The Rotaract 2020-21 Dönemi 3. Sayı

THE
ROTARACT
We Hosted
Ömür Kınay
Greetings to all of you, dear readers of The Rotaract,
We had the opportunity to host beloved Ömür Kınay, who is the symbol of the 1999
Earthquake, in our meeting, hosted by the Rotaract Clubs of Ataköy, Bakırköy, Etiler, Fatih,
Galatasaray, İstanbul, Kalamış, Körfez, Ortaköy, Sarıyer, Şişli, Tarabya, Tuzla and
Zekeriyaköy in coordination with Awareness and Career Development Committees.
The photograph of Anatolian Agency showing Ömür Kınay with her neck on her side
under the debris of her house in Sefaköy during the 1999 earthquake became one of the
symbols of the 1999 earthquake. Ömür Kınay, who was buried in the debris and lost her
mother in the house in Sefaköy, where they moved about a week before the earthquake,
was rescued after being under the rubble for 4.5 hours, but severe spinal cord damage
occurred in her body due to the door beam falling to her neck. For this reason, she
started to continue her life after the earthquake in a wheelchair. She could not continue
her education until 2005. Ömür Kınay, who decided to study at the university after this
date, won Beykent, Kadir Has and Kültür Universities with a 100% scholarship after taking
the exam. She completed the Department of Communication Arts of Kültür University
Faculty of Arts and Design, where she got into, and completed her master degree at the
same school with a degree. During this period, she lived in England for 1 year. Throughout
her education life, she received many awards in the field of communication arts and
achieved significant success. Kınay, who does not allow her disability to prevent her from
any stage of her life, continues her doctorate at Kültür University and takes part in many
awareness raising studies in the field of disability.
In our interactive conversation, where we can ask what we have in mind without any filter,
Ömür Kınay conveyed the difficulties she experienced with examples from her daily life
and conveyed the importance of accessibility. She shared with us the development of
earthquake and disability studies in the world and in Turkey and her experiences in
connection with current conditions. During the meeting, we exchanged ideas about the
joint studies that we can carry out on the problems of disabled people and the social
benefits we can provide for disabled people. We ended our meeting by promising each
other to meet face to face and to have the opportunity to do different studies after the
pandemic period. We would like to thank our speaker, host clubs and participants in this
enjoyable conversation that inspired us all.
Zeynep Can
Assistant DRR of Awareness Project Committee
İlker Tanrıverdi
Assistant DRR of Career Development Committee
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