AÇEV, full name ANNE ÇOCUK EĞİTİM VAKFI (MOTHER CHILD EDUCATION FOUNDATION), civil society organization that aims to improve preschool education. In 2003, AÇEV received the Vehbi Koç Award for education.
AÇEV began with a research project on preschool education, which was undertaken by professors Sevda Bekman, Çiğdem Kağıtçıbaşı and Diane Sunar from Boğaziçi University, Istanbul (1982-86). The research revealed that there was a major lack of work in the field and that many children received no education in their early childhood years. The academics who carried out the research set about improving the situation by developing and implementing an alternative “home-centered preschool education program” called the Mother Child Education Program (MOCEP). This work later developed into a more formal structure, leading to the establishment of AÇEV in Istanbul in 1993.
Since its foundation, AÇEV has developed and managed numerous projects and programs for adult and child education. In addition to MOCEP, which was transferred to the Ministry of Education in 2003, other significant projects and programs are: Mother Support Program, Father Support Program, Rural Education Program, Preschool Education, Family Letters, Preschool Parent Child Education Program, First Step to the Future, Educating Fathers for Violence-Free Families, All-Round Empowerment for Women, Functional Adult Literacy Program, and Advanced Literacy and Access to Knowledge. Other important campaigns are “7 is Too Late” and “You’re My Dad”. The organization also runs two online adult education campaigns, called “Me As well” and “Literacy at AÇEV”, and a TV campaign entitled “Our Class”. The Mother Support Program and MOCEP have been implemented in various other countries, such as Bahrain, Belgium, France, Germany, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Switzerland. AÇEV is also a founding partner of the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University. The organization was also one of the partners in a campaign with the theme “I Support Gender Equality in Society”, which took place in 2015-17 as part of a project called “For My Country” started by
Koç Holding in 2006.
AÇEV’s activities are supported by numerous national and international public organizations, private companies and NGO’s. In addition to a Family and Child Education Center, an Education and Cultural Center and a Child Development Center, AÇEV has offices in other cities such as Adana, Ankara and Izmir.
In 2001, AÇEV received the Millennium Award from the National Women’s Health Commission, followed in 2003 by the Vehbi Koç Award for its “work and contribution in the field of education”. The Foundation’s Functional Adult Literacy Program earned the UNESCO King Sejong Literacy Award in 2006 and the Qatar Foundation World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) Award in 2010.