EÇADEM full name ENGELLİ ÇOCUK VE AİLELERİNE DESTEK MERKEZİ (SUPPORT CENTER FOR DISABLED CHILDREN AND THEIR FAMILIES), a Koç University School of Nursing initiative, offering material and moral support in partnership with Sarıyer Municipality and with financial help from the Istanbul Development Agency. It was founded in late 2014, in the Istanbul district of Sarıyer, to support the cognitive, physical, psychological and social development of children with learning disabilities and provide counseling and psychosocial support services to their mothers and siblings. In 2015, the center also organized a symposium, “A Multidisciplinary Approach to Disabled Children and Their Families”, and a workshop, “Raising Disabled Children”.
In 2016, EÇADEM received three prizes at the 2016 NC Awards—including gold in the social media category—for its publicity film “A Smile is All It Takes To Change the World”, which it produced for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities. In the same year, the center also won the Marmara Municipalities Union Golden Ant Award and the Association of Social Democratic Municipalities (SODEM) Award for Best Social Project.