Türkan Saylan

Türkan Saylan (13 December 1935 – 18 May 2009) was a Turkish physician, dermatologist, professor, academic, writer, public-health campaigner and civil-society activist. A professor of dermatology at Istanbul University, she became a prominent figure in Turkey's campaign against leprosy and later devoted much of her work to expanding educational opportunities, particularly for girls and students from low-income families.

Saylan began working against leprosy in 1976 and founded the Turkish Leprosy Relief Association. She later directed Istanbul University's Leprosy Research and Application Center and served for 21 years as the voluntary chief physician of the Istanbul Leprosy Hospital. She also served as a consultant to the World Health Organization on leprosy until 2006.

Her approach to leprosy emphasized both medical treatment and social rehabilitation. Programs associated with her work addressed disability, social exclusion and poverty, providing patients with services including protective footwear and eyewear, social and economic rehabilitation and educational support for their children.

In 1989, Saylan co-founded the Association for the Support of Contemporary Living (Çağdaş Yaşamı Destekleme Derneği, ÇYDD), which developed scholarship and education programs for students throughout Turkey. By 2007, the organization had helped approximately 25,000 girls continue to secondary education and had provided scholarships to approximately 20,000 university students.

She attended Kandilli Primary School from 1944 to 1946 and Kandilli Girls' High School from 1946 to 1953. She graduated from the Istanbul University Faculty of Medicine in 1963.

Her academic and clinical work included dermatopathology, Behçet's disease, sexually transmitted infections and leprosy. She was involved in establishing a dermatopathology laboratory and specialized clinics for Behçet's disease and sexually transmitted diseases at Istanbul University.

A distinctive feature of the approach developed by Saylan and her colleagues was the emphasis on needs extending beyond medical treatment. According to the WHO Goodwill Ambassador's Newsletter for the Elimination of Leprosy, Saylan believed that treating leprosy with medication alone was insufficient if patients continued to experience disability, poverty and social exclusion.

Her work in leprosy also influenced the direction of her later educational activism. Working in rural and economically disadvantaged communities exposed her to barriers faced by children, particularly girls, in accessing continued education.

By June 2007, according to Turkcell, 12,300 students had received scholarships through the program. Of those students, 7,380 had completed high school, 950 had passed university entrance examinations and 67 had graduated from university.

Her books included the memoir At Kız ("Horse Girl") and Güneş Umuttan Şimdi Doğar ("The Sun Rises Now Out of Hope"), which addressed aspects of her life, activism and personal experiences.

Personal life and death

Saylan married in 1957 and had two sons. One became a physician and the other a graphic designer. She had two grandchildren.

She lived with breast cancer for many years while continuing her academic, medical, educational and civil-society work.

Saylan died in Istanbul on 18 May 2009 at the age of 73. She was buried at Zincirlikuyu Cemetery.

Legacy

Saylan's career brought together medicine, public health, rehabilitation, education and civil society.

Her work against leprosy was notable for addressing the consequences of the disease beyond infection itself. Alongside diagnosis and medical treatment, Saylan and her colleagues emphasized physical rehabilitation, economic independence, education and the reintegration of people affected by leprosy into society.

This experience contributed to her later focus on educational inequality. Communities she encountered through leprosy-control work included areas where poverty and limited educational opportunities affected children's futures, particularly those of girls.

Through ÇYDD and projects including Kardelenler, Saylan subsequently applied this focus on equal opportunity to education on a national scale. By 2007, tens of thousands of secondary-school and university students had received educational support through ÇYDD programs.

In a 2007 account of her work, Saylan summarized her approach to social problems by urging supporters not merely to praise individuals working for change, but to participate in solving problems themselves.

Her life and work have subsequently been the subject of biographies, academic publications and cultural works. Ayşe Kulin wrote Türkan: Tek ve Tek Başına, a biographical work based on Saylan's life.