Day by day, it is almost impossible to say how many young people are self-harming. This is because very few teenagers tell anyone what’s going on, so it’s incredibly difficult to keep records or have an accurate idea of scale. It is thought that around 13% of young people may try to hurt themselves on purpose at some point between the ages of 11 and 16, but the actual figure could be much higher.
Whilst the increasing numbers of self-harming is worrying, some recent researches suggest that Turkish and Turkish speaking community’s commit to self-harm and suicides a lot more than other local and indigenous societies. These recent researches, along with real case stories were tackled under the project Eylem’s first meeting, which laid the foundations of the project in London. Gathering a meeting at the Dalston Cypriot Centre, Eylem Project creators hosted an introductory evening on the project’s aim, vision and mission along with the research’s ongoing situation so far.
Undoubtedly, Eylem’s biggest unique selling point is the team’s creativity and devotion towards what they are doing. Amongst the team, there are specialised therapists, behavioral science specialists and researchers who strive to decrease the self-harm and suicide attempt numbers in Turkish speaking communities by offering a “theatrical performance” to convey their messages through art and creativity.
“THERE WILL BE A THEATRICAL NUMBER TO RAISE AWARENESS”
On the 22 June Eylem Project creators and guests got together for an interactive evening. Opening the night, Dr Ceyda İbrahim Ozlu talked about the story behind Eylem by tackling Turkish families’ immigration to the UK back in the years. Dr Ozlu said “When we look deep down to the reasons why these people had migrated to the UK, was because they wanted a brighter future for their kids. It is saddening to for us to see these young people now, have a high percentage of tendencies towards self-harm and even suicide”.
Moreover, talking on “identity conflict”, Dr Ozlu said that differences in cultural living could be a trigger to self-harm and suicide. Talking after Dr Ozlu, Ayesha Ahmad,a UCL academic, tackled “women identity” in Pakistan and in Turkey along with presenting the academic rhetoric of Eylem Project.
E-THERAPY IS ON ITS WAY
The last speaker of the night, Özlem Eylem presented her idea on offering an internet based way of striking a therapist and patient routine. In other words, Eylem Project also strives to provide an “E-Therapy” venture in the future.
Attracting most of the guests’ attention, Özlem Eylem’s project also had a little demonstration by the guests, which resulted in success and excitement.
Eylem Project now needs to accumulate contacts in the Turkish speaking communities, especially Turkish schools in London for its prospective theatrical play.