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Educational Reforms: Special Needs Education
Refia Ari
~ a brief
biography
Refia Ari (in Turkish: Refia Arı) was born, [as Refia Özkan] of parents who
were bakers, on 3rd February 1961 in Paphos, Cyprus -she is married, with two sons.
Refia Ari was elected the Women of the Year 2003 of the Eastern Mediterranean University's Women Studies Center [1], for her voluntary and successful works for disabled children and disability families of Cyprus-TRNC.
She pioneered legislation for state-funded special needs education for disabled children up to the age of 18 and disability support for their parents (neither of which existed before) through the Council of State for Re-organization of Education (on which later she was invited to sit) in Cyprus-KKTC.
Through the Association for Children With Disabilities In Need of Special Education (which she had been instrumental in the founding of and also held the presidency of) having brought together similarly interested Turkish Cypriots and Greek Cypriotes jointly secured for her people's disabled children also international support and course from USAID and UNDP -she has been hailed in terms that "Mrs. Refia [Arı] has created for children a world that becomes more beautiful every day" [2].
Refia Ari, also, has been instrumental in the introduction of legislation in 2010 to extend that to older disabled persons, starting with state-funded mobility homes, and adoption of the United Nations disability rights [3].
As an International affairs graduate of the EMU, and having attended disability seminars and followed courses in Britain, with presidencies also of various similar associations, Refia Ari's voluntary works continue and extend to, e.g., the position of women in society with occasional contribution also internationally [4].
Detailed biography of the Woman of the Year Refia Ari in educational reforms:
A Special Needs Education Pioneer
A 2003 biographical interview in Turkish of the Woman of the Year Refia Ari by Bayrak Radio-Television:
An interview with Refia Arı in Turkish
References
1. Doğu Akdeniz Üniversitesi Kadın Çalışmaları Bölümü, KKTC, Yılın Başarılı Kadını 2003.
2. Süleyman Ergüçlü, News Director, Bayrak State Radio-Television ~Yaşamın İçinden 2002, BRTK, Cyprus-KKTC.
3. Cypriot Turkish newspapers, and Kuzey Kıbrıs Türk Cumhuriyeti Bayrak Radyo Televizyon Kurumu, 13 August 2010.
4. Refia Ari's paper Women's Role in the Construction of the European Identity Culture and Society, at the Conference on 'Women for Europe -Comparing Lives and Economic Systems -the Role of Inner Wheel organised by Louise Bruni Naples Club, 28-30 November, 2008.
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