
who used to build hotels,
but because of his son
and their situation, he
decided to support kids
with similar problems.
The Little Prince Academy Crew f.l. to r.: David (Romania), Ezra (Project
Coordinator, Turkey), Mai (France), Fatma (Turkey), Ipek(Turkey), Eda (Turkey),
Alex (GB), Eilin (Columbia).
In the light of the fact that there are not many such organizations in Turkey, Little Prince Academy can be
seen as a prime example for the general societal topic of inclusion. Especially since the disabled are usually
more or less hidden from society, it is important to work with them in such a positively connotated environment.
In the end, this helps both the disabled people, but also the abled, who learn to accept disabilities as
something normal in their day to day lives. Thus, Little Prince Academy paves the way for more inclusion
and acceptance.
Julian, Tabitha, Sima and David.