It started with an idea, grew with light… A great enlightenment movement that reached hundreds of thousands turned into a Republic institution…

On February 21, 1989, Prof. Dr. Aysel Ekşi, Prof. Dr. Türkan Saylan and their friends, who believed that secular and scientific education formed the basis of modernization, founded Cagdas Yasami Destekleme Dernegi and started a great enlightenment movement. The strong steps taken to protect and strengthen the principles and revolutions of Atatürk and the achievements of our Secular Republic continue to be the hope of millions of our youth and the future assurance of modern Turkey.

For 36 years, under the light of our Republic, we have never given up on walking on the path opened by the Great Atatürk. We have continued to work to ensure opportunity and gender equality in education, to ensure that none of our youth give up on their dreams, to ensure that girls are educated and to grow up as individuals with “free minds and consciousness.” We have witnessed the transformative power of education as we overcame the obstacles that our youth face together.

In this 36-year process, we have always protected and defended Atatürk, our Republic, democracy, secular and scientific education as the right of our students, under all circumstances.

We have not given up on defending women's and children's rights, street animals, olive trees, and Kaz Mountains.

We stood by our nation in every social event where we needed to weave a network of solidarity, such as the Marmara Earthquake, the Soma disaster, the Van Earthquake, Hatay and Kahramanmaraş. Drawing strength from our 117 branches, 9 representatives, over 25 thousand members and hundreds of thousands of volunteers, we walked together.

We have resolutely resisted the pressures on secular and scientific education, and continued our legal and social struggle by closely following the transformations in education policies.

We have expanded our projects to eliminate the inequalities our youth face in education, housing and social life by building on them every year.

We were proud to reach 107,074 female students with our “I Have a Daughter in Anatolia, She Will Become a Teacher” project.

We prepared 65,567 university students for a bright future with our “You Light Up a Light” project.

We provided computer support to 7,504 students as technology became a necessity rather than a need during the pandemic.

We built 36 fully equipped libraries to facilitate access to information and contribute to social development, and delivered more than 5 million books to schools with our book collection campaigns.

We continued to raise the modern individuals of the future with our studies in the fields of culture, art and science in our 35 Contemporary Activity Centers.

We strengthened the foundation of early age education by opening 769 kindergartens and 565 children's parks.

Today, on our 36th anniversary, we celebrate every step we take for these values. With the assurance of the achievements of the Republic and the strength we receive from Atatürk's revolutions; We continue our march with our commitment to justice, freedom and human rights. We will continue to work in the footsteps of our teacher Türkan Saylan for a modern Turkey and a bright future; we will continue to be the future assurance of modern Turkey; we will continue our struggle tomorrow as we do today with our sustainable advocacy principle