06.08.2019
The 1010 Discoverer Project, launched by Kuveyt Türk to introduce coding as the basic building block of technology to secondary school students, is now expanded to children with cancer. The Kuveyt Türk employees who teach coding at many schools throughout Türkiye met a group of secondary school students living at KAÇUV Family Home in Istanbul while undergoing cancer treatment. These children were taught hands-on coding in many fields ranging from the activation principle for street lamps to the distance control warnings of parking sensors of cars.
Kuveyt Türk, the pioneering participation bank in Türkiye, now teaches students at many schools throughout Türkiye robotics and coding this education year as part of the 1010 Discoverers Project it launched in cooperation with Turkish Red Crescent Society. Although schools are closed for the summer, the bank continues to apply the project and to meet with secondary school children. In this context, Kuveyt Türk employees taught a group of secondary school students living at Hope for Children With Cancer Foundation (KAÇUV) Family Home in Istanbul while undergoing cancer treatment coding and robotics. In addition to the basic coding lessons, these children were taught how to create codes for such applications as the activation principle for street lamps to the distance control warnings of parking sensors of cars through various scenarios assigned to them.
“Interest and talent of students are remarkable”
Aslan Demir, Deputy Managing Director HR, Strategy and Digital Transformation of Kuveyt Türk, was among the project team who visited KAÇUV Family Home. Reminding that the project team has been meeting curious would-be discoverers in many cities of this country as part of this banks principle of ‘Coding the future in our dreams with our values’, Aslan Demir said: “We aim the 1010 Discoverers Project to raise the new generation’s awareness of the professions of the future. Technology will play a major role in the professions of the future, and robotics and coding will play a major role in technology. We saw at every school we visited, especially KAÇUV Family Home which is very special to us, that the interest and talent of students in coding are remarkable. Their interest shows us that we are doing the right thing.”
“We aim to prevent addiction to technology”
Emphasizing that it is important to use technology in the right way, Aslan Demir said: “Technology makes life easier on the one hand and becomes an addiction when it is used excessively and unrestrained, causing the user to lose control. Especially children are under the risk of addiction to technology. Our 1010 Discoverers Project teaches students coding and robotics and also aims to help them develop the skill to use technology in a prudent and restrained way. We consider it important to spread the idea of technology not only being consumed, but also producing and managing.”
“Coding lessons increase the hope”
Attending the coding lessons, Selçuk Öncer, Vice Chairman of the Board of KAÇUV, said: “In Türkiye 3,500 children are diagnosed to have cancer every year. Quick diagnosis and treatment are very important for pediatric cancer patients. Especially families living in other cities than Istanbul suffer serious difficulties in terms of diagnosis and treatment. We support children and their families at this stage, but the support must be increased. Kuveyt Türk has been supporting the Contribution To Hope project since 2013 and organizes a donation campaign on April 23 every year to support children with cancer and their families. The bank’s interest in this field increases year after year. Now they let us join one of their most precious projects, the 1010 Discoverers Project. They helped these children, whose lives have changed because of cancer, to learn coding as the future job in their dreams. The interest and success of these children in coding made us very happy. We were also happy to witness that their morale and motivation increased. We thank Kuveyt Türk for the material and moral support they give this foundation, and hope other corporations would join them to own our values.”
Students are expected to spread the project
Kuveyt Türk gave away a 1010 Discoverers Coding Kit to each children undergoing cancer treatment after they attended the lessons, so that they will keep on learning coding and robotics by applying the codes they wrote on models. Kuveyt Türk donated two computers to KAÇUV to ensure the children to continue to learn. The project is based on the idea that students who have learned coding would teach other students, so that the coding education would expand. Kuveyt Türk taught students of 11 secondary schools located in Ankara, Afyonkarahisar, Bursa, Hatay, Istanbul and Konya last year. The 1010 Discoverers Project will be continued in many other schools throughout Türkiye in the next education year 2019-2020.
What is the 1010 Discoverers Project
Aiming to preserve and expand social and basic values through its motto “growing with our values”, Kuveyt Türk continues to support science with its 1010 Discoverers Project in its 30
th year. Launched in cooperation with Turkish Red Crescent Society, this project teaches students coding and robotics throughout Türkiye, so that Kuveyt Türk aims to prepare the new generation for the professions of the future by providing them with educational and equipment support. Designed for students age 10 to 14 (as from school year 5), the coding and robotics lessons aim to find at least 1,010 would-be discoverers this year and to ensure them to understand and practice science. The target population of the 1010 Discoverers Project is secondary school students of public schools, especially of the Regional Boarding Secondary Schools (YIBO).