Seda Fırın is a young woman who has stuttered since childhood. Seda grew up in an environment where stuttering was normalized since there were other family members who stuttered. She only realized that this situation posed a problem for her life when she experienced peer bullying in her first school years. She went to Gümüşhane University Faculty of Communication to realize her childhood dream and become a newscaster. However, during her years in university, when a student said that individuals who stutter should not study in the faculty of communication, she thought “I need to raise my voice from now on” and founded Kekele TV in order to make stutterers visible.
There are close to one million stutterers in Turkey. However, stuttering has not yet found sufficient coverage in policy documents as a disability or health problem. Therefore, people who stutter have limited access to regular speech and language therapy sessions.
Kekele TV started broadcasting on YouTube on October 22, 2019, Stuttering Awareness Day. It aims to accurately describe stuttering and improve people’s understanding of this condition, help individuals who stutter and have experienced self-imposed social isolation to participate in community activities, motivate them by getting rid of their pessimism, and direct them to speech therapists. Kekele TV broadcasts for people who stutter and promotes a sense of solidarity.
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